Congratulations on choosing to read this book. You are taking an intentional approach to your impact.
What impact are you having on people and the world around you?
We cannot know for sure, but, as this book has caught your attention, we can assume you know how important impact is and you probably want to maximise your impact in a positive and results-driven way.
As a leader, you deliver results with and through others and, as such, it is particularly important to take control of the impact you have – as there is a multiplying effect that leaders’ actions and behaviours have. A leader is always ‘on stage’, a role model, and people see what you do, so your ripple effect is a reality.
That is why we have written this book for you, to give you an opportunity to reflect on and build the impact you want and choose to have, in order to be the most successful leader you can be – for the benefit of those you work with, your organisation, its customers and partners and, of course, yourself! It can help you in interactions with your family and loved ones, too.
Everyone can have good, or even great, impact and, even though this book is written specifically for leaders, the dynamics of impact and many of the ideas in this book can benefit non-leaders and future leaders, too. Informal leaders often have strong impact; that is why they are leaders, even though they do not have a formal leadership role.
Leadership and impact are an art, not an exact science. There is not just one way of being a great leader. Being a great leader is not about cloning someone else. The most impactful leaders we have encountered authentically fine-tune their actions and behaviours to the situation they are in and the people they are with. No one gets it right all the time, but we can all maximise our impact with greater awareness of it and focus on it.
As leadership and impact are an art, we recommend that you view and use this book as a guide and a source of inspiration for impact-creation. You have your own unique way of being a leader and this book is here to give you food for thought and concrete practical ideas for impact at work that you can then start applying to your specific situations.
Whatever impact you want to achieve, we recommend you always do so from a win-win perspective – the impact should benefit everyone involved and, ideally, not just in the short term. And your impact should be in harmony with the organisational direction, vision and strategy.
Having worked with many hundreds of leaders, their teams and organisations all around the world for more than the last 20 years, we are intrigued and inspired by the concept of impact. We have experienced leaders with great, positive impact and those with less effective, and sometimes even very negative, impact. What makes the difference? We would argue that it starts with awareness – in two areas – self-awareness and social awareness. The more aware you are of yourself – your thoughts, feelings, values, stressors and energisers – and the more you are aware of the world around you, the more you can start to take control of your impact and start to shape the impact you want or need to have to be successful.
Awareness is a bit like a muscle in your body, it needs to be used, trained and flexed to build strength.
How well trained is your ‘awareness muscle’?
Have you been training it lately? Or have you expected it to be in fine shape without any work? Could you do more to build its strength?
When was the last time someone knocked you with their rucksack while turning around in a cramped commuter train? Or seemed to ignore you in a meeting? Or were oblivious to the fact that they were holding up a whole aeroplane aisle of people while talking to their friend instead of getting into their seat? Or didn’t remember you, even though you know you’ve met several times before?
In all those scenarios, their awareness muscle probably was not as well trained and engaged as it could have been. And the impact on you was probably not great, right?
A few years ago, there was a documentary/reality show on UK TV called Boss Swap. The idea behind the series was to have two leaders from two different companies swap places for two weeks. This was a very interesting ‘social experiment’ and we remember one episode in particular where the impact the leaders had in their new, temporary role was massively hindered by their lack of awareness of their new environment, not thinking through how different the reality of an estate agent from London and a used car salesman from Yorkshire is.
The point is that we all have an impact, even when we do not think we do, so do not leave your impact to chance. Start your impact strategy by becoming more aware.
How this book works
This book is divided into three parts and can be read from beginning to end or you can jump straight to the chapters that are most relevant to you. Regardless of which approach you take, we recommend at least reading Part 1 first.
Part 1 explores impact from a general perspective: what it is, why it is important and how it can be developed.
Part 2 explores impact in the context of different stakeholders and provides food for thought and practical ideas for how to achieve impact with some key stakeholder groups. Each chapter in Part 2 is structured like this:
- Self-assessment
- Exploring the stakeholder group
- A story of impact
- Solutions and tools
- Voice of impact (how impact feels and works)
- More solutions: the role your own thoughts, feelings and behaviours plays
- Summary
- Self-assessment
Part 3 explores impact in the context of specific desired outcomes and gives a step-by-step Roadmap, guiding you to insight for your specific outcomes. The chapters focus on four common examples of outcomes, but the Roadmap structure can be used for any outcome that is relevant for you. The steps in the Roadmap are:
- Decide on the outcome
- Set a target date
- Understand the stakeholders
- Assess the current reality
- What do you and others need to learn
- The Game Plan
- How do you need to behave
- Acknowledge obstacles
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Challenge the Roadmap
- Measure the success
Throughout the book, we have created stories to describe how impact at work can look and feel and how it can be created. For those of you who have read our first book The Team Formula: A Leadership Tale of a Team Who Found Their Way, you will recognise the characters from that book in these stories.
Impact happens through knowledge and skill but, maybe, most importantly, through behaviours. If you want to achieve positive impact, pay particular attention to behaviours. How we behave and conduct ourselves has an impact on others, creating ripple effects that may go much further than we can imagine.
This is a practical book
This book applies to all levels of leaders, from CEOs all the way to junior frontline leaders, and many of the concepts discussed can be relevant and useful for non-leaders, too.
It is a practical book, so do not just read it, take action and choose to implement your solutions for positive, respectful, results-driven impact. You decide how much value to take from this book, you choose your impact.
Many of the ideas, solutions and tools that are listed in a given chapter can be equally valuable and relevant for another situation or another stakeholder group. So take a step back and reflect on your impact opportunities as a whole and find your own tailor-made approach to impact.
As impact is not an exact science, often there are not absolute answers. This book presents reflection point opportunities for your situation to trigger your thoughts for new ideas uniquely shaped by you. This book is here to give you food for thought as well as concrete practical ideas.
It is over to you. What impact are you choosing to have?
We wish you great leadership impact!