Chad Veach - Help! I Work with People: Getting Good at Influence, Leadership, and People Skills

L eadership has a way of surprising us.

Why? Because leadership is often thrust upon us without warning and without our permission. It might sneak up on us slowly over time, or it might arrive suddenly, almost out of the blue. Regardless of how it happens, there comes a point when we find ourselves coordinating and motivating and managing people, and we usually arent as ready for it as we would like to be.

Even in those situations where we expected to be hired or promoted to a leadership role, or where we sought a leadership role intentionally, leadership can still surprise us. The actual tasks and day-to-day responsibilities of leadership are hard to predict and can feel surreal. Even after years of experience, we still wonder, at times, what in the world we are doing trying to lead other people.

Because of the surprising nature of leadership, Ive often come across people who are doing the work of a leader (and doing it well), but who dont consider themselves leaders. They have influence, they are guiding and directing people, and they are accomplishing goals with their teambut they avoid or reject the title of leader . Leadership can seem intimidating, even terrifying. And yet, even if you dont have a job title with the word leader or director in it, theres a good chance you are already leading in one or more areas. For example:

• Maybe you started your job a few years ago, and over time, you gained enough experience and skill that your boss recently asked you to train and supervise a group of new employees.
• Maybe youre a high school teacher, and some of your students have started looking to you for more than just algebra tips: Theyre asking for your advice about home problems, friend issues, and career choices.
• Maybe youre a parent, and your daughters soccer team needed a coach, and you somehow found yourself volunteering.
• Maybe you started your own catering business a few years ago and have recently hired a few employees, and now the success of your business depends on whether you can lead other people to do the job far better than you could on your own.
• Maybe you were recently named the youth pastor at your church, and now you have to figure out how to get a bunch of young volunteers to organize and run a weekly youth service.
• Maybe you inherited a family business and the team members you are leading are all older and more experienced than you, but they are looking to you for direction, strategy, and answers.
• Or maybe you were elected president of the school PTA, or you were asked to lead a committee at your church, or you were promoted to department chair.

You get the idea. Leadership happens whether or not you are ready for it and whether or not it comes with a formal title. If you are doing your job well, sooner or later you are likely to be put in charge of other people. Those people have feelings, free will, and ideas of their own, of course, and your challenge is to inspire them to be a unified and productive team. Thats when youre likely to say, to quote the title of this book, Help! I work with people.

Influence, People Skills, and Leadership

Regardless of how you ended up in your current leadership role, there is nothing quite like working with and leading other people. It has its own challenges and rewards, and it requires a unique skill set. When done right, it is beautiful: a group of individuals acting as one, joining forces to accomplish a shared vision. When done wrong, it can be incredibly painful: a group of individuals at odds and in conflict, trying to accomplish something but hurting each other and their goals in the process.