Performance for Growth

I read a great little article the other day about the importance of a smile from the guys at manager tools, and it got me thinking about the link to leadership,  

How often have you walked along a corridor as someone is coming in the other direction, they seem to see you but make no indication of such. I can think of a specific example at a company I used to work for. I was making my way across the office and a senior manager was coming in the other direction, as we approached each other he looked right at me, made eye contact, and, nothing, no recognition that he had even seen anyone, not even the twitch of a face muscle, even though I had raised a small polite acknowledging smile.

I can remember the impact that had on me and my immediate thoughts. “How rude, what an ignorant *!?$!” 

Now, I don’t think he was ignorant, maybe he was lost in some heavy thought about the state of the business or the security of his job or maybe he was engaging a bit hierarchical power play, but one thing is for sure. A smile costs nothing, but can have a significant impact. 

It’s not a power play, it is not a sign of weakness to acknowledge others, even if you don’t know them, and in fact I believe it’s natural for humans to want to positively acknowledge each other. It’s definitely polite and a professional non-verbal greeting, but I believe it is also essential for anyone in a leadership role. 

You see as leaders we want, (need), to have a positive impact on people. When we have to call on them to make tough decisions or push through hard times, or go the extra mile, we want them to do it.

But the biggest factor in deciding how much and well they respond is not driven by how good a rallying speech we give but how they relate to us as a person, as a human being. This will have been influenced by every interaction we have ever had with them, however small! 

Charles Handy wrote “The Leader does not just get the message across, the Leader IS the message”, Stephen Covey talks about the “Emotional Bank Account” that exists between two people, where we make deposits and withdrawals and Daniel Goleman talks about “Emotional Resonance” when emotionally intelligent leaders tune-in at an emotional level in order to communicate effectively with their followers. 

Whichever way you look at it, failing to connect with a simple smile might make the difference between success and failure when, as a leader you need to step up and ask others to follow you into the challenges ahead.

See Leadership Development programmes at Performance for Growth

This entry was posted on Monday, September 27th, 2010 at 05:20 pm and is filed under Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.