"The Leadership Ripple Effect"

Recall from your childhood when you dropped a stone into a placid body of water, what happened? The ripples expanded out well beyond the entry of the stone. We wondered just how far the ripples would expand out into the water. It was beautiful just to watch. These ripples form concentric circles and these circles are circles with a common center. Like you, I was amazed how far the ripples reach from just a simple act of dropping a stone.

The ripple effect is a great visual understanding of how leader’s actions impact and influence others throughout an organization. One simple action a leader, the common center figure, takes can ripple throughout their organization. The actions and behaviors of a leader can dramatically impact entire organizations, both positively and negatively.

Recently, I have been thinking about the ripple effect and leadership and started to ask some questions pertaining to a specific coaching assignment with the leader of her company and her leadership team:

• What impact does the leader have on others through their specific actions and behaviors? What are the leaders thoughts, emotions and actions about these specific actions and behaviors? How aware is the leader on the impact of their thoughts, emotions and actions on others? How are these actions and behaviors impacting and influencing the team?
• What actions and behaviors are leaders doing that positively and negatively impact their organization and teams?
• Besides the leader’s direct reports, who else are they impacting and influencing within their organization? Outside their organization? How do their actions ripple throughout the organization and outside it?
• How is the leader impacting these stakeholders?

As a leader, you might be asking how can I understand how my actions are impacting those I work closely with? Here are some choices:

1. Ask and get feedback from others how your actions are impacting them. Ask them to be specific what behaviors and actions they are noticing about you. Find out if they think you are aware of your actions and behaviors and how they impact others. High self-awareness is critical to successful leadership.If your self-awareness needs sharpening, I suggest taking an emotional intelligence assessment to determine your self-awareness capabilities. You can do this yourself or get the help from your internal coaches or work with an outside executive coach who can conduct qualitative interviews and provide an assessment that measures emotional intelligence and self-awareness. 
2. Create an influence map. Place your name in the center and start to write down the names of individuals or groups that you directly influence. Work your way out and ask yourself who you influence indirectly. Most of us don’t think about who we are impacting and influencing besides our boss and direct reports. What about outside the organization? Are there vendors, customers, Board members and regulators that my actions influence? You will be amazed at your reach of influence. Take some time and really give this some thought.
3. Share your results of steps 1 and 2 with your boss and direct reports. Ask them to give you feedback and create a development plan on how to move forward. Identify the skills and competencies you want to work on and why, what success will look like, what specific actions you can do to develop, when do you want to complete these actions and finally, how do you want to measure your success?

I have seen leader’s embrace this 3-step process very effectively. Typically, what leaders find through qualitative interview feedback with the leader’s boss, peers and direct reports and the results of an Emotional Intelligence assessment is that they are unaware how their behaviors and actions are impacting others in and outside the organization. They also find that they are rarely clear on why team turnover within their group is high. Additionally, they find that when creating an influence map it brings focus and realization on how their actions are rippling throughout the organization and to outsiders.

We all exhibit behaviors and actions that have a ripple effect on those we work and live with daily. As leaders we need to be more self aware of our behaviors; how these behaviors and actions impact others; and who within and outside the organization are being impacted and influenced. When we become more keenly aware and drive for sustainable change the impact will have significant, positive and energetic rippling effects on those we touch each and every day.

What kind of ripple effect are you having on your organization? Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’d love to hear about your leadership journey into your New Year. Send me a note via email at brad@aperiocoaching.net or on Twitter @bparcells.

In Latin, Aperio means to reveal, uncover, to make clear. Coaching is a powerful process that enables the client to reveal and illuminate their authentic style via a sharp focus on who they are at their core.