When leaders take the time to share such stories, they are able to create more personal, trusting, and committed relationships with their followers. So let’s look at why it matters to know your story and how can you share it so as to engage the hearts and minds of your followers.

As children, we learn about life and how things happen through stories like Winnie the Pooh. As we grow up, we read the narratives of history and mythology as a means of digesting the increasing complexity of life and the impact of our decisions. As young adults, we draw upon the stories of others as a guide for what is possible in our work, our relationships, and our selves.

There is every reason to believe that the power of story to inform, inspire, and motivate is just as viable in our adult life, if not more so. As leaders, we are tasked with tackling new, different, and even seemingly impossible scenarios. You don’t need a leader if you’re doing what you already know how to do.

Leaders need a way to engage others at a more primal level. To allay followers’ natural discomfort with change and awaken their unproven potential, leaders must get beyond the mental boundaries of resistance and move into the heart space, where the possibility of emotional engagement lies.

Dave, the leader I have been discussing in prior posts, is an object lesson in why the leader’s story is a secret ingredient to creating great followers. Like many others, Dave had a natural inclination as a leader to tell it like it is—to get right to the point. He didn’t mince words about the company’s successes or failures, nor did he miss an opportunity to thank people for their hard work or ask them to put in more effort.

But Dave had a recurring complaint about his people: they just didn’t seem to care as much as he did about the business. No matter what incentives he offered to get them to go the extra mile, no matter how generous the rewards he handed out when they hit a goal, he never felt that people were engaged beyond just getting the job done and getting out by 5:00 p.m. Dave himself was a model of hard-working, open-to-learning, always-going-for-excellence behavior. He truly believed that his company could be the best in the industry, but he needed his colleagues to feel the same.

Dave worked with a mentor who suggested tapping into the power of his story to more deeply engage his followers. The story would help Dave’s people understand who he was, and how his life experiences animated his vision for the company and his expectations of his colleagues.

Dave decided to use his next quarterly staff meeting to share his story. Here’s what he said:

"I usually start off by giving you an update on our performance last quarter, what we learned and where our focus will be for the upcoming quarter. But I want to start off at a different place today, because I want us to go forward in a different way together.

As all of you know, I am deeply committed to being the best company in our industry. And I happen to think we are doing a lot of the right things to get us there, but I also believe there is more we can all get from our time here together. It’s more of an attitude about why we choose to be here—what we are doing that really matters to the world we serve and how we can each use this experience to become our best.

So let me share a little about why this is so important to me. I was raised in a hard-working immigrant family that looked out for each other. We didn’t have a lot, but we expected a lot of ourselves and from each other. Each generation found that the best way to succeed in life was to do something on its own. So we started businesses or took over as others died or moved on to other things.

I lost my Dad to heart disease when I was twelve, so as the oldest child of three, I took it upon myself to care for my mother and siblings. My uncle gave me a job in his car repair shop that he had co-owned with my Dad. I never worked so hard and had so much expected of me. But I learned what I was capable of doing and accomplishing with my life.

This business offers us all an opportunity to find out what we are capable of doing with our lives. The challenges are there, and our vision is clear. But it’s all about us: I envision an organization of like-minded people who want to be here for something more than the financial reward. I want people to be here because they can learn to become their best selves and help each other along the way. I invite you to join me in working together to become the best company in the industry by becoming the best people we can be."

The Action Plan

• What are the life experiences that you bring to your leading?

• How can you weave your life story into your expectations of where you want your organization to go?

• How will you know that you are truly engaging your followers?

Unlike others in an organization, leaders must take not only an internal, operations point of view, they must also keep their eyes focused externally. As we’ll see, this internal/external focus lies at the heart of effective strategy formulation.

In my work with leaders over the past 20 years, I’ve found that when it comes to formulating and then executing on a strategy, great leaders do three things particularly well:

1. They create the space in their heads for the new thinking that’s required of strategic planning. This makes room for a new strategic plan to evolve.

2. They make the connections with the right people, not only to further evolve the strategic plan, but also to set the stage for execution.

3. They mold their plan into a vision—a story—and then they share the story in a way that captures the hearts and minds of the entire organization.

Let’s look at each of these functions in turn. There are so many ways that leaders clear space in their heads and allow their thinking to be informed and inspired. Which approach leaders choose has a lot to do with how their psychic energy flows, starting with how they get informed about the world at large.

In previous posts, I’ve described the difference between leaders who are predominantly informed from the outside world (extraversion) and those who look to their own inner world (introversion). The outside world has many ways to inform leaders: networking, outside advisors and mentors, and published news in any medium. The inner world tends to rely more on one’s own reflections, writing, philosophical readings, and meditation practices. Regardless of one’s preference for extraversion or introversion, leaders typically find that they need the ability to look both outward and inward.

We learn about the world in proportion to the number of sources open to us. John Chambers, longtime CEO of Cisco, has talked about how important it was to read publications outside the technology space. He would read magazines that focused on industries and businesses completely unrelated to his world in order to get fresh and different insights about bringing value and service to customers. In other words, leaders must not only create the mental space for new thinking, they also need to expose that space to ideas that lie outside their comfort zone. And the result of this creating the space function is an outline of the leader’s strategic thinking; sometimes it’s written down, sometimes it’s just in the leader’s head.

The making the connections function involves testing the reality of the new thinking. This is where the pedal hits the metal. Being tested by a few trusted followers who themselves find ways to stay open to the new thinking—this is the crucial inflection point that every vision must pass through if it is to become a reality.

How you choose to make these connections is often a reflection of the source of your psychic energy (extraversion or introversion). However you make the connection, it’s important to seek out people you trust and people who will challenge your thinking.

One of the young leaders I work with, who had launched a very successful technology consulting practice, found that success depended on scaling the operation. He hired some “older folks” with experience in growing a company to a very large size. Though their thinking was quite different from his, their perspective was invaluable.

Excellence in the sharing the story function is often what separates the best leaders from those who are merely average. Organizations need to be sold on why the new direction makes sense for the company; individuals in the company also need to be convinced that the new direction will be a boon for their jobs and careers.

The story that you create is like a thread that weaves through all aspects of the execution process, from start to finish. It’s important because it’s what people fall back on when they think “Why am I doing this?” Even though you may have spent days, weeks, or even months crafting the vision, remember that your people will be hearing it for the first time. So in telling the story, tell it in a compelling manner—and tell it frequently.

The Action Plan:

• What do you do to create space in your mind to think about the future of your business and your life of leading?

• What characterizes the relationship you have with the key people you choose to rely on in bringing your ideas forward?

• Think of a story that once moved you and compare it to how that message might have been communicated if it hadn’t been in the form of a story.

Focusing on things that are not done well can often teach us faster and better about what people really need from leaders than focusing on things done well. With that in mind, here are some quotes from the people on my call:

• “I guess one of the things you can learn about leadership is whether you have leaders in your firm or not. I am concluding that we don’t have any leaders.”

• “What I have noticed as well is that those in leadership roles seem to be very fearful of what has been going on during these hard economic times. So, there hasn’t been much communication about anything. We don’t know who else will be let go or what accounts have sliced their budget. So, it has led everyone to look out for themselves.”

• “I would add to that by saying it has destroyed the collaborative nature of our work and our company. No one is really reaching out to help anyone else. So, the morale has really gotten bad and there is a lack of creativity and opportunistic thinking going on that could potentially get us out of this bleak situation.”

Everyone agreed that over the last four years, there has been a huge need for leadership—and also a huge lack of it. Leaders need to manage fear—their own and also their employees’ fears. Leaders also need to communicate the hard decisions and explain the unpleasant realities so that the people get a sense of what is really happening. The lack of communication around important information leaves a gap that employees will fill one way or another; what they often do is blow things out of proportion, making the reality worse than it is or has to be.

What also becomes apparent when times are tough is that the people need to be trusted that they, too, can do some of the thinking that goes into figuring out more creative ways of handling the tough realities.

The absence of this kind of trust—and the work of rebuilding it—figured prominently in many of the stories that were shared on my recent call, as the following quote from one of the participants attests:

• “We were experiencing some major problems with one of our accounts. It all stemmed from the lack of teamwork and the lack of trust among team members that resulted from people not supporting each other and things falling through the cracks. No one in leadership or management was stepping up to the plate to address these concerns, so I decided to say something to the owner of my company. Instead of being part of the problem, I wanted to see if I could be part of the solution. He thanked me for bringing it to his attention and I suggested some initiatives that could begin to pull the people together. We are now slowly getting back on track and I wish I had said something sooner. I always look to others for leadership when I need to look more to myself.”

A number of these young leaders are beginning to see that leadership can happen in many ways and by anyone who sees what the people need. If they are willing and able to step up and fill the gap, they find that the people can be very responsive. Here’s how one of them put it:

• “I was surprised to find that as I reached out to others and began to ask questions and listen to what was going on for them, they began to offer their ideas and help in addressing the issues we were all dealing with. Even my boss began to turn to me to ask for some help, which helped me build my confidence that what I was doing was good for the firm.”

No one wishes for a downturn, but the current economic climate is highlighting the need for and tasks of leadership in the minds of the young people I spoke with on my call—and many more like them. They see that they do have the qualities to lead others and that there are many different opportunities right in front of them to step up and fill the gap that only leadership can provide.

Tough times help us realize this opportunity like no other.

Someone out for a walk.

That’s an old joke, but it’s true nonetheless: without followers, you can’t have leaders. Of course, the reverse is also true: followers need leaders.

To really engage followers, leaders need to embrace the reality that leading is about others. It’s about creating the right kind of relationship with those who choose to follow. The seminal word here is choose. The best followers have a strong sense of themselves and what they want to accomplish in their lives. Their decision to follow a particular leader flows from that self-understanding and sense of purpose; they see the person they’ve chosen to follow as someone who will help them develop their talents and achieve their goals.

The leader-follower relationship, in other words, is based on a quid pro quo arrangement. Demanding and discerning in their search for a leader worthy of their energy and loyalty, followers are quite willing to make sacrifices in the service of the collective work when they believe they’ve found the right leader.

Leaders’ chances of succeeding improve greatly when they allow the significance of this quid pro quo relationship to shape everything they do:

• How they assess the psychological needs of their followers before communicating important messages.

• How they use stories both personal and visionary to engage followers.

• How, especially in critical situations, they size up their options when considering which course of action to take.

A television series on the Kennedys that I watched recently portrayed JFK as continually gauging his relationship with his followers—probing for a deeper understanding of the shifting needs and concerns of the people he wanted to win over (and to stay won over).

The trappings and perks of leadership seduce many leaders into believing that it’s all about them. It’s not. It’s all about your followers: meeting their needs—and, yes, sometimes failing their expectations, but at a rate they can withstand—in ways that keep them engaged them, keep them focused on the collective goals you have set for yourselves. When this is the hallmark of the relationship you’ve created with your followers, anything is possible.

The leader’s work is always more about what is possible than what is the current reality. That’s why I want to end the year on a note about one of the most powerful tools leaders have to renew, refresh and reengage their people: the power of visioning.

Back in September, I wrote about what leaders do to drive their vision. I mentioned three key actions that leaders take:
• creating the space to think about new ways of thinking
• making the right connections with people to get them onboard
• sharing the story of the vision to capture the hearts and minds of the entire organization.

Here at the close of the year—at the end of one cycle and the beginning of another—it’s important to make full use of the tool of visioning.

Although most people will tell you they loved the visions that their leaders challenged them with, most will also admit that they would have never had the guts to think the vision was possible.

There are also many leaders who will tell you that they didn’t really know or understand the power of visioning until they put in the effort to create one, they were amazed at what new possibilities they brought into reality.

A February 2011 Inc. magazine article on this topic tells the story of Ari Weinzweig, who turned his delicatessen into a community of eight businesses as a result of learning about visioning. His story simplifies the process of visioning and provides easy-to-understand guidelines. I encourage you try the process for yourself and to invite others to join you, which is what my monthly CEO Forum group did.

Like Ari, many in this group are operating day-to-day without a clearly defined vision—either in their heads or on paper. They spend their time addressing the challenges that besieged small businesses every day. As these CEOs talk about their challenges, keeping their employees engaged is at the top of everyone’s list. All of them have a common challenge, however, as they talk about their businesses. This is where visioning can help.

Where to allocate your resources, how to prioritize your time—when your focus is on visioning, you’re much more likely to come up with innovative responses to these questions. As Weinzweig observes in the Inc. article, a great vision “gets you and everyone in the organization excited to come to work,” but it’s not a strategic plan: “it articulates where we are going,” he explains, “while the plan tells us how.”

Weinzweig’s 8-step process can take as little as 30 minutes:

• Pick your topic.
• Pick your time frame—your vision should move beyond present-day problems but not go so far into the future that you have no idea of how to get there.
• Make a list of past achievements that have made you proud.
• Bang out a first draft in 15 to 30 minutes. Write as if your vision has already become a reality—and make sure you’ve built into it things you’re passionate about.
• Read your draft through from beginning to end, then start making edits as necessary.
• Repeat step 6 two or three more times.
• Solicit input on what you’ve written from people you trust—incorporate their suggestions as you see fit.
• Share the vision with everyone who will be involved in implementing it.

My CEO Forum focused on the first four steps. All the CEOs had a chance to share what their topic would be, choose their time frame, read out loud their list of achievements they were proud of, and then create a draft of their vision. A number of the CEO commented on how the process had sparked a level of creativity in them that they hadn’t achieved before, and resolved to incorporate the process more regularly into their thinking.

As a leader, the task of engaging and renewing employees starts with you. Are you tapping into the power of visioning as fully as you might?

Many efforts to develop leaders address the obvious skills and behaviors needed to gain followers, but I think it’s more important to look underneath the skills to the not-so-obvious art of attracting willing followers.

That’s why the notion of leaders as attractors has such resonance for me. It’s a concept that my colleague Michael Shenkman explores in depth in his book "The Arch and the Path: The Life of Leading Greatly."

Attractors are particularly effective in the art of creating and coalescing followers.

Just as in nature, where systems organize around attractors—a hurricane, for example—so do magnetic leaders pull toward themselves the energy and resources needed to make something significant happen. Hurricanes feed off the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and organize around low-pressure areas; leaders feed off the energy of their own beliefs and organize around changing circumstances.

At its core, a hurricane has an eye that remains eerily calm within the low-pressure zone; the energy from the winds and rain organize around that zone, determining the shape and size of the hurricane.

Without the eye of the hurricane, the winds and rain would dissipate.

We experience leaders in similar ways. At their core, leaders find their own sense of trust and resolve that keeps them centered and grounded in the midst of intense energy they feel within themselves as well as from their environment. Followers gain strength and energy from being in proximity to the leader; the leader’s energy functions as the eye of the hurricane, organizing followers’ passions and desires. Without the leader, there would be no reason for followers to coalesce.

So what does taking on the attractor role entail?

It means understanding that the challenge is all about managing energy—your own and that of others. Just like the eye of the hurricane, you take individual energies and move them to a higher level of strength and capability, all while remaining eerily serene and calm in the midst of chaotic forces of change.

The leader-as-attractor stirs up energy while making sense of changing circumstances; she then uses that assessment to forge a vision of what needs to be done. Such leaders know how to create the right level of energy so that the appropriate kinds of connection can be fostered. Within that managed area of pressure—the leader’s energy can be experienced as pressure—leaders allow space for others to explore new possibilities for themselves without getting lost in the chaos. Leaders manage the pressure by balancing how they increase the challenges, on the one hand, with how they bolster followers’ confidence that the challenges can be met on the other. They also filter out excess energy, and minimize the distractions that can diminish energy, so that the right type of communication, information, and organization can take shape among followers.

What attracts followers to such leaders?

The high expectations about what is possible and the value that the leader’s vision creates resonate with followers’ own sense of life purpose and personal mission. As followers are drawn toward a collective purpose and aspiration, the leader’s field of energy enhances the ability of people to organize themselves and to feed off of each other’s energy. The result is a more capable system—individually and collectively.

• Leaders are born, not made.
• Leaders tend to fit a certain profile—for example, most are extroverts, or charismatic.
• Leaders are defined by their role or title.
• Developing leaders requires a focus on the right set of skills and knowledge.
• People learn how to lead by having the right things to work on.

My work with leaders over the last decade suggests a more expansive, and more nuanced, story. To begin with, leadership is natural only up to a point. For the most part, it’s a choice: we choose to lead and then we work at being a leader.

Leaders come in many styles and forms. The way they lead is a reflection of who they know themselves to be. What’s more, leaders can be found in any venue, and at any level of an organization. What defines a leader is the ability to stimulate new thinking and to take action that produces unexpected outcomes.

Leadership is inherently contextual—what is needed from a leader varies according to the particular situation and historical moment. Consequently, there’s no one right skill set or body of knowledge that all leaders must master, except for this: leaders must focus on developing their skills of character—that is, on becoming more of who they already are in order to do what leading requires.

As I elaborate on these fundamental premises in future posts. I think what you’ll discover that this expanded notion of how leadership will open up vast new terrain in your understanding of who you are and of what is possible for you.

The Action Plan

• Leader development is a journey of self-discovery that brings light to hidden aspects of who you are. Don’t undertake the journey because you “feel called to lead”—do it because you want to develop yourself to the fullest.

• Taking on a mentor can help you accelerate the process of defining who you are as a leader. A good mentor serves as a mirror, helping you not only to see who you really are, but also to develop trust in that authentic self.