Leadership Competence – Influence

Influencing as a Competency

Influence in a layman’s context is often viewed in a negative connotation – beat a fair process using money or muscle power – political influence, financial influence, etc . But in the Leadership parlance it is seen as a much-needed competence and most of the successful Leaders are influential.

“Influence” as a leadership competency refers to the ability of a leader to positively impact others, persuade them to support their ideas, and gain buy-in from key individuals, essentially meaning the power to affect the behaviour and decisions of others within a team or organization to achieve desired outcomes. It is considered a core element of effective leadership as without the ability to influence, a leader cannot drive change or achieve goals effectively.

As a Leader, one also observes that among the Team Members, some are definitely more influential than the others and are able to leave a lasting impression among the Leader and other Team members. So, it is also a quality for any Team Member, not necessarily only for the Leaders.

Some Key points about influence as a leadership competency:

• Experts consider “influence” to be the very essence of leadership, as it’s the ability to motivate and guide others towards a shared vision.
• Influence goes beyond just using positional power; it involves building trust, credibility, and strong relationships to persuade others.
• Effective communication, including active listening and clear articulation of ideas, is crucial to exert positive influence.
• Understanding and managing one’s own emotions, as well as recognizing and responding to the emotions of others, enhances the ability to influence.

A real example

I remember listening to Padman – Arunachalam Muruganandhan in my office campus years ago. Hailing from a poor family in Tamil Nadu, he innovated on Sanitary Napkins for the bottom of the pyramid, from scratch and went on to be listed among the world’s top 100 influencers by Times Magazine. He was proudly claiming that even with his not so good spoken English, he got the maximum time of 1.5 hours to chat with Bill Gates the then Microsoft CEO. He was challenging our organisation as to how innovation could happen in a room and not out of a desperate need in the Gemba. This is a really appealing example how influential one can get not necessarily out of formal education and professional experience but driven by the need to succeed.

How to demonstrate influence as a leader:

• Articulate a compelling vision:
  Clearly communicate the goals and benefits of a proposed plan to gain buy-in.
• Build relationships:
  Foster trust and rapport with team members by actively listening and showing genuine interest in their perspectives.
• Be Accessible
  Be easily approachable and accessible to your peers and teams.
• Tailor approach to individuals:
  Understand different motivations and communication styles to adapt your influence strategy accordingly.
• Leverage expertise:
  Utilize your knowledge and experience to provide valuable insights and support for others’ ideas. Influencing is also about being able to realise others’ ideas
• Facilitate collaboration:
  Encourage open dialogue and actively involve team members in decision-making processes.

Coaching to influence

Influence as a required competence to be developed is often observed on Coachees either directly or often threaded along with other improvement areas like Assertiveness, leading from the front, Team Player, etc. Influencing helps in all these areas. While influencing comes naturally to some Leaders, it is definitely something that the Coach can help the Coachee to practise and improve through specific exercises and Tools.

Are you influential ?
Test yourself to convince someone or get something done which is in the normal course not straight forward. One of my colleagues from Sales always takes up a challenge on the dining table to make someone eat one count more than what he or she planned or ordered to eat, to prove he is a real Sales guy and he most of the times succeeded.

Practice positive influencing and it’s a great competency to have in all walks of life.