“ They key to successful leadership today is Influence, not Authority” Kenneth Blanchard.
I assume most of us are familiar with the word “Influencer”. I became acquainted with it a couple of years ago, through the scope of its current meaning, in light of all the digital eco-system we live in nowadays. Audience, followers, social media strategy, digital etiquette, expertise – this all builds up the world of influencer, its market share.
For me, it’s both exciting and challenging, the idea of being an Influencer and the way you can become one. I would say that expertise, self-discipline, focus, passion and regularity are one of the main features of strategy in order to become an Influencer. Passion will make it all come true much easier as well as leadership skills.
Beyond doubt, both concepts imply presence of power as one of the fundamental factors. The bigger is your audience, the more followers you get, the more powerful you will become, what in turn makes you very influential, strengthening your position as a leader. Helping others is the vital path to achieve power. As Chris Brogan says:
“One thing that helps one become influential is to work on helping others rise up.”
These statements evoke some quotes on leadership such as: ” A true leader helps others to become leaders” and “a true leader inspires, motivates and helps to reveal potential”.
A true leader is also a good listener with real interest to peoples’ needs.
Looking at Leadership through the point of view of Influence needs to be multi-directional. Not only Manager, Directors and Executives influence employees, but also colleagues can influence each other , and employees can influence the direction upwards.
As suggested by John Hall, CEO of Influence & Co. there are many ways to help others, but we can summarize these in five ways :
1. Recognize the good work of others.
2. Bring business their way
3. Volunteer your time
4. Share your knowledge by solving common problems everyone might have.
5. Give feedback that will potentially improve peoples’ business.
This strategy wins gratitude of people and positions you as a powerful Influencer with knowledge, resources and credibility.
9 suggestions to become an influential and powerful leader Intelligenthq
Should you wait for someone to confirm an Influencer in you? Not at all. Be bold in your intention. As Peter Drucker says: ” I’m more interested in people than I am in how businesses work”.
Show your interest in people, in your followers, engage, respond, mentor. Transfer your passion from getting expertise into sharing your knowledge. And be bold in that. As Dan Rockwell suggests, my favorite “leadership freak”: “I don’t care who you are or what you do. Be a mentor. Have a mentor”.
You can help and mentor people by following a certain set of steps. By following these suggestions you will position yourself as an Influential and powerful Leader:
1. Define the landscape
2. Expose it – define opportunities
3. Clarify strengths and capabilities
4. Identify incorrect assumptions
5. Encourage, inspire actions
6. Help to find right strategy
7. Affirm results. Success fuels motivation and defines direction.
8. Point out wasted effort. It is important to stop if there is no result.
9. Gentle accountability as an agreement of your mentoring relationships, not a dictatorship.
Leadership and Influence (part 2)
Fidan Aliyeva is a VP of R&D for ztudium. She is specialised in leadership, strategy, Innovation, People Management, behavioural economics, digital transformation. She writes for intelligenthq.com, openbusinesscouncil.org and hedgethink.com. Fidan Aliyeva’s background experience is in senior level leadership, project management, having coordinated operations for ztudium holdings and its multiple platforms and projects since 2011. With a career background in international Energy, Oil and Gas industry, Fidan has been working with big energy Multinationals close to CEOs and Boards project managing global projects. Fidan has an MBA in Oil and Gas Management from the University of Dundee, Scotland. In the last years she has been working, researching and writing about micro and macro trends in business, energy, oil and gas industries. She has a passion for leadership, strategy, geopolitical, environmental, tech and other global regulatory concerns with interest in behavioural psychology. Her current study involves EnioStyle – brand new socio-cultural theory on informational metabolism, psyche-typing, energy-informational exchange between people and nature based on analytical psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, transactional analysis and socionics. Application of EnioStyle to business challenges as a decision-making technique – is her new frontier for exploration.
