Developing the Leader within You: Influence

INFLUENCE

Simply put, leadership is influence. Influence to gain followers and respect, not just influence to get a position. And as the average person influences over ten thousand people in their lifetime, the question is really what kind of influencer will you be. The truth is that leadership opportunities are plentiful and within reach of most people.

Robert Dilenschneider, the CEO of Hill and Knowlton, a worldwide public relations agency is one of the major influence brokers in the world. He believes that influence is gained through a power triangle. The three components of this triangle are communication, recognition, and influence. Communicating effectively leads to recognition and recognition to influence. But communicating effectively is the key to gaining influence anywhere.

There are five levels of leadership: position, permission, production, people development, personhood. These levels are not independent, but rather like building blocks. If the foundations do not remain strong, neither will leadership at higher levels.

Position is the entry level of leadership- the only level of leadership that comes with a title or authority is gained from position. However, real leadership is not just having authority, more than having the technical training to do a job, more than just the know how. Real leaders know the difference between being the boss and being a leader. For instance, a leader coaches his team, a boss drives his workers. The boss says "I", the leader says "we". The boss knows how it was done, the leader shows how. Positional leaders base their security on title, not talent, this level is often gained by appointment, and people will not follow a positional leader beyond their stated area of authority.

The permission level of leadership is simply explained, but not simply learned. Leadership is about getting people to work for you when they are not obligated to do so. This level of leadership is built on interrelationships. If people cannot build lasting, solid relationships, they will not be able to sustain lasting leadership. You may love people without leading them, but you cannot truly lead people without loving them.

There is one difference between the permission level and the next level of leadership- production, but it is extremely important. On the permission level, people get together just to get together. On the production level, people get together to achieve something. They become results oriented. Good things begin to happen on this level: profit increases, morale is high, and needs are being met.

Level four, people development, is the telling point of good leaders. Leaders are extremely varied in talent and intelligence, but this is the key point at which they succeed. A leader becomes great not because of his or her ability, but because of their ability to empower people. Success without a successor is failure. Loyalty to a leader reaches its highest peak when the follower has grown personally under the mentorship of the leader. There is a clear progression to this level of leadership. At the permission level, the follower loves the leader. At the production level, the follower admires the leader, and at the people development level, the follower grows under and is loyal to the leader. The core leaders around you should be people who you have personally developed or touched in some way, but it is important to remember that there may people outside of that circle in the organization who view you only as a position leader. Continue to be a people developer by walking slowly through the crowd and developing key leaders.

Level five is personhood and is only obtained after years of proven leadership. People follow a leader at this level because of who they are and what they represent.