The Ripple Effect: As a Leader, What Kind of Ripples are You Sending?

You’ve heard it before, the ripple effect. You’ve seen it, probably every time you’ve visited a lake or local pool. You drop something in, like a rock, or you dive in head first, or a fish jumps and causes a ripple without you touching anything. Something hits the water and a circle appears. It starts out small and gets bigger. Sometimes the ripples are small and sometimes, they take over the whole body of water.

The Cambridge dictionary defines a “ripple” as “a small wave or a slight movement of a surface, especially the surface of water.”

Likewise, the Merriam Webster dictionary defines “ripple effect” as “a spreading, pervasive, and usually unintentional effect or influence."

That’s leadership. And you don’t have to have that job title to prove it. If you influence the people around you, you are considered a leader.

As a leader, what you throw in the water has a ripple effect. Every word you say, every email you write, your smile, your handshake, everything that you put into the universe has a ripple effect. The question is, what are you putting in the water? Is it something positive to help the environment or is it something toxic to hurt the living creatures that live inside?

Wave 1 of the Ripple Effect: How a Leader Affects Managers and Other Leaders

When a ripple effect begins during your career, it can first hit those who hold power. It can be managers or it can be people who others tend to follow or look up to. What you say and do resonates, it is retained and perhaps even scrutinized. What kind of an impression do you want the other leaders around you to have about you as a leader?

Your thoughts and words create a ring around it, and that ring grows. It is how people view you and remember you. The rings around you create a legacy. Your legacy can create your career and build you up or they can tear you down.

When you see yourself in the mirror, what kind of reputation do you want portrayed to the managers and leaders around you?

Is your ripple effect causing stress for those around you? Take a look at the statistics and find out why it is such a big problem. Positive cultures are more productive, it’s true! According to an article by the Harvard Business Review, the expenses for health care at organizations with high-pressure are almost 50% more than compared to other companies. Additionally, the American Psychological Association has estimated that 550 million days of work are lost every year because of job-related stress and that the US economy has siphoned off over $500 billion due do to on the job stress. Yikes.

Wave 2 of the Ripple Effect: How a Leader Affects Colleagues

Remember, with what I call “leadership ripples,” good puts out good and bad puts out bad. When you set a good example, when you are kind, professional, diplomatic, helpful…it grows. You may not think about it at the time, but you’ll see if you look hard enough at the people around you.

Negative behavior creates bad “leadership ripples.” When you’re angry, unprofessional, insulting, mean, unhappy…it hurts the people around you. You create a vibe or feeling. It makes the people around you feel unsettled. If you’re not careful, too much can be dangerous enough to cause employee turnover or the stress can just build up and eat away at people. Be very aware of negative “leadership ripples.” Regardless if it is in your job title, negative behavior needs to be addressed, nipped in the bud and removed from your company culture.

If you don’t think it is such a big issue, just check out the numbers and look at the research. Dr. Judy Blando from the University of Phoenix conducted research that proved almost 75% of employees that took a survey were somehow affected by workplace bullying. 75% were affected as either a witness or a target.

According to a recent Forbes article, when targeted by a workplace bully, a victim can lose confidence and incur an increase in stress. Increased stressed can lead to help problems. In turn, this can lead to a reduction in performance. Even if you want to look the other way, is this really a mistake that companies can afford to make? With workplace bullying, your ripple effect is causing harm to both your people and your bottom-line, which is why it is so crucial to send out more positive waves than negative both far and wide.

Wave 3 of the Ripple Effect: How a Leader Affects Customers

As with the famous quote by Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group, remember: “Take care of your employees and they'll take care of your business.”

A company isn’t a company without customers. Customers bring more than just cash flow, they talk about your company. They refer your company. They breathe life into your company. You create a service or product with your customer in mind, and sometimes you have to change the way you do business to stay relevant to your customers.

It is your employees that serve your customers. Their personality, attitudes, and work output are for your customers. If you want to keep customers and build your customer base, you will need your employees to help. Look at their ripples, what kind of rings around them are they creating? How did you start the ripples?

The million dollar question is how did your ripples affect your employees’ ripple to create an effect that offers a superior customer experience? That alone is some food for thought.

What Does Your Ripple Effect Say About You as a Leader?

According to Maximus Decimus Meridius, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” The way people perceive you is your reputation, and your reputation becomes your legacy.

It’s what people say about you when you’re not around and how they remember you as a person. Do you want the people that you work with to say that you were a good leader or a bad leader? The “ripple effect” you make is up to you. Choose wisely. Inspire. Be the type of leader everyone respects and looks up to. Be the type of leader that people want to follow along with and your ripple effect will spread far and wide, maybe even across the world, if you try hard enough.

What about you, the reader? Your ripple effect surrounds you. If you are a leader and want to make a difference for those who surround you, start your ripple today with a little bit of good and watch it grow. 

This article was published on Revia Digital. Check out more articles here.