Pause and Think:
What would change if you had more influence? At work? At home?
“There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or influence. Those who lead us inspire us.” ~ Simon Sinek
Leadership is Influence
Do you believe the person with the most influence, in any given situation, at any given time is the leader of the group? Notice, I didn’t ask if the person with the most power, the highest rank, or the biggest title is the leader of the group. Think about the question deeply for a moment.
Forget all the questions that may be popping into your mind as you consider your answer. Keep your thoughts simple. If you have the most influence among a group of people, are you the leader of the group? Yes or no? Without a doubt, the person with the most influence is always the leader.
Do you believe you will be better off with more or less influence? Personally? Professionally? What would change in both areas if your influence increased?
My mentor, John C. Maxwell said it best, “Leadership is influence. Nothing more. Nothing less.” The person with the most influence is the leader of the pack. The word influence can be used in place of the word leadership at any time. They are synonyms. Train yourself to use them interchangeably. But most importantly, when you speak with others, be sure to define leadership as influence to help them better understand they too are leaders, regardless of whether or not they have a formal position.
My belief that everything rises and falls on influence led me to write an entire book on influence, Demystifying Leadership Series: Defining Influence. In Defining Influence, I help the reader discover many principles of influence and fully understand that everyone has influence. Therefore, based on my belief in John C. Maxwell’s definition of influence, everyone is a leader.
The question is not, “Are you a leader?” But rather, “What kind of leader are you?” And most importantly, “What type of leader do you want to become?” How far do you want to grow?
Are you intentionally working to increase your influence? Should you be?
What would happen if your influence increased in every situation? Would your life be better? Would the life of those around you be better? Would you achieve better results? Would your income be more likely to increase? Would you have more options?
Increasing your influence always increases your options.
Consider the last time you were mad, sad, upset, or frustrated at home or at work. Was it because you had too much influence or not enough?
Consider a time when you needed help with a project and couldn’t get it. Was it because you had too much influence or not enough?
I believe everything we ever achieve will be based on the amount of influence we have with others. However, I also believe in order to develop our influence with others, we first must influence ourselves. We must lead ourselves well before we can lead others well. If we want to lead better, we must be better. We must become higher level leaders than we are today.
Note: I encourage you to share my blog posts with others if you find value in them. I believe in abundance and write my blogs to help others become more effective and successful. Click here to receive a free download of “Get Out of the Way and Lead” and to subscribe to my email list to receive periodic leadership lessons.
