Influence – Sobering Truths and Delightful Opportunities
“… financial advisors are 37% more likely to commit misconduct if they encounter a new co-worker with a history of misconduct.” HBR
“… individuals tend to mirror the food choices of others in their social circles, which may explain one way obesity spreads through social networks.” Harvard Gazette
“When one employee leaves, the departure signals to others that it might be time to take stock of their options, what researchers call ‘turnover contagion.’”
59% consider quitting when a co-worker quits. NYT
Influence:
Acknowledge influence:
You are you, in part, because of others. If I met five of your co-workers before meeting you and all of them hated work…
you probably hate work.
Three responsibilities of influencers:
The opposite of being influenced is responsibility.
Take responsibility for your splash-power – the impact of your presence on others.
What’s true of people after you’re done splashing on them?
#1. Notice the things that influence you.
If you don’t notice your influences, you are controlled by them.
This is as simple as falling prey to click-bate. You wakeup in 15 minutes having forgotten what you were looking for in the first place.
Click-bate is distracting influence. People create it to serve themselves, not you.
Distracting influences dilute the impact of your life.
#2. Choose your influences.
Hang out with people who reflect who you would like to become.
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” Unknown
#3. Be an influence.
- Think more about your impact on others than their impact on you.
- Choose your water. Show up to splash encouragement, insight, and energy on people.
- Like people. See their strengths. Work to help them achieve their goals. Liking is a powerful influencer.
The people who influence you are the people who believe in you. Henry Drummond
Who are the positive influencers on your team? How are you multiplying their impact?
How might leaders maximize their splash-power?
Great post, Dan. I wonder if in future it might be worth visiting the opposite of this? As a leader, what are the things you are doing that are NOT influencing people? You’re running yourself ragged trying to influence and engage people, but nobody else is noticing. Or worse, they ARE noticing and actively tuning you out…
Good morning, Mitch, the topics of negative and positive influence are very interesting to me. Perhaps the challenge is when we stay in our offices all day, we are still influencing people. I suppose one aspect of influence is establishing the norm. I worked for a boss who came in early and stayed late and worked through lunch. Guess what I did? It’s hard to resist the influence of the boss.
Dan, that’s what I mean. People may be noticing the boss working more hours for the same money and actively tuning them out because that’s a lousy bargain for most people!
Good insight as usual Dan. But I think you mean “clickbait”. Have a wonderful day!