1. Leadership is influence, nothing more nothing less. Harry Over-street says, "There very essence of all power to influence lies in getting other persons to participate". So when we lead people we influence people. So many a time we take leadership as title or office or a job description. "He that thinks he leadeth but has no one following is only taking a walk", the proverb goes.
2. Our influence with others usually is not in all areas. It is imperative to know we can influence people in certain areas, but in some areas not influence them at all. Most leaders think that because they are leaders they must have the ability to influence every other area of people's lives. Far from the truth! "No leader does well in every law of relationship", teaches Maxwell in the book "21 Laws of leadership". He advises that when one gets his/her leadership team, find out your strengths and weaknesses in you and every other member of the team. Maybe a member is a stronger navigator able to take the team or organization from step 1 step 2 with minimal resources than the overall leader. Then the overall leader should turn the role of navigation to the member. This is important the moment we understand leadership is influence and not position. Those who tend to think leadership is position tend to want to lead everything. "If you're not strong on an area, by holding on to the role then all you're doing is taking a walk down the memory lane", he advises. The moment we understand that leadership is not position but influence, then we must list our perceived strengths and weaknesses, and move around asking others what they think our strength and weaknesses are. We do not tell them!
3. With influence comes responsibility. "There are people whose feelings of well-beings are within my influence, and as a leader won't escape that fact", is what leadership echoes. When we lead people we must understand that we are responsible for them, and some times to them.
4. Your influence with others is either positive or negative. In other words, when we influence people, we either add value to them or suck the life out of them. There are some people we wish we never met during the day while there are some when we are having a bad day we just wish we could see them. The latter influence us positively while the former negatively. When we view ourselves as leaders we ask ourselves whether people like to be around us or avoid us.
5. People of positive influence add value to others. Success is when I add value to myself. Significance is when we add value to other people.
B. 10 Ways to Gain Influence.
1. Integrity with people.
People who influence others have integrity. Dwight Hines writes, "In order to be a leader a man must have followers, and to have followers I must have confidence. Hence the supreme quality of a leader is integrity; and without it no real success is possible whether in a football field or office". A leader's teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need therefore is integrity and great purpose. A recent survey in USA of 1,300 senior managers; 70% of them put the highest quality of the person they work with in a company to be integrity.
Influencers have integrity. Sometime ago in their mission statement Johnson & Johnson Ltd had stated that they would operate with honesty and integrity. Any several weeks before that had forced them to pull one of their products off the shelves. The president of Johnson & Johnson sent a memo to all presidents of divisions asking them if they believed in the mission statement. This came back in the affirmative, and within hours the president of the company ordered all the products off the shelves, knowing it was a USD 100 million decision. When reporters asked him how he could decide rapidly such a decision; he replied, "I was practicing what we'd agreed on our mission statement". It's always easy to do right when you know ahead of time what you stand for", observed one intellectual.
In the book, "21 Laws of Leadership", one of the laws is the "law of solid ground". It states that to have integrity, one needs character, you also need confidence.
Abraham Lincoln once stated, "At the end of my administration I want to have one friend left, and that friend is myself". Doubtlessly he meant his integrity. A renowned American baseball coach states, "Do what's right. And if you can't treat others as you'd want to be treated, they'll ask three questions: one, Can I trust you? Two, Do you believe this? I.e. are you committed to it? Three, Do you care about me as a person?"
2. Nurture people.
There is a nurturing quality about people who influence other people. Unfortunately many leaders love their position more than they love their people. However people can be very exasperating. When leading the children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, Moses soon discovered that-he was leading a people drawn on rebellion and strife; inducing a great anger in him to the extent of fidgeting the LORD God at the water of Meribah. And thereby causing him the promised land (Numbers 20:2-12&24).
Nurturing people however does not mean needing people. A lot of leaders think because they are nurturers they need people. You can't lead people if you need people. Nurturing means making commitment to people. The saying goes, "Love will find a way, but indifference will find excuse". Nurturing does not mean loving people. Henry Draman once quipped, "If you look back at your life, you'll find the moments you rarely lived were the moments you had done things in the spirit of love". Nurturing people also means lifting people to a higher level. An American football coach says in this regard, "Deep down your players must know you care about them. I could never get away with the things I do if the players didn't know that I care. They know in the long run I'm in their corner.
3. Have faith in people.
When this happens leaders soon loose their positions. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", hasted a historian. Good people ascend to high office but are soon corrupted by their positions. However leaders of influence understand that the position they have is not what makes them a leader, but the caring for, and nurturing of their people.
Emerson says, "Every man is entitled to be valued by his best moments". Before we marry we evaluate the person we're in love with through through the best of eyes". Perspective is the difference between the person we're engaged to, and the person we're married to. None of us is good enough to survive a relationship if our mates decides to see us through our bad traits. And nobody wants to be judged at their worst moments. "Leaders however not only see people as they are; they see them as they become", asserts Maxwell. "This is what makes people want to be around them because they see that potential in them. The saying goes, "Asserts makes things possible but people make things happen". Maxwell teaches that if you are to become a leader of the people there are three things that you must avoid:
a). Fear: When you become fearful for your people, you will manipulate them, but not lead them.
b). Dislike: Leaders who dislike their people always take advantage of them.
c). Contempt: When you have contempt for the people you lead you will not lead them well. In fact you are afraid of people you will not handle them! You will always want to leave them intact. When you show contempt to a person, you will not respect that person. The first responsibility of a leader is to look at a people and have faith in them. For those who believe in us we do everything in our power not to disappoint them. Maxwell advice to leaders is: "Look t the people you're leading, and give them the reputation to uphold by talking about something they do that's successful. When you tell everyone in your team how good they are, you're giving them a reputation for everyone to uphold. Look at the good qualities about the person you're leading and put a bar up there. Talk about that person, and relate that quality of that person to others". Of course, when we do this we must be sure the people we are talking to people about possess that quality; otherwise we loose credibility with that person. This we do not have to do only on the organization level; we need to do this inside our very homes. Leaders see the potential in people, let others know about it, and that literally draws people up.
4. Listen to people.
Paul Titus says, "The first duty of love is to listen". People like to talk about issues expecting someone to tell them how to solve them. But more often people do not want answers; they just expect someone to listen. To climb the ladders of listening, follow the letters LADDER:
L-Look at the speaker because meanings are not in words, but are in people. So give them visual contact.
A-Ask questions.the quickest way of becoming a good listener is by asking the speaker questions.
D-Do not interrupt the speaker.
D-Do not change the subject of the speaker. For listening is wanting to hear.
E-Emotions are to be put on check always.
R-Responsive listening is what you must stand for i.e. let the speaker know that you are listening, that you are hanging there with them. People think that leaders are always telling; but that is not true. Leaders are always listening to hearts of their people. Leaders are readers of people.
5. Understand people.
An influencer understands people. In the book "Climbing the Executive Ladder", the author writes, "Few things will pay dividend than the time you take to understand people. Almost nothing will add more to your stature as an executive person; nothing will give you greater satisfaction or bring more happiness". Listening and understanding people however is very difficult, because of cultural and language barriers. Though physically and mentally exhausting, we must however try and give it everything we have got! Try to understand everything we have got! Try to understand where they are, try to get into their head and think as they do. And this is not easy. Mental and emotional exhaustion of trying to listen and understand people is great. To understand the mind of a person, look at what he/she has already achieved. To understand the heart of a person, look at what he/she dreams of becoming. To connect with people ask these three questions:
i. What do you laugh about?
ii. What do you cry about?
Iii. What do you dream about?
When you know the heart of a person, you know how they feel. If you know their mind, you know how they think. When you know their strengths, you know what they do well. And when you know their weakness, you know what they do not do well. If you know all these you will go leading people successfully. Norman writes, "There are two reasons why relationships fail; fear which causes us to erect barriers; and selfishness which causes us to focus on ourselves instead of others. Fear and selfishness are the two greatest reasons why relationships fail. The Kansas Agricultural Advertising Agency sums it up, thus, "I you hire us, you'll get your boots money. We'll walk with you in the fields. We'll get deeply involved in your business as you were. And we will fully understand your problem before we can try and create an advertising solution for you". And, I understand the old money boots just works. The first five steps of gaining influence on people deal with our attitude, while the last five below ate action issues.
6. Enlarge people.
Influencers have the ability to enlarge people. The adage goes, "To grow an organization, grow people. And to grow people, grow yourself". Enlarging others begins with enlarging yourself first. What you have is what you give. When you are empty, you cannot enlarge anyone.
Essentials to enlarging others:
i. Place a high value on people
ii. A personal commitment to growth.
iii. A personal commitment to add value to others.
iv. Your ability to communicate your belief in others
v. The ability to stretch them.
vi. Your highest joy is others' success
In his book, "The Success Journey", Job.C.Maxwell teaches that success is three things: knowing your purpose in life, growing to maximum potential, and sowing seeds of success to others. You cannot be termed as successful until you pour your life into others.
7. Navigate People.
An influencer helps people in the journey by navigating for them. Anyone can steer the ship but it takes the captain to chart its course. When being mentored, obey the leader, as he/she knows the trouble spots before you get there. A leader knows more than the people around him or her. They see more than the people see. A leader is one who sees farther ahead than others would. A leader is also someone who sees before others see. That means that a leader must be wise!
8. Connect with people.
An influencer connects with people. All great leaders have one thing in common, and that is, they connect with people.
Four connecting thoughts:
i. Connecting with people is the leader's responsibility. The locomotive looks for the wagon in the rail yard and not vice versa.
ii. Connecting with people means caring for the people.
Iii. Connecting with people means reading people.
iv. Connecting with people means going for their agenda first.
9. Empower people.
John Creek says, "No matter how much work you can do; no matter how engaging personality,you may be, you cannot advance in business if you cannot work through others. Enlarging others deals with their individual growth. Empowering people means dealing with their organizational growth. Empowerment means several things:
i). Seeing the potential of an individual.
ii). Saying encouraging words to that individual
iii). Sharing your power and position with others
iv). Showing others you believe in them.
Often leaders get into position, and they try everything in their power to hold onto the position and push everyone else down i.e. they play-"king of the mount". However note that when you start pushing your people down; you will always go down with them. But when you raise people up, you will also go up; for you always take the same journey as the people you lead. So dictators must be wearied and worried.
Essentials for empowerment:
i). Find a person worthy of empowerment. Therefore empower with discretion
ii). Clearly lay out their mission and responsibility i.e. know what they are supposed to do
iii). Verbally and visually show your support.
iv). Keep an open door relationship with them
v). Give them public credit when successful
10. Reproduce other people.
An influencer reproduces other people. An influencer has the ability not only to draw people to himself, but also to reproduce them in life. This is what mentoring is all about. Here is how it works: when you influence a child, you influence a life.when you influence a parent, you influence a family. But when you influence a worker you influence an organization, a company, or an institution. And when you influence a leader you influence every other person that looks to him/her for leadership. This is the multiplication power of empowerment itself.
Why does leaders not grow other leaders?
i). They are insecure. This leads to the fear of being dethroned
ii). They spend too much time with the followers.
Iii). Followers are easier to find and lead than leaders. Not only are leaders hard to find; they are also difficult to gather. Leaders always have priorities. And as someone has observed, "Leading leaders is like herding cats".
iv). Leaders do not value the effect of multiplication on leadership.
v). Leadership often is viewed as a competitive effort, and not corporate. This is the huge problem. Right from childhood children are taught that leadership is a competitive effort. The leader must do complicated tasks to remain in leadership, while followers must not spare every effort to try and out do the leader, and thereby take away the leadership.
With this knowledge I trust you have been equipped to step out as a leader in whatever it is you aspire to. God be your strength as you step out to lead your organization, company, institution, or even nation.
