How to become a true leader and subjugate the whole world

Bandiopadhiai Raj (Raj Bandyopadhyay) was a problem. He dreamed of a brilliant career data analyst - this profession is considered to be one of the most highly paid and prestigious. Raj was a skilled programmer, but in his hometown - Atlanta - many of the more experienced professionals would work in the same field.

Just a year later, he was recommended to the Executive Director Pindrop Security - one of the most successful startups in Atlanta. Raja presented as an excellent specialist who can work from scratch to organize data analyst for a new brand.

After a two-week internship Raj joined the chief data analyst, although it did not have such a department management experience. How did this happen?

When Raj still knew little about the work in the field of data analytics, he decided to visit several industry meetings to make the necessary contacts. He looked for the next meeting in Atlanta on Meetup.com, and did not find anything suitable. There have been several meetings of users of specific programs, but a single event, it is dedicated to the science of data.

While Raj heard the American writer and blogger Michael Ellsberg (Michael Ellsberg) was interviewed Ramit Sethi (Ramit Sethi) - author, who writes about personal finance. Michael gave this advice:

The best way to meet the right people at an industry meeting - organize this event.

Raj was a programmer, not an organizer of events. He did not know if something who comes to meet him, and not enough versed in the science of data to correctly make a presentation of its activities. But Michael's advice gave him no peace.

Raj contacted Nikolaos Vasiloglou (Nikolaos Vasiloglou), one of the most respected experts in machine learning (one of the branches of the science of data) in Atlanta. He asked if Vasiloglou come to a meeting, if Raj will bring together people who want to listen to him.

Nikolaos has agreed to become the main event of a future event. Raj and his friend Travis Torni (Travis Turney) invited all the people who live in Atlanta, and related technologies, friends and those whom heard. As a result, 30 people gathered, that's pretty cool for the first meeting.

Ever since Raj and Travis organized at least one meeting a week and invited different experts. Quality of activities and the opportunity to discuss their interests and listen to the experts attracted more and more people, and events Raja became known in technical circles Atlanta. At the same time I engaged in self Raj: read the literature on the subject, held online courses, so it is increasingly able to participate in discussions at the meetings.

More and more people came to his actions - 50, then 100, and sometimes 200 people. Raj has gradually turned into a leader science community about these in Atlanta, and that due to this he was invited to take a leadership position in Pindrop Security.

History Raja proves the strength of interpersonal skills. As experience shows, it is the best investment of time and money as compared to the development of extremely professional knowledge and skills.

The necessary skills to influence business

Be influential leader - is to understand the motivation of each person or the whole group in the system. It is necessary to draw up a development program that will support the motivation of people to create a global goal and combine it with your values ​​and aspirations. This is the only way to invest in their own influence and not to resort to deception and manipulation.

Leaders operating under this scheme, it is necessary to develop the following skills:

• actual leadership;
• the ability to speak in public;
• the ability to see the big picture;
• training;
• the ability to sell;
• the ability to create community.

These skills will improve your ability to analyze situations and make the right decisions. Each of them, we will look in more detail.

Leadership and influence

Forget about the relationship between leadership and authority, vigor, charisma, or the fact that you tell people what they should do. All this will not help you become a strong leader.

You can lead the team, which changed every man: his desires, thoughts, and aspirations. After that, people will automatically follow you. It is clear leadership, a quality that primarily want to see candidates at the most prestigious management positions.

To learn how such leadership, first we must understand why people choose something. Let's call them the aspirations of point A. You need to find in them the motivation that is compatible with your aspirations - point B. Find a way to synchronize the existing motivation and your point B.

If you want to volunteer team to work harder to find out what caused these people to become volunteers. For example, if they want to help people tell me that the more they work, the more help will get to the needy.

Will it have to convince people, it depends on your commitment and integrity. It is necessary to possess the qualities that you want in subordinates. If you do not have enough willpower to ensure that work longer, and you are to convince others that it is necessary to increase the time, none of you will not go. Honesty - one of the main qualities of a leader.

This was confirmed by the study Kouzesa James (James M. Kouzes) and Barry Posner (Barry Z. Posner), described in their book "The problem of leadership»(The Leadership Challenge).

As it turns out, the leadership has little to do with charisma, extraversion and sociability. Instead, the leader must combine a deep understanding of other people (point A) to the collective vision of the future in which he believes (point B).

The only thing that can limit your impact - the depth of emotional connection with the team and your faith in a common future, which includes the desires and aspirations of each employee.

Now spread the two types of leadership and influence within the company. The first type - "to dispose of and control". This style of leadership is typical for large companies of the industrial era. He gradually receding into the past, as are the growth engine of knowledge. People, especially the younger generation, no longer believe that a person with authority is always better to know what to do.

With increasing globalization in the companies there are more employees, working remotely. Against this background, there is a need to unite the efforts of many people who want to achieve a common goal.

In the 1990s, it was believed that the optimal number of employees working under the supervision of a manager - eight people. The view was that if the team will be more people, the manager is not enough time and attention to control and direct each person.

Now, the company still further away from the model of leadership "to dispose of and control", business owners are choosing this structure Management, where many employees report directly to senior management, bypassing the middle link - managers and executives departments. For example, at Google, one of the most profitable companies in the world, some chiefs receive direct reports from more than 800 employees. This means that Google's executives to 100 times more effective in carrying out the task to guide and lead people.

Think of the future picture, put it in the people around them and use their dreams and desires in order to achieve your goals.

Public performance

Good investors are looking for valuable assets are not in demand. Even small investments in unpopular assets can yield incredible profits, because the lack of competition creates a very low entry threshold and a high return.

Probably the most unpopular leadership skills - it public performance. To see this, simply visit several standard corporate presentations. However, if the leader is not able to talk convincingly about his vision of the situation group of subordinates, he can put an end to his career.

Even if you have never used public speeches to win the trust and make you all still offer their knowledge people around to promote his ideas and cause certain actions. And the most effective tool for this is still a personal meeting.

Investments in public speaking will cost you too much. For $ 56 you can join Toastmasters International, An international educational organization that helps develop communication skills, public speaking and leadership. You participate in meetings, speaking with a short speech and receive feedback on their progress.

In Russia there are four branches Toastmasters International, three of them are in Moscow, one - in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the classes are conducted in English only.

The vision of the situation

If the effect is that you lead people from point A to point B, the ability to present an overall picture helps you see clearly point B.

Before you lead the people, a leader must understand what kind of future he wants to create and define it in place for each of his men. The courses for the leaders Brian and Jennifer Russell (Bryan Russell, Jennifer Russell) explained:

If you are not very good to lead people, most likely it is because they do not have a clear understanding of where you are their leads. Great leaders can describe the future as clearly as you see it as a picture frame. If you see the future very clearly, in detail, the people feel that they can pass through the picture and step on the path leading to your common future. They follow you around and help to create the future.

How to achieve this clarity?

Our culture is bad refers to negative judgments about other people and the overall situation. Collective wisdom advises us not to mention the negative aspects of the situation, unless you do not have suggestions how to fix it.

People do not like when they point to the negative traits, especially if it shows their weakness. But negative judgments have good potential.

If you make a list of all the negative aspects and work with him, you will see more clearly what you want to create and what to eliminate. If you do not like people who talk a lot, you may want to create an environment in which decided to hear any more. If you do not like people who spend your time, you will fight for efficiency. Use negative judgments, to determine what you value the most and turn it into a picture of his future.

This picture should be clear for other people, especially for those who will go after you. One of the most common problems in business leadership is that the leader of the vision is not shared by his subordinates. Without a clear understanding of the situation, employees are not confident in their decisions, and productivity suffers.

Training

Another side effect of - learning. It is an art to lead people to point B, where they will become more educated and skilled. This is absolutely necessary, because the training team creates a means to an end.

If you know how to sell, you make money. If you know how to teach someone else to sell, you earn money, make friends and have an opportunity to make money on other people's sales.

Find a friend or family member who wants to learn something that you know how. Agree to teach him. Try different methods of training, and check how fast each method allows the student to bring to your knowledge level.

By investing in their ability to teach, you will soon become an important member of any team, because every skill you possess, you will be able to share with others in the company.

salesmanship

Maybe you never have to directly sell something to customers. For example, you are an engineer, a scientist or a middle manager in a large company. But the development of the ability to sell still remains the most profitable investment. Why?

You are in an environment where ideas and projects competing for limited resources. Therefore, sales skills - the most predictable way to increase your profits in the long run.

These skills will be a great addition to your technical skills (to what you do for a life), because no one will pay you a lot of money, if you can not convince others that these stand money. And no matter how well you work.

Art sales - is the ability to convince others to invest their resources in your ideas, products or projects. If you can win the support of customers, you will become the most important member of the team, because it is on sale often depends on whether the idea is embodied in reality or be forgotten.

Many people have a prejudice against sales. They think that it is the art of manipulating people. But salesmanship is not to influence the human mind, forcing to buy a product that they do not need. Sell ​​- then find out what people want, and if your product or idea to coincide with his wishes, to help him get them. As a result, each participant will remain in the win.

What does work: ask the person you're trying to sell something that he needs, and then use it answers. The more a person talks about their desires, the more likely that the sale will take place. Because now you know what he needs, and not trying to sell him something else.

This principle is reflected in the sales of the book "SPIN-sale»(SPIN Selling) Neil Rackham and in the works of Jay Abraham. It contains the basics of how to attract and retain customers, to all parties involved in the sale, received a positive experience.

People who know nothing about sales, feel like a victim of the economy, are afraid of it because they do not understand. Every time you will find that blame the economy in the next failure, it is a sign that it is time to invest in the ability to sell.

Organization of the production network and community building

As with sales, the organization of the production network is beneficial emotionally and financially just for those who understands this. For the rest, it is heavy and unpleasant work.

Creation of a working network is to gather around him the right people and to teach them to communicate and share knowledge and skills for the mutual benefit. This may require you time and money, but in the end will pay off with a vengeance.

In creating your community, there is one important feature. If you submit a working network like a wheel with spokes and center that is seeking to establish as much as possible more useful contacts for itself - the center, you will find a lot of unproductive sad and dreary evenings events.

But if you think of the production network as a union of the same people who want to share with the other, you are on track to build a strong community, which can lead to an leader.

hold paradox

Every great leader has done something unique, inaccessible not as successful managers. This is due to a paradox.

We consider the common example: the leader has to convince his people that, in spite of serious problems and the real risk of failure, in the end everything will be fine.

There are two types of leader behavior in this situation. The first - to agree that the situation is a failure and hopeless, do not offer any way to fix it. This is a good demonstration of empathy, but will not lead to positive changes.

The second type of behavior is wrong - to support a different opinion, saying that the future is rosy and great, and the current problems are illusory and insignificant. This may sound inspiring, but most likely this behavior will cause dissatisfaction among the people, because it does not correspond to objective reality.

An experienced leader knows how to keep a paradox: both believe that the situation is terrible, but there is hope, to see the reality of the situation and talk to employees that need to be done to fix it.

There is evidence that all is bad (who denies it, will be seen as a dreamer who does not descend to the ground), but also there is the belief that everything will be alright (he who denies it - a weak leader, resourceful enough to find a way out situation). People need to leader imbued with their problems, realized that frightens them, but at the same time, they need a realistic plan for how to succeed in the future.

When you are faced with this paradox, you have a choice. You can ignore it and get on one side or maintain a paradox, while believing in contradictory statements. This is a reflection of your faith in the great truth, which assumes that both sides are right and harmoniously coexist.

Here's another example of the eternal paradox: to recognize your extreme insignificance in the cosmic scale, and then, not allowing this experience completely disappear, add to it the truth about his great importance for those who have loves.

If the leader chooses one side of the paradox, people will not go to him, because he does not have a deep faith. You go for a leader who believes that the future is predetermined and any change is impossible? And for those who do not is what will happen in the future? Of course not.

You go for a leader who supports the paradox of vision of the future: a clear understanding that a lot of unknown, but at the same time knows what it wants to see in the future.

Adhering to one part of the paradox, you lose touch with those who believe in its second part.

Leaders supporting paradox of the existence of these two truths, gain a deeper understanding of what is happening.

Imagine that you live in a two-dimensional space, and have never seen 3D-objects. Now suppose that you are faced with the following apparent paradox: all the angles in this picture are equal to 90 degrees.

How is this possible? It is obvious that the object depicted is not a member of the right angles. It's a lie? This is a joke?

If you look at the picture as the intersection of the lines in the two-dimensional space, there is no right angles. But if you force yourself to imagine right angles, a three-dimensional image will be in your mind and will turn into a cube with right angles. Now, when your consciousness involves another dimension, the paradox disappears. This is a normal cube.

Moreover, your new three-dimensional vision is not limited to this image, it will extend to all objects and situations in the past, present and future. Note that a paradox exists only when the object is viewed with perspective, which is much longer than it is necessary to understand it. For example, when the 3D-object is viewed in two dimensions.

Every time you encounter a paradox, remember that there is always a wider view of the situation. Every time you are faced with a conflict between two truths, remember that you are waiting for a new understanding of the situation. It is only necessary to move from a two-dimensional space to three-dimensional.

You can train in the retention of paradoxes, using simple opposites: feminine versus masculine, material against the spiritual.

Probably the most important paradox in leadership for a change themselves. Eastern wisdom teaches us that at the moment is perfect. This bleaching concept achieved full knowledge perfection present.

Western Wisdom teaches us that the ultimate human expression is in progress and the evolution of that bright future is achieved by our efforts. You can use these opposing views and have the apparent paradox, but at the same time - and the opportunity to lead those who adhere to one or the other point of view.

Any leader who knew the perfection of the present moment and at the same time to recognize our problem move forward and grow, provide inspiration and motivation for the followers of any of these cultures.