3 Traits Guaranteed to Amplify Your Influence Today

Disconnection invites skepticism – skepticism blocks influence.

The tools of disconnected leadership are manipulation and coercion.

connection is the conduit of influence

Connection is the conduit of influence.

The battle to connect is lost when people wonder what’s going on in your head and heart.

Three traits that amplify influence:

Transparency, candor, and humility amplify influence by enabling connection.

#1. Transparent leaders express their intentions. Hidden intention is manipulation. Manipulation invites resistance, deception, and foot-dragging.

Manipulative leaders may get things done, but they never get the best from others.

Reconnect with intention in order to express it. Intention gets lost in the fog of getting things done. It’s easy to run around like a headless chicken forgetting why you’re working so hard.

Reconnect with intention by climbing out of the weeds.

  1. What are you really doing?
  2. What’s important to you?
  3. What’s the best you want for yourself and others?
  4. What’s driving you? (Accept that ego is part of the mix.)

Warning! Transparency without aspiration and accountability results in indulgence. Leadership is about bringing your best self, not your indulgent self. Apart from aspiration and accountability, “I’m just being me,” suggests there’s no room for growth.

#2. Candid leaders tell people what they really think, while maintaining optimism. If the job is challenging, say, “This is going to be tough. I believe in you.” If you’re disappointed in someone’s performance, say, “I’m disappointed. I think you have more in you.”

Leadership candor is confronting cold realities with optimism. The difference between a leader and a loser is realistic optimism. (Pie in the sky thinking doesn’t instill confidence in others.)

#3. Humble leaders connect by serving the highest good of others. Self-serving blocks connection. Every time you make yourself look good at the expense of others, you disconnect. Every time you stand with others, especially if it hurts, you connect.

How might leaders be better connectors?

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