According to Google Analytics, the most popular post on this
site is horizontal leadership. In the
last post on this topic, I gave you specific insights as to what horizontal
leadership is and is not. Now I want to help you take horizontal leadership
into your community, organization, family or business by understanding the
foundation of horizontal leadership. I have got some great information to
share with you that you may want to print off and share with your co-workers,
organization members, family and maybe even your boss. One of the
greatest secrets to life is one's ability to inspire and motivate others into
action. This is deeply rooted back through our history.
During the farming era, your wealth was directly tied to your
ability to encourage your farm hands to plant and harvest healthy crops.
If you could harvest fast, you could sell it to everyone in your
community before anyone else. Then, you would receive payment first
and be able to buy more ground before others. Purchasing more ground allowed
you to plant more crops next year. If you could offer a better lifestyle to
your employees they would work harder for your business and thus your business
could make more money.
Think about the industrial era. The industrial era produced a
whole new set of challenges for employers in their ability to motive;
employees were now receiving their own money. It was not long until the
employer started offering additional bonuses as an incentive; if the employee
could produce more, they received more compensation, thus improving their
lifestyle. Rewarding employees based
on performance became the standard, especially in sales. During this time, the concept of “moving up”
in a corporation equated to earning more money. This introduced the ideas of
rewards and recognition. A title change or promotion later in the industrial
era meant a better lifestyle was soon coming.
Then employees began learning that if they were more educated they
could gain rewards and recognition faster. This is where the information
era emerged. More parents began seeking every which way to get their
children enrolled into a college so they could have a better life style.
The birth of the internet shifted the dynamics of business as
well. It made it easier for
employees to find information to improve their work performance.
Employees that were self motivated began excelling and the employers began to
fall behind with their rewards and recognition.
Many of the starting positions in companies employed people that
exceeded the education requirements of the job. They were literally
overqualified. Formal schooling and free information were
reducing the motivation within the organization. Formal schooling was beginning to mean very
little to the company and free information was being misused or underused within
an organization.
The birth of the internet also spawned the birth of the connected
era. The connected era is where we find ourselves today. It
is during this connected era that employees share information faster
than ever before. With lightening speed, an employee has access to ideas and
current information about their industry from other peers working within the industry.
How can employers stay ahead of the connected era in a way that inspires
employees to produce and see a greater impact in their companies,
organizations, or community?
The answer is found within the concept of horizontal leadership!
There are 7 principals that form the foundation of horizontal leadership:
1: Trust - Between the people interning/beginning
with the organization and the long time veterans.
2: Responsibility - Understanding of levels of responsibility.
3: The plane of psychological understanding - Where the
leader sees themselves in accordance to their team.
4: Vision - Team vision developed and set where everyone can see.
5: Direction - The direction or the Value-Goals outlined by the
team’s efforts.
6: Communication - The team’s ability to share ideas and thoughts
freely without fear of someone stealing their ideas to look better or
being reprimanded for thinking creatively.
7: Connection/Community - The teams ability to work together and
operate with a since of culture and unity.
