<p><a href="http://www.connectitnews.com/">www.connectitnews.com</a> has been posting a series of my articles on their site. Recently they ran this one:</p>
<p>Many Managers Disempower Themselves<br />
Many managers unwittingly believe that leadership only comes down from the top. They give away their power by believing that they don’t have any. Read the whole article <a href="http://www.jimclemmer.com/attitude_and_outlook/many_managers_disempower_themselves_3.php">here.</a></p>
<p>After reading this article, Herb Knudsen shared his insights with me:</p>
<p>“I totally agree with your premise about managers disempowering themselves.</p>
<p>I served in a high power/low authority position at Standard Oil of Ohio in the early 1980’s. I never demanded. I developed eminently reasonable proposals, circulated them to the as many people as possible who had an interest and an opinion that would be important to the manager with authority.</p>
<p>I always asked each person or group for comments, changes and improvements to the proposal. After the proposal had the support of everyone, I took it to the manager with authority and asked for his comments, changes, improvements and approval. My success rate was very high. Networking rather than demands could be a superior recommendation.”</p>
<p>Best regards,<br />
Herb</p>
<p>Herbert D. Knudsen, President<br />
Ogallala Comfort Company<br />
<a href="www.ogallalacomfortcompany.com">www.ogallalacomfortcompany.com</a><br />
<a href="www.ogallalaescapes.com">www.ogallalaescapes.com</a></p>
<p>Herb’s examples illustrate that leadership is an action, not a position. He also provides a good example of the type of upward leadership we see with highly effective people – regardless of their role or position. You can find more articles on Serving, Influencing, and Leading Upward at <a href="http://www.jimclemmer.com/serving_influencing_and_leading_upward_title/serving_influencing_and_leading_upward.php">http://www.jimclemmer.com/serving_influencing_and_leading_upward_title/serving_influencing_and_leading_upward.php.</a> One of the articles in this section (<a href="http://www.jimclemmer.com/attitude_and_outlook/assessing_our_ability_to_influence_others.php">“Assessing Our Ability to Influence Others”</a>) features our Influence Index assessment. You can read about it in this article and complete the assessment at<br />
<a/href'="http://www.jimclemmer.com/quizzes/the_influence_index_14.php">http://www.jimclemmer.com/quizzes/the_influence_index_14.php.</a></p>
