Trickle-down Leadership

May 19, 2011

Written By:
Ryan Vet

There were many laughs and many tears as people said goodbye to a loved leader. Ray had been a part of his organization for 19 years and was stepping down to start a new chapter in his life.

Sitting in the audience at Ray’s goodbye party, I heard countless testimonies of how Ray had impacted the lives of so many people over his 19 years of service. People described Ray as being a good leader that was loving, humble, teachable and ready to talk about the hard things when no one else would. Though these traits are all admirable and crucial to excellent leadership, the thing that impacted me most was one girl who got up and shared her memories of Ray.

“I don’t really know Ray at all,” she said. “In fact, he may not even know who I am, but that doesn’t matter, because I am here to say how he touched my life without ever directly interacting with me. I am close to those that were close to Ray. I would often hear my friends say how Ray, ‘gave me great advice,’ or ‘really helped me work through difficult situations and decisions,’ or that Ray had ‘taught me an invaluable lesson.’ Ray had an impact on each of these lives and in turn, had an impact on my life.”

That’s trickle-down leadership.  Have you ever considered that your leadership touches more than your immediate team? You may have a team or a network of 5 people. If they each take something they have learned or benefited from you and they tell one or two other people, you have now touched at least 15 people. Now imagine it’s time for you to move on to a different company, those 15 people you have touched are now responsible for touching others in the company–the “newbies” if you will. As a result, your leadership does not only touch those you work directly with, it can have the potential to trickle-down in through your sphere of influence and into their spheres of influence. Your leadership has the ability to stand the test of time and trickle down through the cycles in the workplace or through the generations of your family.

Ray had touched people in this organization for 20 years. Individuals from his early years that were no longer a member of the organization came back to say “thanks” to Ray. Each of those people that had a story to share at Ray’s goodbye celebration certainly shared their stories with others. It only takes one person to influence a life. It is possible for one person to change the world one life at a time.

The question is, what are you doing to make your leadership worth continuing? Have you impacted the lives of those you lead in such a way that their friends, who have never met you, could say they have been impacted by your influence? Is the way you are leading going to be trickled down, or are you merely leading for the here and now?

Ryan Vet

Thanks for stopping by my blog! A bit about me, I’m an entreprenuer, author
and speaker. This gives me the opportunity to travel the globe. Plus, I get to host a TV series called Sip’d and I’m a Sommelier and wine enthusiast.

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