Lead Culture with Jenni Catron

225 | Mastering the Art of Peer-to-Peer Leadership

• Art of Leadership Network

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Does influential leadership seem like a mystery? Are you looking for a leadership adventure that's more than buzzwords and cliches? On this episode of the Lead Culture podcast, we'll cut through the noise and share effective strategies to build your leadership credibility. We'll uncover the power of relational authority, explore the true meaning of being consistent and accountable, and explain how showing genuine interest in your colleagues can earn their respect.

We're not stopping there, though! Prepare to have your leadership game elevated as we uncover the importance of the 'first team' concept, which redefines decision-making in a collective approach. Plus, I'll share my proven communication strategies that value data sharing, encourage tough conversations, and emphasize intentional dialogue. All these elements don't just enrich communication, but they also foster trust and respect with your peers. So, let's embark on this journey to master the art of peer-to-peer leadership together!

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Speaker 1:

Hey leaders, welcome to the Lead Culture podcast, part of the Art of Leadership Network. I'm your host, Jenni Catron, and each week on the podcast, I'll be your guide as we explore powerful insights and practical strategies to equip you with the tools you need to lead with clarity and confidence and build a thriving team. My mission is to be your trusted coach, empowering you to master the art of self-leadership so you'll learn to lead yourself well, so you can lead others better. Each week, we'll take a deep dive on a leadership or culture topic. We'll hear stories from amazing guests and leaders like you who are committed to leading well. So let's embark on this leadership adventure together. Okay, friends, today I want to talk about three ways to earn influence with your peers. I get this question all the time as we're coaching leaders, that how do you earn influence with people who are your peers, people who don't report to you? And we talk a lot about how leadership is influence and so that influence piece is so powerful. But there's still the question of okay, but how, Like how? What are some things we can do practically to help us earn influence with peers? Because really peer-to-peer leadership is where you work out your leadership influence Right. Peer-to-peer leadership is where you really kind of grind out those competencies, those skills in influencing others well and really developing your leadership skills. So for those of you who listen and you're like gosh, I love all the leadership stuff but I really don't manage a team or I don't have leadership responsibility. I'm doing air quotes. You really do, because leadership begins with influence and I like to say that how we steward that influence determines our leadership trajectory. And so this peer-to-peer relationship is where you work out your leadership influence. We all start here and if we don't learn how to lead in this environment, we'll rarely be given opportunities to lead in other ways. So, as you're aspiring to more opportunities for leadership, if that's something you really enjoy, the leadership side of things learning to lead others well, especially your peers, is a great starting point because I promise you it is going to help you get noticed. Your skills as a leader in peer-to-peer or lateral relationships are going to speak volumes, Like people are going to notice that and really recognize your leadership skills.

Speaker 1:

So the thing that kind of stands out in this is that peer leadership hinges on relational authority. You know this. Peer leadership is all about the relationships, and relationships help us earn that influence. And relational authority is built by a few things, and so I wanna cover three of those things today. How do we build that relational authority? How do we build that influence? So the first one is to give and earn respect right.

Speaker 1:

So key relationships are built upon trust. Trust is built through giving and earning respect, and respect, by definition, means to hold in esteem or to honor. So think about that for a minute and think about your coworkers like your peers organizationally. Do you hold them in esteem or honor? Do you value what they do Now and now? More critically, you might, but maybe you've never said that or you've never acknowledged it. So ways that we respect is earned, and in these relationships with our peers, is first.

Speaker 1:

I've got four things for you on this. Ways we earn respect is being interested. Being interested in your coworkers, learning to understand one another or how they think, how they're wired and I love tools for like working genius, which we facilitate with teams, Enneagram, Myers-Briggs I mean your tool of choice, whatever you use in your culture. Learn others like, understand who they are, be interested in your peers, how they think, how they work, how they're wired. When you are interested in who they are, you're gonna earn their respect right, Because we all love to be understood. We all love when somebody is curious about us and wants to get us to know us better. So be that for your peers. Be interested.

Speaker 1:

Secondly, be consistent. So do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it, right, and that kind of goes with a number of these things we're gonna talk about. But be consistent. Show up on time, deliver. If you made a commitment that you're gonna deliver something, or that you're accountable for something, or you have a deadline that in your name is attached to it, like, actually meet that deadline. So be dependable is another component of that. Be consistent, be dependable, be accountable. If you're not able to deliver something on time, go to your peers and say, guys, I just need to be accountable to this because I'm not meeting your expectation. I know I promised you that I would have this by this date and maybe you've got a good reason why you're not gonna meet that expectation. Well, be accountable for it and just honor them, show respect to them by being accountable for what you're responsible for. So respect is to hold an esteem or honor. So when you really esteem and honor others, you're gonna be interested, you're gonna be consistent, you're gonna be dependable and you're gonna be accountable. And those simple I say they're simple behaviors but they're hard to do consistently, aren't they? So this is character stuff too, isn't it? So give and earn respect. And by being interested, being consistent, being dependable, being accountable, those are great ways where you can earn respect with your peers.

Speaker 1:

Number two combat silos. Don't create them. So you all know, what I mean here is when teams kind of get hunkered down into their little department, division, ministry, team, whatever it might be for you, and you're kind of siloed off from everybody else, Like we kind of stick over here with our team or with this circle or with this group. Well, great leaders are aware of that and they work to combat silos, not create them. And so a way to think about this is to just be intentional about the fact that we're really all on the same team, Even if you might be a part of a big organization and there's a zillion different divisions or ministry teams and so you do have to kind of work within your direct team most of the time. Well, you always want to have an eye on the bigger picture and not get kind of zeroed in on just your team, Like be aware of what's going on with the other teams and especially for that relationship with your peers, being aware of what they have going on, what's important to them, going back to being interested in what they've got going on the more that you work to combat those silos, to kind of break those down and work cross-functionally with your peers across other divisions, the more you're gonna earn that respect, you're gonna earn that relational influence.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that Patrick Lancioni talks about a lot is the concept of first team, and this one is a game changer when we're working with a lot of executive teams. We will work on this concept because a lot of times, if you think of, like, maybe you're coming to a meeting and you are the director of a department and so it's a director's meeting, so all the directors from all the departments are at the meeting and you come there and you by nature come there to represent, to defend, to advocate for your team. So let's say, for those of you in a ministry context, let's say you come to the weekly staff meeting and the kids director is here, the student pastor is here, the groups pastor is here, the guest services director is here, and so you've got all of these people sitting at the table and our nature is to show up advocating for that team. I'm a part of the Find the Guest Services Director. I come in ready to champion guest services. Well, that's not bad. But we wanna flip the script. When you're at that table, you are a part of that team of directors who are helping lead the whole organization forward, and so when you're at that table, your first team and your first allegiance is to the people that you're sitting with. You're not the guest services director, You're one of the directors helping lead the whole organization forward. And there's a subtle shift. But it's really important because then you are making that team at the table your allies instead of your enemies, right? So you're saying, okay, here's all of these directors, we are working together to achieve a shared common goal. And then, secondly, I'm here to champion my area of responsibility. But it's the order in which you prioritize those things that is really really critical.

Speaker 1:

In Predictable Success, which is one of the tools that I am certified in and use for coaching and development, In Predictable Success, we talk about something we call the enterprise commitment, and the enterprise commitment says this and we say every leader needs to hold this commitment. That commitment is when working in a team or group environment, I will place the interests of the enterprise above my personal interests. So that's the concept, right, Like when I am working with a team or group, I am here with this team of directors. I will place the interests of the enterprise, the whole organization, above my personal interests. Now your personal interests might mean your own personal interests and projects, or it might mean that team that you lead. So if I'm the guest services director, it might mean, hey, that is secondary to what is good for the whole organization. And that perspective helps you earn influence with your peers, because they're realizing you're not coming in ready to duke it out and champion your area and try to negotiate for whether you need additional budget or time or resources or whatever it might be. You're there thinking, hey, we're on this team together trying to help this whole organization succeed. So I'm here with you helping us figure that out. And whether that means I don't get something that's important to me, but there's something on your team that is really critical in this season, I'm gonna defer to that because it's for the good of the whole organization. When we take that perspective and that mentality, we earn that influence, especially with our peers, and so that one is a huge one combat silos, don't create them.

Speaker 1:

And then, number three, communicate clearly. Communicate clearly. We know that communication is like the nemesis for the best of organizations, right Like, communication is so critical. And so how do we do this? And especially in relationship to our peers? It's we're generous with information, we share information. Some of you have like a scarcity mindset with information. It's like a power thing, right Like. So you hold information because it's power. Guys share information. People feel valued when they have the information, when they're in the know, and so share information. I mean appropriate information. Right, there's an appropriate cascading of the right information at the right time. But share information, help loop in your especially your peers in this context, loop them in to things that you think might just be beneficial for them to know.

Speaker 1:

Three questions that I always encourage the teams I work with to lead by are who needs to know, what do they need to know and when do they need to know it? And this is so powerful because I think, as leaders, we need to realize that there is not anything that you do that is disconnected from others, Like you are on a team and so what you do, the decisions you make, the actions you take, they are impacting somebody else, no question. Like again, we are interconnected, we are working on this common mission together and so your work, what you do, is impacting somebody. So be thinking about, when you make a key decision or when you take action on something, who needs to know, when do they need to know that information Because, again, there can be appropriate timing for the communication and when do they need to know it. Who needs to know? What do they need to know and when do they need to know it? If you ask yourself those three questions every day, you will earn influence, I promise you, because you are being thoughtful and intentional. It's an act of respect to your coworkers to be generous or thoughtful with information.

Speaker 1:

Secondly, on the communicate clearly piece have the difficult conversations, because they're gonna happen and team members will respect you when you're willing to have the hard conversation, when you're willing to say gosh. When we were having this discussion earlier today, I really felt disrespected in this or I was not sensitive to what you had going on, and I need to apologize to that. Difficult conversations can both be us taking responsibility, because that's hard right, and or it can be addressing something that was uncomfortable and needs to be addressed, so it's not festering, right. So have the difficult conversations and then finally, just be intentional. Be intentional, Always ask those questions who needs to know? What do they need to know? When do they need to know it?

Speaker 1:

Because that thoughtfulness, that intentionality of thinking on behalf of your coworkers that's what I want you to take away from this, particularly in the communication area is thinking on behalf of your coworkers. What is important to them? How can I serve them by making sure I'm communicating well to them? And so just three things. There are probably a zillion more that we could talk about, but these are three things. When I'm coaching leaders on leading their peers and earning influence with their peers, if we give and earn respect, if we combat silos not create them and if we communicate clearly, it goes exceptionally far in helping us earn that influence and earn that right to lead with our peers. All right, friends, I hope that was helpful today. Got you thinking, maybe. Maybe there's one of those three things that you're like gosh, I need to be thoughtful about that. Maybe it's the communication piece, Maybe it's the being interested side of the respect piece right, of just being more intentional, to be curious and interested in other team member stories. Whatever it is for you. Just take one of those little nuggets today and pay attention to it this week. Maybe just give some thought to how can I be more intentional in this way with my peers and see what happens, see what conversations it sparks, see what influence might be birth from that All right Gain.

Speaker 1:

Share this with a friend If it was helpful to you. Maybe talk about it with your team, see what you would add to the list and then let me know, Email me at podcast at get4sightcom. Let me know what is helpful, what did you take action on and what results did you see. Reach out to us on social media at get4sight. Tell us the stories there we love to see your stories on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn and then share this with a friend If it was helpful to you. It'll be helpful to somebody else and thank you for joining us this week. Thanks for listening today. Keep leading them well this week and we'll see you soon. Let's get started.