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You Need the ‘Informal Leaders’ to Get Things Done
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Everyone is familiar with the term C-suite. The C-suite is populated with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer… The list goes on and on. The people who inhabit the C-suite are the formal leaders of the organization. They are the ones whose pictures you see in the company’s annual report.
I am going to let you in on a little secret. While the C-suite definitely has the power to prohibit something from getting done (e.g., they can refuse to fund a project), just because the C-suite wants to get something done does not mean that it will ever get done. Witness the following quote from a long ago K-Mart annual report: “Looking good and selling merchandise shoppers can trust create K-Mart’s quality commitment which is enhanced by customer-first service.” Some CEO signed his name to that annual report. His statement indicated a clear intention of providing an excellent shopping experience for his customers, but do any of us really believe that K-Mart provides (or, now, provided) “customer-first service?”
Truly successful companies rely on their ”informal leaders” to help lead the way and get things done — especially with efforts that involve significant organizational change. Informal leaders are typically mid-level and customer-facing employees who see the opportunity inherent in the situation. These informal leaders help energize the skeptics and build a consensus for change.
So how do you identify these folks? Unfortunately, these people are not walking around the office wearing a sign that says “Informal Leader.” Life is not that simple. Perhaps the best way to identify them is take a slight variation on a tagline that Federal Express used in its early commercials. Ask yourself, “When something absolutely, positively has to get done, who is my ‘go to’ person?”
It is important to note that informal leaders come in all shapes and sizes. I was once privileged to work with a client that had two informal leaders in different areas of the company. One was a somewhat large and gruff man in his late 40s who gave you the impression that he had drunk 10 cups of coffee before getting to work that morning. The other was a petite and rather quiet lady who rarely, if ever, raised her voice. Both were equally successful.
The key point about an informal leader is their mindset. More than anything else, this is what sets them apart. Their one distinguishing characteristic is that they think in terms of results, and never offer excuses.
This raises one last point. There is no unique leadership style for being a successful informal leader. Rather, these individuals create a consensus for change and get the job done in a number of different ways depending on their individual orientation and personal skill set. We have identified four different approaches, but recognize that there could well be more that we have just not seen. The four that we have seen are:
Change is a dominant factor in business today and, if anything, the pace of change is only accelerating. While it is necessary that a CEO be able to articulate a clear and compelling vision for change, this is not a sufficient condition for success. In my work with a broad series of clients in industries as diverse as pharmaceuticals, medical devices and office supplies, I have found that recruiting and identifying an organization’s informal leaders and energizing them in support of this vision for change will significantly increase the likelihood of success.