How To Lead Without A Title

How To Lead Without A Title

Sean: Hey, guys! Welcome back to the channel. It’s me again, Sean Si, your host, a.k.a. Mr. CEO at 22. And before I move forward, let not another 10 seconds pass by without you hitting that subscribe button, that like button, and the bell notification icon so that you will be served whenever we have a new episode coming out.

Today we have a special episode for you. And I guess a lot of managers and a lot of mid-level leaders or a lot of people who might not have that leadership title are struggling with. And that is: How to lead if you don’t have the position?

A lot of people are struggling with this. A lot of people want to know how to do this and have more influence to the rest of the people in their company. How do you do this?

Well, I cannot stress enough how many people in the organization have leaders, bosses, managers who have the title and have the position, but they don’t have the influence. They’re not real leaders.

Outside of work, people don’t want to hang around with them. Outside of work, people don’t want to be around them. Outside of work, they got no influence with their peers at work. This is a sad reality of our day and age.

Now, how did they get that title? How did they get that position?

Maybe they practiced leadership principles until they got there. Or maybe they’re very competent. That’s why they got the position. But leadership is not equivalent to competence.

Leadership is all about influence, serving others, sacrifice, being intentional about yourself — about how you develop yourself to become better, about being more aware of your weaknesses and working on it to become a non weakness, about knowing your strengths and focusing on making your strengths better and utilizing your strengths in order to make others better. That is what leadership is about.

There are also numerous people who may be at the grassroots level or at the supervisory level, and they have more influence. They’re actually the real leaders of the organization because outside of work, people want to hang around them. People will follow them when they ask for a favor.

People will listen to them when they say something outside of work. Their peers respect them. Their managers respect their opinions. They don’t have the title, they don’t have the position, but they’re real leaders.

Now, how do you become someone like that? Here are the principles. And I only have five principles to share with you today.

First one is take initiative. What this means is when you see an opportunity, you got to make sure to volunteer for it. You have to make sure to jump on it.

Maybe you have an opening in your workplace for a specific project, maybe something as simple as organizing the team outing or organizing a webinar workshop where people should be attending, that’s going to be more work, right?

Everyone’s busy. We’re all dealing with our workloads. Why would I volunteer for another piece of work or piece of project?

But people who want to grow their leadership and influence will take initiative and jump on that opportunity and say,” I want to be the one looking for the speakers. I want to be the one to galvanize people and encourage them to join. I want to be the one to set up the stage to make sure everything is prepared for our speaker.”

These opportunities will be served to you and you may see it as, “Hey, that’s more work and I’m not getting paid for that.” Or you could see it as, “Hey, this is something I can get involved with, and everyone will see that I’m reliable and I’m willing to serve and it’s going to increase my influence and leadership in the entire organization.”

Which one are you? That will dictate whether you will be more of a leader, even if you do not have the position or title.

The next principle, the second principle is see other people.

All too often do we go to our workplace or do we log in our digital workspace and we don’t see other people. We’re hanging out with people we’re used to hanging out with. We’re communicating with people who we should be communicating with because they’re part of our team. We have to communicate with them because they are part of our committee.

But how often do we see other people that we’re not really directly connected with in terms of work, that we don’t really directly work with, with projects or committees?

But we just see them and say, “Hey, is there anything that you’re working on today that I can jump into and help out with.” Or “Hey, how are you doing today? How do you feel today?”

So it’s as easy as seeing them. You know why? Because not a lot of people see other people, especially at work. And if you’re someone who can practice this day in and day out, just give yourself a quota.

One person a day, tap them in the shoulder, ask them how they are. I don’t care what you ask them. All that matters is you see them. They answer your question. That open ups more conversation. You build these relationships. Connect with other people.

People will respect that because guess what? The world’s love is growing colder every day and people need other people to see them. The more you do this and it’s not that hard, the more your influence will grow.

The third principle we have today is encourage and praise the good. When someone does something good, fantastic or amazing, make sure your voice is heard that you’re cheering them on.

In SEO Hacker, we have what we call the clap session during townhall meetings. And we make it a point to really list down things that we want to celebrate about a certain individual or a certain group of people, and we share it every townhall meeting. And we want to make sure that we’re saying these things and applauding people live where you can feel it the most.

I make it a point to always list people who I want to give applause and praise to, and I always take a turn as CEO to get that mic. I told the team that I appreciate the entire team because this is a time when working is not really that easy given that work is tough right now, and the volatility today is perhaps the most that this generation has dealt with since we were born.

You have to keep a sharp eye out and a sharp ear out for people doing a great job, or maybe even just people doing a good job and make it a habit to encourage and promote and applaud the good.

My fourth principle today is about reliability. You, as a colleague, the baseline of all leadership is all about reliability. Are you a reliable person?

When you say you’re going to do something, do you do it at the right time? When you say you’re going to be in a certain place, do you do it at the right time? Are you really there? Do you really show up? Do you do the hard work?

When you promise something, do you keep that promise? When someone asks you for a favor and you say yes, do you make sure that favor is done ahead of time or on time? How reliable are you as a person?

This counts for a lot because if you don’t practice this principle, none of the other principles that I have shared and I am about to share will matter because people won’t respect you for your reliability.

Now, I’m not talking about competence. Competence is a different thing. Reliability matters a lot in leadership. Are you a reliable person?

Now if you’re not and you realize, “I’m not so reliable. When someone asks me for something, I say yes oftentimes, and I just don’t do it, or I only do it 50%, 60% of the time, maybe 80% of the time.” Then make sure you do it 100% of the time.

Don’t keep on saying yes to other people if you can’t deliver because you will have a mental note behind their heads that, “Hey, Sean is not that reliable and next time I’m not going to give him stuff, right, because I can’t count on him.”

Reliability also has to do with accountability. If you’re a little bit late, tell that other person who’s relying on you that you’re going to be late. You have to be accountable to that person so that they can count on you.

And my fifth principle today is listen. Listen to legitimate concerns. Why do I use the word legitimate? Because there are so many concerns that are not legitimate and you shouldn’t be listening to them.

So when I say legitimate concerns, these are concerns about work and maybe personal life. Now, I’m not saying that you listen to toxic things. I’m just saying lend an ear because some people need someone to talk with who just listens to them.

As human beings, we have the tendency to keep on opening our mouths, giving our opinions, our comments, even if the other person is not yet done telling their story. That is simple respect to the other person.

But so often do we not see that. Rarely do we see someone who just listens and then maybe responds but after all has been said by the other party. There are so few people willing to lend an ear today. So few, and it is sad.

Even at the workplace, people can’t talk to you, people can’t expect you to listen to them. God gave us two ears and one month for a reason so that we’ll listen twice as much as we speak.

Being able to listen to other people, empathize with them, and just make sure that you understand them, that counts for a lot. And that will increase your influence to that other person by a huge margin.

I hope these five principles have helped you in such a way to change your perspective, and I hope that you would be able to practice at least one of these principles.

Maybe just see the people in your office, see the people in your digital workspace and say,”Hey, how are you doing today?” That is something so easy to do or listen more.

There are tons of people who may be wanting to talk with you, but you don’t listen or you cut them off or you give your opinions and comments midway. That may be something that you could practice.

Out of these five principles, which ones do you commit to practice this week? Leave that in the comment section below.

I hope this has added value to you today. And if you’re here watching on YouTube or you’re listening to our Spotify episode, please hit that follow button on Spotify. That helps a lot. On YouTube, hit that subscribe button. That helps us a lot. Share this with a friend, or a colleague, or family member, who you think needs to hear this.

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