Influence + Inspiration = Clout
“Influence and inspiration separate leaders from managers, not power and control.” - Vineet Nayar, HBR
Not all leaders are managers, and not all managers are leaders. Nothing reveals this truth like your first bad boss.
Mine was “Donny”, the Media Department supervisor at Best Buy (name changed to protect the guilty).
Media was the store’s worst job. Our Sisyphean task: stock and sort thousands of CDs and DVDs into perfect alphabetical order… then do it all over again at 5:30am on every “new release” Tuesday.
I dreaded working for Donny. He barked orders, publicly chewed out a 16-year-old coworker for flirting on the clock, causing her to quit, even openly clashed with other department heads. When I was promoted to my dream job in the Audio/Video department, he brushed aside my excitement, sneering “you’re leaving me?”
It was all about control for Donny, and when that control was gone, so was his influence. He never understood why people wouldn’t cover shifts for him, and why his best workers fled to other teams at the first chance. He was stuck in a managerial mindset.
In college, I attempted to cushion a hard semester with a bunny class: Intro to Drama. I learned two valuable lessons:
Stage directors take Drama class very seriously (I have a hard-won B to show it)
Influence and inspiration create clout.
In a stage show, “clout” was attributed to the person that held sway, influence, and authority over the production. They’d often override the director’s managerial authority. It could be a lead actor, a bit player, or even a backstage producer. But in every production, someone had the clout, and they were the one everyone looked to for leadership.
This is what I missed as a kid; leadership doesn’t require a title, and often travels without it.
For Reflection: Are you letting the lack of a title hold you back? How are you using influence and inspiration to earn the clout in your organization?