I Cry Language Revolution!

There is a tribe of people that rallies behind every leader. Leaders without tribes are just loners. It is the tribe that makes a man or woman into a leader. In the midst of that team, there is always a handful of people that wield just a little bit more influence than the members of the team. What is it that sets those people apart? What makes them different? I’m certainly not the expert, but this is a question that I’ve been asking myself for several weeks now. I have made a few observations, and I’d like to share them with you. I’ve noticed 7 specific things that are true of all the influencers that I see.

They build relationships on purpose. I heard someone say that how he treats the “little guy” is truest test of a leader’s integrity. It is interesting for me to watch the most potent influencers that I see around me spending a substantial amount of time investing in relationships. Some of the most influential people that I know compromise their own productivity in order to spend time building relationships. I have seen that time have an exponential pay off later.

They’re Generous with Praise. With so many things in the world to complain about, the influential people around me always manage to find something to be positive about. They are not irrationally optimistic, but do maximize the things that go well. Generous praise and encouragement goes a long way to minimizing mistakes and imperfections.

They pick their battles. Influential people are realistic about the speed of organizational change. It’s never fast, and influencers prioritize. They pick the most important battles– the ones that can have the greatest impact, and they let the small stuff go. There will be a day for those battles, and the influential people know not to get caught up worrying about when the world will be perfect, and just may their mark on today in the most meaningful way they can.

They intentionally time their input. I have been reminded lately of just how powerful timing can be. I had an idea, and no one seemed to care. I thought it was a winner. It was an idea that would save my organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. I knew it would succeed, but no one seemed to notice my idea. It was brushed aside as fool-hardy. There were days I felt as though it wasn’t even heard. But when budgets were due and we were facing some major cuts, a cost-cutting idea was heard and embraced. Timing was everything. Nobody wanted the fire-extinguisher until they could see the fire. I would have saved myself quite a bit of frustration if I had just waited for the right time.

They are liberal with Ideas. One of my favorite John Maxwell quotes goes like this, “The most important member of any organization is the member with the most ideas.”Ideas are powerful. Ideas change the world. I think a lot of the best ideas die on the vine because the person who had them wants to get credit for them. Ideas are like people, sometimes they have to leave home in order to reach their full potential. If you want to have influence, let your ideas go. Let anyone use them, and they will go farther than you could ever have taken them by yourself.

They are impossible to discourage. Influential people have lots of ideas, as a result they have a lot of ideas shot down. They get mocked, stood up, ignored, and plagiarized. It just seems to come with the territory, but influencers are bullet proof. They’re hard to offend and even harder to discourage. They have a clear idea of what the world could (and should) look like, and you aren’t going to be able to tell them any different.

They think in the future tense. Influencers don’t care what happened yesterday, they’re already thinking about tomorrow. They’re looking toward the next time. Influential people are visionaries. They have ideas, and they love to share them. Strange, they are also constantly dissatisfied. They never settle, they are always looking to grow and improve.

This is the kind of person that I want to become.