Effective Leadership: Becoming a Person of Influence Series

The Importance of Influence in Leadership

When you look at the root causes of many of the crises of today, whether it's national politicians, bosses in the workplace or even family role models, the problems that take place are the result of an inability of leaders to have an effective influence on the outcomes and behavior on those around them.

If you ask different leaders what a good definition of "leadership" might be, you get answers that are startlingly nonspecific. You might think that leaders would have definitions of this trait that are concrete and crisp, but instead you get highly abstract references to things like finding a vision, blazing a trail, modeling, energizing and several other elements of real leadership, but you almost never see any reference to the basic job of any leader: bringing an influence.

Considering that some of the nation's most influential companies have groveled for handouts from the federal government, this vacuum of influence in leadership is particularly worrisome. In most cases, company leaders either have failed to influence employees to build value for customers, as in the American auto industry, or they have had an influence that has motivated employees to take actions that range from unethical to unconscionable. Just one example comes from the misdeeds of the financial sector leading up to the crash of 2008 and 2009. In the wake of that calamity, it should be more than clear that leadership isn't a wacky set of sayings or fuzzy ideas. Leaders must have an intelligent and ethical influence on behavior within their organization. After all, leadership is influence -- nothing more,nothing less.

The good news is that there are some leaders who get it. In some of the workplaces out there, corporate leadership realizes that leadership must be intentional influence. Consider the work of a crew member at a Burger King. He has already performed a lobby check, and all of his condiment stations are full. He doesn't have any dishes to dry, so he has a few minutes of leisure ahead of the lunch rush. One choice would be to stand around and lean against a wall, catching his breath for a minute. The other choice might be to go check the bathrooms and make sure there is toilet paper and they are pleasant. The CEO of Burger King has been an effective leader of this crew member goes the extra distance to ensure that the whole restaurant is pleasant. If the crew member's behavior ends up improving overall results, then the leadership is good. If not, then the leadership needs some work in terms of influence.

One of the biggest issues that leaders handle is that so few of them have come up with a systematic method for contemplating or carrying out influence. There are a lot of complaints about influence, and leaders can all identify behaviors within their organizations that are unproductive or even downright dysfunctional.

Here are three:

Lack of communication. Many times, people in an organization are assigned to a project that they either believe will fail or know will not be successful. Rather than speak up about the problems in the project, though, they were simply silent and let the project founder. People are very perceptive and often can identify weaknesses in ways that management outside the project simply cannot. This lack of communication is one of the causes for project failure more than 85 percent of the time.

Lack of compliance. In American hospitals, more than two million patients will experience infections as a result of their own caregivers. If caregivers would simply wash their hands more regularly, a huge percentage of these infections would not have to happen. Today, compliance (in hand washing) runs somewhere between 30 and 50 percent, meaning that as many as two thirds of caregivers are administering medical care with dirty hands.

Lack of cohesiveness.   A lot of leaders point out that workers within their companies are more likely to support their own department over the needs of the entire company. The problem with this is that if just one department ends up surviving, the rest of the company may well fall apart.  Because so few leaders have the ability to provide a basic definition of the term, it should not be surprising that our leaders are doing a mediocre job. Here are some reasons why leaders have such a hard time bringing their own influence to bear on an organization:

1.         Leaders don't seem to think that addressing old habits is their job. Many leaders spend a lot of time building a strategy, choosing the right products and then wowing major customers and shareholders. However, the most important behavior comes from the people working in the belly of the organization -- the employee. In contrast, the leaders with the most influence spend up to half of their conscious time considering and influencing behaviors that lead to change. The others simply dither around or delegate this "change management" to the HR department, which ends up bringing about disastrous results. It is difficult to expect the benefits representatives and the corporate trainers to bring about real change. If the actual leadership isn't focused on change, it simply isn't coming.

2.       Leaders lack a cogent theory about influence. Even though many leaders pull down a huge salary to alter the behavior of others, many of them simply can't do it. It's not just about making choices; instead, it's about helping people get ready to execute the decision. Leaders must develop some articulate logic for building a way to influence behavior change that is sustainable, rapid and long lasting in order for it to take root.

3.       Leaders think that talking is influencing. A lot of leaders think that true leadership consists of convincing or motivating people to follow a specific course in a certain way. This is why you have so many awful multimedia presentations at training meetings. However, the most insistent problems take more than a nice speech. When a leader orders a nicely printed poster of a Missions and Values statement, that's a nice decorative touch, but it isn't leadership, even if he gives a speech or two while someone else hangs it up.

Ultimately, leadership is about making an intentional decision to change behaviors. This starts with the leader's own behavior and then works its way throughout an organization, leading to meaningful, permanent improvement. If you are interested in becoming a more effective leader, think about bringing in a leadership coach to shadow you and observe your decision making processes. Sometimes an objective third party can bring a fresh perspective to a situation, and a solid leadership coach can point out some wrinkles in your leadership style, making your influence more intentional.

Contact:  Lori Pritchard, BSW, MHA

An Independent Certified Coach, Teacher and Speaker with The John Maxwell Team