The Spell of Leaders

Are you getting full follower-ship? Leaders by definition are defined by their followers.  To be a highly effective leader you have to be able to enlist and/or develop highly effective followers.  How effectively are you engaging others? That is to say, to lead well will require you getting a high level of engagement from those you are “leading.”  Getting this kind of enthusiastic follower-ship requires that a leader be effective at tapping into and evoking powerful emotional resonance.  In essence, a powerful leader is effective at  casting “spells.”

A “spell” is any set of phrases, images, metaphors, rituals or actions that touch or tap into the core motivational drivers of those you would have follow.  It is a spell in the sense that the actions, words or symbols that are expressed by the leader have a magnetic, almost magical capacity to create powerful emotional resonance in others, turning them into followers.

People do not follow because you are smart.  They follow because they feel emotionally connected to you or to what they feel you are representing.  Emotions are the primary drivers of motivation.  People follow because they “believe” in you – they “feel” that you offer something that is important to them.  People follow because they “care” about what you want to do or because they feel that you care about them and they reciprocate.  People follow because they feel inspired by the Courage you demonstrate or the authenticity you exhibit or because they would be ashamed not to act with you.  People also follow because they are afraid of what would happen if they did not.

Highly effective leaders are able to either consciously or intuitively speak and act in ways that cast their spell upon others.  What is amazing about this is that each follower who acts with enthusiasm about the leader, ends up casting their own spell of participation, evoking in others the desire to follow the “follower” in following the leader.  The magic in this is that the followers also end up casting their “spell” upon the leader.  Those spells have both positive and negative consequences.

(This post is part 5 of a series. See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 here.)