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It’s commonplace to say ‘leadership is influence.’ Indeed, some of the best-known authors use exactly that sentiment as their core definition for what it means to be a leader.
While influence is one of the aspects of leading well, it’s not because that’s a core leadership function. Rather, influence is exerted by every excellent contributor within an organization, whether they have a leadership role/function or not. Excellent leaders and followers alike are to be people of influence.
Every participating group member sits at the junction of Influence Avenue. Up, down, in, out, back and forth—we are part of a web of interrelationship and interconnectedness. This facilitates and is sustained by a multi-way flow of influence.
If we imagine being in some sort of middle-management role, such that we clearly have both subordinates and superiors that we are organizationally responsible to, then we have some influence outward toward both of those segments of the organization.
Our posture
Looking down the organizational chart, we engage with a posture of servant leadership, providing services to enable our followers to complete their roles and tasks with excellence. This includes removing obstacles, getting access to resources, advocacy and professional development.
However, there is also the exertion of influence upward, care for our leaders by contributing to their development as well. That may be through concrete support (all leaders are ‘poor’ and in need of having gaps filled), offering perspective and bestowing affirmation and appreciation.
Receiving influence
At the same time, we are also in a position to receive influence, again, both upward and downward.
Just as we (hopefully) offer servant leadership to our subordinates, we can hope for receiving the same from our own leaders. But for this to be effective, we must maintain a posture of submission and allow ourselves to be influenced.
And, as we offer care to our own leaders, we might also receive care from our own subordinates, but this can only occur if we establish an environment of humility, a willingness to admit our needs and to accept support from those others might see as ‘beneath’ us.
Apart from these ‘vertical’ relationships, there is also a dynamic of horizontal influence. We have the opportunities both to give and receive influence among our peers as well, regardless of whether we have a role including any oversight component.
Informal leadership
Outwardly, we can exert informal leadership by serving our peers and fulfilling some leadership functions even without organizational responsibility or authority.
Furthermore, our participation with any group requires a significant element of adopting and adapting ourselves to the broader enterprise; in choosing association, we are choosing to take on values, methods and other elements of the organization, being shaped and conforming ourselves to norms, structures and expectations.
A busy junction of influence
In a healthy organization, Influence Avenue is a busy junction; there is a dynamic back-and-forth across various layers of the hierarchy, with trickle-down and bubbling-up effects taking place simultaneously.
The challenge for us is to maintain key postures of service, care, submission and humility, to ensure we are both reservoirs and receivers of influence, rather than roadblocks against it.
This article was first published on embracingfollowership.com. Used with permission.
Photo source: istock
 | Allen Hamlin Jr. has worked with an international Christian non-profit organization since 2006. His role has primarily consisted of providing team development training and consultation, along with mentoring and member care, to multiethnic teams serving around the world. Allen has a deep appreciation for the values and tensions associated with serving in and alongside of cultures outside of one’s country of origin. |
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