Leading with Influence

Do you find as a leader that, to get things done, you tend to use your authority in your position to be able to tell people what you want them to do? 

That's certainly where I was throughout my military and corporate career and it never seemed to get the result I needed from working with people.  

If that's you, stick with me because this week, I want to help you look at it a different way and do things in a way that people end up wanting to do what you want them to do.  

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, VUCA Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach. And today, I want to continue our conversation around relationship management competencies by helping you to lead with influence.

Influence is totally different to power.  

Power is something you have, while influence is something you do.  

Many people have realised over their career that it's not about telling, it's about showing.  

I certainly learned that late in my career.  

People want you to demonstrate what you want them to do. They want to feel like they're a part of it, and that's what influence is all about.  

There's a great book that I've read by Robert Cialdini called “The Power of Influence”, and he steps through these six facets of influence that really help you to lead people in a way where they want to go along with the journey with you.  

Just like everything else, he wrote that book in a positive way to help people to eliminate conflict and stress, and all the challenges that come with leadership. However, you could use those same six principles to manipulate, and that's not what we're talking about here.  

A leader is someone who wants to help you get where you are going so that, collectively, you all end up where you need to end up. It’s not about telling them and having that power over them; it's about sharing a collective goal that you're all working on together.  

Collaboration is one of the key elements of teamwork, and for you to lead a collaborative team, you'd need to use this thing called influence.  

So, what I want to do today is just unpack some key elements that I think you need to look at to become a more influential leader. And although you still hold the power, you don't need to use it. Using that stick of power is very much old-school. It's back from the industrial age when there was a manager who lorded over everybody and knew everything about everything while nobody knew anything except what they were told to do. 

In this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world that we live in right now, that doesn't work. In fact, it didn't work all that well back then. So, you want to make sure that you are the type of leader that people want to follow, where they get up in the morning and go to work happy and ready to serve — using the skills and the gifts and the talents that they've got — a leader that cares about them.  

So, let's consider five key ideas around this area of influence.  

Number one is communication.  

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Grant Herbert (aka The People Builder) describes himself as an ordinary guy, with an outstanding wife and 5 amazing kids, who has a passion to help people escape the performance trap and regain their authenticity in every area of life. He is a VUCA Leadership Mentor, Sustainable Performance Coach, Master Coach Trainer in Social and Emotional Intelligence, and the founder of People Builders.

Visit www.grantherbert.com to find out how you can connect.