“Rowing a race is an art, not a frantic scramble. It must be rowed with head power as well as hand power.” George Pocock

The book “The Boys in the Boat” recounts the exploits of the United States eight-man rowing team that against all odds won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics.  It is an inspiring story of a disparate group of boys from the University of Washington, who, as their school’s junior varsity team, made it to the Olympic trials and eventually to the gold medal platform in Berlin. The team’s head coach Al Ulbrickson is one of the primary heroes of the story for, among other things, his prescience in deciding that his junior varsity team had something special that made their competitive ceiling higher than the varsity team. It was a high-risk and potentially career ending decision that he made to elevate them as his competition team – a stellar example of executive leadership.

But another important character in this success story was not such an “executive” who had authority to make decisions, cut players or set strategy. Instead, this man was the boat builder who designed and built not only the shells for the Washington team but did so for nearly all of the competitive college teams of the day. This man’s name was George Pocock. At a crucial moment in the story the JV team was struggling to find their rhythm as a team, or what was referred to in rowing as their swing. Coach Ulbrickson, while on the water one day with his team, was frustrated with his inability to correct the many problems of effort and performance of the JV team. While contemplating this dilemma he looked in the distance and saw George Pocock rowing by himself. Pocock was moving across the water smoothly and effortlessly, creating significant speed through his technical proficiency and ease of his stroke. Coach Ulbrickson picked up his megaphone and said, “George, tell them what I’m trying to teach them. Tell them what we try to accomplish around here.”  Pocock then came alongside the team’s shell and in turn spoke to each of the boys quietly with words of advice and encouragement that were out of earshot of the coach, and then he waved to the coach and rowed away. Something clicked with the team and when the “row” order was given they took off in their boat much more crisply and synchronized than before. From that point on, Pocock rode with the coaching launch most days to offer his advice and direction. One reason for this was his influence on the team due to his experience, expertise and unassuming manner.

A prevailing bias among leaders is that they should focus on the most ambitious of their underlings; those that are the most educated and focused on personal advancement. It is understood that this is a vital management priority in order to cultivate the next crop of leaders for an organization. But what of the employees who do not fall into that category?

In my own experience, I have known many influential team members who were not in leadership or even on a leadership track but who had a profound effect on team performance through their influence. Sometimes they were excellent candidates for leadership growth and development, and I experienced personal satisfaction when I could identify and help them advance, even if they left the organization. But then there are those who prefer to be in more of a staff role and to contribute their considerable experience as a sort of pace car rather than the in-charge leader. What a blessing it is for organizations to have these individuals. In these situations, both the leader and the employee need to understand that this is not only okay but is something to be celebrated.

Leaders sometimes think of influencers primarily as people who can help with change adoption. While this is a very important function, if the influencer is merely seen as a mouthpiece of management, their influence will diminish. The key is to get them involved in the earliest stages of an initiative and ensure they have a voice in planning and implementation. The buy-in will be far greater if they have real power to guide change.

A more important role for influencers is to help shape an organization’s culture since that is not a transactional experience like a specific initiative would be, but is a long-term contribution. An energetic and positive influencer can help model culture-building behaviors, provide support, and assist with informal communication channels. Sometimes influencers like this can help function as a buffer between leadership and the frontline staff, helping to put initiatives in perspective and identify what benefits there are for the staff.

A recent article by McKinsey suggested a complicated iterative process they called “snowball sampling” to identify who the influencers are in an organization. The idea is to ask employees to anonymously recommend co-workers that they respect, or go to for advice, etc. This process is repeated until the surveyors can triangulate responses and spit out a list of names.2 I believe that the use of such a tool should be a last resort only. The leader is much better served by cultivating their own knowledge of their team whether it is through their interpersonal relationships or the feedback of their middle management team. There is no short cut.

Not all influencers have a positive impact on the organization. Some are actually de-energizers who spread gossip, discontent, and ill will. These individuals need to be identified as well so that their behavior can be called out and modified or the individuals moved out of the organization.

I am probably a minority voice in saying that I do not understand or appreciate the current state of social media “influencers” and the impact they have on the opinions and decisions of their followers. Following the advice and preferences of a person who you only see in thin slices of edited and highly engineered video seems to me like a risky proposition for making any kind of significant decisions. If your only goal is to find a pair of shoes that are “super cute,” fine. But when faced with meaningful decisions or opinion-building, a true influencer is someone you interact with often, in good times and challenging times, and you understand what they are made of and their thought processes. It is well worth the time and effort for leaders to find these people in their organizations and tap into the strengths they bring.

Notes:

1Brown, D. J. (2013). The Boys in the Boat (1st ed., p. 230). Penguin Books.

2Lili Duan, Emily Sheeren, Leigh M. Wiess, Tapping the Power of Hidden Influencers, McKinsey Quarterly, March 1, 2014.