The Power of Influence in Leadership Development
Leader who exercise positive influence don’t try to prove themselves to others. They are more concerned with “manifesting” themselves, or revealing the purpose they were born to fulfill. When you inspire other people through your passion, you never have to announce that you are a “leader.” People will think of you as a leader, and will call you one themselves, because you will have motivated them to do something – change the status quo, create something new, find a solution to a problem, and so forth.
The essence of influence is the ability to motivate other people to take action and effect change. You can’t lead if you don’t influence. You can’t influence if you don’t inspired. You can’t inspire if you don’t have passion. And you won’t have passion unless you are convinced about your purpose, convictions, and vision.
As leaders go, so goes the world.
Therefore, if we don’t do something about the global crisis in leadership we
are experiencing today, the state of our society is going to grow worse and
worse. Moral leadership is urgent in human affairs because the character of
leaders for good or for ill affects the lives of their followers. Let us look
at some specific ways in which influence occurs.
Leaders Influence the Mind-set of the Followers
Leaders can transform people’s outlook to the point where their perspective
becomes completely different from the way they formerly thought. Such influence
is a tremendous power that all leaders need to acknowledge and discipline in
their own lives, ensuring that they do not abuse it especially since a change
in mind-set almost leads to a change in behavior.
A leader can use rhetorical skills
to convince people that what they believed was good is evil, and vice
versa-altering their values and conduct. Followers must always weigh the
consequences of what they hear and receive from their leaders.
In contrast, an enlightened perspective is a gift that true leaders can give
their followers.
Leaders Influence the
Characteristics and Attitudes of the Followers
A leader who holds deep convictions can transfer those convictions to others.
For instance, he can rouse the fearful so that they will take bold and
necessary action in the midst of a crisis. Winston Churchill, through his
powerful speeches, stirred the English people to continue standing against Nazi
Germany after the fall of France. In one of these speeches, he famously
declared, “….the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain
is about to begin…. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear
ourselves that, if the British empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand
years, men will still say, ‘this was their finest hour.
In contrast, a leader who lacks
conviction can transfer his complacency or timidity to his followers. There is
an account in one of the books of Moses in which Moses sent twelve leaders to
scope out the Promised Land before the nation of Israel entered it. When the
leaders returned, ten of them expressed their fear of the inhabitants,
declaring that they were too strong to defeat “we seemed like grasshoppers in
our own eyes and we looked the same to them. two of the leaders insisted they
would still be victorious, but the people grumbled and took on the perspective
of the ten who were afraid and felt like “grasshoppers” in their own eyes. As a
result, the victory was delayed for forty years almost two generation. The
people lost out, largely because they allowed the fearful mind -set of their
leaders to infect them.
Leaders influence the
morality of the followers
The ethics of a leaders can sway those who follow him ethics directly, through
the corporate values that are encouraged through his leadership, or through his
policies. If the leaders are high – ranking official over a nation, his morals
can permeate an entire culture. You may come from a country in which the leaders
have tremendous gifts, communicate well, and are competent in various
leadership techniques -but are lacking in ethical convictions. Many leaders do
not take responsibility for their actions. They feel they should experience no
consequences when they betray the trust of their constituents, whether their
employees, their families, or the public.
Leaders influence the
commitment of the followers
If leaders have strong conviction, his passion will become contagious among his
followers, leading them to commit to his vision. Earlier, we talked about
martin Luther king. In relation to how leader develop vision. King’s vision
gave him a passion that inspired and influenced average” people such as
housewives, carpenter, masons, teacher, and religious leader to march in
nonviolent protest against the refusal of certain state in the nation of
acknowledge and permit voting right for black. A number of them personally
faced the resistance of policeman armed with club, dog, water hoses, and tear
gas.
A leader’s commitment can be
transferred to enough people that his personal conviction eventually becomes a
national movement. A leader principle can initiate an irresistible process
of reform. But if you meet it squarely and remain constant in your
convictions, others will join you.
Leaders influence the Destiny of the followers
The influence of someone who has conviction can lead people to a destiny they
might not otherwise have reached.
Conversely, the influence of a
leader who lacks character can condemn his follower to an appalling fate. In
the 1970s, cult leader Jim Jones convince people to live loved ones and in the
jungles of Guyana. Several years later, he led 909 of his followers to their
deaths by inducing them to drink cyanide then he shot himself to death.
Adolf Hitler was a gifted
politician and communicator, wielding tremendous influence over the German
people. He held thousands of citizens spellbound as they listened to his
speeches in person on the radio. His oration was so powerful that some people
thought he was a god. Hitler had many characteristics of an effective leader.
But his philosophy, his personal code of ethic, was immoral. It turned his
leadership assets into frightening tools abuse.
Hitler didn’t value all of human life, just a small segment of it. His warped
value system created disaster for his nation and many other nations of the
world. Millions of people died as a direct or indirect result of his reign.
They were starved, died of disease, or were exterminated in concentration
camps, and quarantined ghettos. While fighting World war II, a war Hitler
instigated many people were killed in battle or died when they succumbed to
disease or accident; others were wounded, maimed, or emotionally scarred for
life. Multitudes lost loved ones and possession, seeing their entire way of
life vanish. Today, the German people are still trying to come to grips with
the question,” how could our people have let that happened and even have
participated in it?
The lesson for us is that whatever we accommodate, we will ultimately embrace
or be destroyed by. We are not any level social, economic, emotional, physical,
or spiritual if we didn’t know the person we are following .we can’t afford to
be complacent.
Comments
Post a Comment