Increasing Our Influence

Leadership is influence. It’s not about your title, your tenure, or your talents. It’s influence. We hear that, and logically we believe it… but do we act on it? And how do we increase our influence, anyway?

Before we can maximize influence, we need to start with understanding the five levels of leadership. This is one of the foundations of Maxwell Leadership, and in a nutshell, it’s recognizing that your growth in leadership builds one step on top of the other—position, permission, production, people development, pinnacle. Once we know the levels and how they build on each other, we’re ready to embrace influence.

There are a number of ways we can develop influence among those around us, but let’s start with two main buckets: internal steps and external steps. I think these two buckets can guide us in the right direction, setting us on a growth course of influence.

Internal Steps

These are the things we can focus on in ourselves, characteristics that we can develop that naturally attract influence as we grow.

Here are a few internal characteristics we should start with, since we’re not able to give what we don’t have!

1. INTEGRITY: MATCHING YOUR WALK WITH YOUR TALK.
This isn’t just being honest or having high character; it’s practicing what you preach to your team and those around you. People notice when we don’t practice what we preach, and it crushes our credibility and influence. It has to matter to us that we do what we say, because it matters to those around us.

2. LISTENING: BECOMING AN ACTIVE LISTENER.
This is so key in building influence. When you value what people say, they value you. It’s that simple. Giving people space to process, to ask questions, and to hear what’s really being said behind the actual words spoken is an emotionally intelligent characteristic that is rare but valued higher than almost anything else.

3. UNDERSTANDING: APPRECIATING OTHER POINTS OF VIEW.
Are you able to understand points of view that are different from yours? Or do you listen only so you can debate and argue your side? Are you able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to see where they are coming from? Developing understanding goes a long, long way in becoming influential.

Add Consistency and Self-Awareness

Consistency breeds trust. If we want to expand our influence, we must show up the same way across all environments. That doesn’t mean we never grow—it means people can rely on our character no matter the situation. The more emotionally aware and grounded we are, the more dependable our leadership becomes. And dependable leaders become trusted leaders.

External Steps

These are the characteristics that will help grow those around us, thereby increasing our influence.

A few we should focus on are:

1. ENLARGING: HELP OTHERS BECOME BIGGER.
There’s a true joy in helping people find and then fulfill their true potential. Knowing their career aspirations, family aspirations, goals, and dreams, and then doing what I can to help advance them, is not only a pleasure, but it also builds influence! It helps others know you care about them holistically, not just professionally.

2. CONNECTING: INITIATING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS.
We have to touch hearts before we can guide hands. Connecting with others before asking anything from them is vital to building influence. There is power in truly knowing and caring for others—not to be manipulative or to get them to do something, but because it benefits the collective.

3. EMPOWERING: SECURE LEADERS GIVE POWER TO OTHERS.
Do you want to see things work without you, or see things work because of you? An insecure leader has trouble letting go of power, but a secure leader realizes success can happen because of their influence, regardless of if they are present or not.

Build Influence Through Consistent Action

We don’t develop influence overnight. It grows through a pattern of consistent behaviors—especially when no one’s watching. Influence grows every time we keep a promise, respond with patience, or recognize someone’s effort. Those daily, seemingly small decisions shape how others experience our leadership over time.

Everyone deserves to be led well. But our motives for why we want to lead and have influence have to be pure. And in order to create powerful, positive change with our people, our teams, our families, and our organizations, we have to have the right motive around influence.

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