Influence

Influence is a leadership principle that has improved over time in my career. A mentor early in my career shared the power of influence and the impact of a leader’s actions. She shared the importance of understanding all points of view and in an interaction. Specifically, the power to influence short-term and long-term change in all situations, based on your action and reaction. The role at the time was a customer service agent responsible for handling calls from dissatisfied customers. The goal was to assure the customer that the information provided would create change. It was echoed ten years later by another mentor during a performance evaluation. A leader’s direct responsibility is to develop and influence your team through your actions.

Influence and leadership, leading by example, is my approach. Over the years, I have successfully established the bar as an operations leader, leveraging collaboration and advocacy to get to conformity. I take personal accountability to lead teams to successful business outcomes and create a workplace culture for employees to thrive and deliver consistent service.

Ethics and integrity, doing the right thing for the right reason. Never have I rested on the authority that comes with a title. The approach has continually been establishing consistency through my actions and establishing credibility by demonstrating core values in all interactions.

A behavior that I have often witnessed and have experienced personally is a leader looking to influence and has not taken a single step towards developing or supporting the individual. I have always taken personal responsibility for the success and failure of the employees I lead—six principles of influence that are my go-to over my career.

·        Lead by example

·        Be consistent

·        Be an advocate, Empower

·        Present what is in it for them

·        Propose negative and positive outcomes

·        Focus on long-term behavior changes

I share my approach to influencing behavior through empowerment and advocacy; I hope this inspires you to examine your approach to influence and leadership.