You are the new kid on the block. All eyes are on you, and you want to make a good impression. After all, your aim as a leader is to make a change to your new environment. Your influential leadership is put to the test.
Leadership requires influence to accomplish goals. But how do you gain that influence?
First and foremost, listen. By listening to what others have to say, you get them on your side. You gain their trust.
Not only that. You can gain ideas, ideas that are greater than yours. That’s what listening can do for you.
Second of all, help. Once you have listened and understood the problem, you can begin helping the team. When you extend a hand, you influence the situation.
Helping people doesn’t have to take a lot of time and effort. It should be second nature to you as a leader. Your aid goes a long way.
The third step to undertake is to network. Build relationships; make the right connections.
Those that connect and collaborate earn their colleagues’ respect and trust. They are also more productive.
You’re in a much better position to start influencing others now that you’ve done all that listening, establishing goodwill, and networking.
Influence is all about persuasion. You can push people in your new environment to take action and get better results.
I’m sure you have a vision of where you want the team to go. No matter what that is, you need to create a sort of obsession with it. This vision obsession would propel you to exert much-needed influence on your team.
But at the end of the day, you need to go back to the core of your leadership – your people. You’re only as good as your next subordinate. Treat them right so you can quickly achieve your vision.
Influence does not have to be complicated. Influential leadership is simply leading the team in the right direction.