Leadership guru, John Maxwell, says that “Leadership is
influence and influence is leadership, nothing more, nothing less.” Many
people mistakenly think that leadership is a title. Titles may give a
person some prestige or artificial power, but true leadership involves
the amount of influence that a person has. Maxwell further states that a
leader without followers is just a person going for a long walk.
Great leaders are influential. People want to follow great leaders.
You don’t have to have a title to be influential. People are willing to
be led and influenced by others if they feel that the leader can take
them where they want to go.
Your team captain, your boss, your political representative may not
be a strong leader because they aren’t influential. They may have
perceived power because of their title but they are lacking in the
influence area. They might not have the charisma or the character or the
results that people are looking for. They might not connect with
others.
What does all of this mean for you? Some of you reading this do not
have a title. Some of you may feel that you are not important. However,
everyone has the ability to influence someone. You have the ability to
make positive choices. You have the ability to be enthusiastic. You have
the ability to be trustworthy. Essentially, you have the ability to be a
person of character that others believe in.
If you are one of the harder workers on a team and you are
successful, that will speak loudly. If you add value to people’s lives,
they will be indebted to you. If others know that you truly care about
them, they will be loyal to you.
The world around us needs strong leadership now more than ever. You
may not be THE leader, THE boss or THE captain but you can be a leader.
Everyone has a scope of influence. At the very least, you can influence
yourself.
Years ago when I was coaching, I had a team that decided they would
run sprints for every turnover that they committed in the game the night
before. They did this for the first game. However, after having a
number of turnovers in the second game, the captains decided they didn’t
want to run any more. I asked a freshman after the game why she didn’t
run even though she had committed to doing so. Her response was as you
would expect…no one else was doing it so why should she? She went on say
that she was only a freshman and had no pull with the other girls. I
then pointed out that her two best-friends were on the team and that
surely they would have run with her. One of those girls also is close
with another team member, who might be good friends with another team
member and so on. The law of influence multiplied out might have
affected the majority of the team. Doing what is right has to start
somewhere. Why not be the one to start it.
If you want to be a true leader, you will want to “Lead yourself…Influence others…Change the world around you.” As www.U-Leadership.com
says, “Leadership begins with U”. Lead yourself first. Be the person
that you need to be. Only then can you truly influence others. Once you
influence others, that is when we start to see real change in the world.
As Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
It starts with you.
Jamy Bechler is the executive director of U-Leadership and a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Speaker and Coach. Contact him at CoachBechler@CoachBechler.com to find out how you or your team can be more successful.
Jamy Bechler is the executive director of U-Leadership and a John Maxwell Certified Leadership Speaker and Coach. Contact him at CoachBechler@CoachBechler.com to find out how you or your team can be more successful.
