Building Contagious Leadership
Taking on the leadership role isn’t easy. Some are used to doing it their way all the time.
“Environments of contagious leadership do not just happen,” Hersey says. “They start with a decision: The individual decides to be a contagious leader and the company decides to create a culture of contagious leaders. If you want to be a legacy company, the two go hand in hand.”
Hersey defines a contagious leader as someone who sets an example, who makes things happen, who guides, motivates, and transforms organizations. A contagious leader is someone who nurtures hearts and minds and who we’re happy to follow because we want to. These leaders communicate and connect with us as a team in productive and purposeful ways.
Hersey says you can establish a leadership climate slowly, and even make a game of it. He recommends handwriting notes of encouragement to employees who exhibit behaviors you want emulated and to use the grapevine (“Wow, you got a handwritten note from the boss?”) to build people up.
He suggests steps to make contagious leadership a way of thinking, including inspiring every person to adopt model attitudes the organization respects and instituting systems to recognize and reward contagious leaders’ attitudes and qualities.
“Contagious leadership offers every organization huge returns at little or no cost,” he writes in his book. “This can also be the bad news,” he adds. “It takes time, thought, thoughtfulness, consistency, and transformational thinking.”
Once you have true leaders, you can step out of the company and let them do your work, while you tackle broader issues of “what’s next?”
When it All Works
Bruce D. Johnson’s entrance into his grandfather’s business, Lee Kimball Kitchens, took his grandfather by surprise. He had never pushed Johnson or his brother, Greg, into the Boston-based company. But it dawned on the new generation that there might be opportunity there. They’ve taken the company to $3 million in revenues with 15 employees. Company culture includes a code of conduct called their “Promise.” It establishes purpose, and decisions are based on the Promise. Johnson is 43 and his brother, 40. They hope to build a business that can be bought or passed to employees. To reach that goal, they want to make their business the best.
“The vision is so critical,” Johnson says. “If you have people working for you, and you know where you’re going, there’s a lot better chance of getting there. Because everyone can jump on board and get you there.”
Do you know where you’re headed?
Ask the Experts
Don Blohowiak, www.leadwell.com, Lead Well Institute, Princeton Junction, N.J.
Dick Heller, www.dickheller.com, Boston, Mass.
John Hersey, www.johnhersey.com, Phoenix, Ariz.
Greg McCann, J.D., www.stetson.edu/schools/business/family, Deland, Fla.