Your leadership impact is shaped by aligning your platform, message, and the audience you are intentionally trying to reach.
Are you operating in the right space? It occurred to me recently that I’ve talked a lot about the why, how, and when of leadership development, but I haven’t said much about the importance of where. When I say where, I’m not talking about the destination, I’m talking about the place you lead from, which is your platform, and the sphere of individuals you choose to lead from within. Both are important to understand as they greatly impact our ability to lead others.
Your platform is where you stand to deliver your leadership message. It is built on the foundation of your core beliefs and fundamental philosophy on leadership. You should never speak with authority away from this platform, as it will undermine your credibility and put others in your sphere of influence at risk. You should also work with a fastidious fervor to make sure that every message that leaves your mouth is a clear and obvious projection of the voice standing behind the dais of this truth.
Your sphere of influence consists of the people, teams, and organizations who are the audience for your platform. This sphere of influence may change over time and often it will not consist of who and what you want. Most spheres of influence grow over time without much thought about how it is being built. It just happens naturally as you progress on your leadership journey. However, at some point you need to start the process of intentionally creating a sphere of influence that is aligned with your platform for leadership.
For example, if your leadership platform is based on your experience running a small business and your sphere of influence is largely built around a group of hunting and fishing enthusiasts, you might have a hard time getting your message to resonate. That’s not to say your words can’t influence people in many different situations. However, you’ll likely have a hard time speaking with authority on the things that matter most to them, and most of your experience won’t be as relatable to their time spent in the streams and fields. You also want to increase your sphere of influence with people and organizations who will naturally amplify your message. If you position your platform well and surround yourself with the right alignments, your sphere of influence can carry your message well beyond the reach of your voice.
I’ll talk about leadership to almost anyone given an opportunity, but I found out early in my journey that not everyone cares about it nearly as much as I do. When you truly have a passion about something, you can get a little nonplussed when others don’t share your enthusiasm. Sometimes people will humor you and feign interest, but they aren’t really trying to digest your message. I would end up investing significant amounts of my time into people who I thought were interested in my message. What I was really doing was wasting my time and theirs. Once I began to focus on delivering my message to the right audience, my influence really began to show signs of significant growth.
You might be wondering if there are some practical steps to putting all this together. Very simply, it starts with understanding your platform and having a clear message. Then you ask the question, “Who do I want to hear this message?” “Everyone and anyone” is probably not the right answer. You need to narrow down your audience to a market that you understand well and that will resonate with the unique voice of your platform. Once you understand these answers you can make progress on your journey with the certainty that you are operating from the right location.
 |
Brandon Pinkerton is a project executive at HP Engineering now IMEG. Connect with him on LinkedIn. |