At the ripe young age of 61, I have seen my fair share of influence, both good and bad. I’ve had plenty of bad influences. When I was younger, the term used was peer pressure. As I have grown older, the influence has become much more healthy. My faith is more important, relationships mean more to me, and what I read to influence the important parts of my role in my family, career, and friendships are connected now. Currently, my favorite readings come from leaders like Craig Groeschel, Mike Griego, C.S. Lewis, Leanne Elich, Richard Rohr, Frederick Buechner, and others.
There is a central theme that has developed too. I have been influenced by these people and others as a leader with an ever-increasing faith in something bigger than me. The influence has driven my goals to create great leaders who follow a path to influence. Leanne Elich’s formula for influence is remarkable to me. So much so, WhiteRock speaks to it daily in our work as we “run the play”.
Craig Groeschel writes about the categories of leaders too. I’ll speak more about that at another time.
But this notion of influence in the eyes of Leanne Elich resonates with me, Mindset x Skillset + Toolset = Influence. What I have learned from working with our team each day can be summarized in a manner to help me with the notion of “running the play” each day or executing our strategy in a tactical manner to see results and value internally and for our customers.
Mindset
My attitude, behavior, & tone of communication
- Discipline oneself – this is your time, body, heart, soul, and attitude.
- Organize the plan – plan daily before the day begins, plan the week before the week begins to make daily planning faster.
- Prioritize to be valuable to the team first – center your priorities on making your team better each day. Take care of your team and they will take care of the customer.
- Be humble and courageous – God works through me; it is not me – be selfless.
- Do not fear failure – If you are not stretching and uncomfortable, then you are not trying hard enough.
Skillset
As a leader, probably the least important but highly important from your team
- Delegate to your team – have high expectations of your team and repeat your goals continuously.
- Be patient – let your team work through what is delegated at the pace they are comfortable with because their speed will increase as their skillsets improve.
- Work diligently on your financial skills – be prudent and systematic with the finances of your personal and business goals daily.
- Communication skills – repeat what is important and listen to your team otherwise.
- Technical and Innovation skills – practice empowerment to allow your team to problem solve within the limits of your resources with curiosity, creativity, and grit.
Toolset
Very important that a leader create effective policy for your investment in tools
- Equip your team
- Streamline the inventory of your tools
- Evaluate the ROI on your tools annually
- Integrate all your tools logically to avoid duplicate inputs
Influencing & Being Influenced
Great leaders influence their team, build tight families, and give and share intentionally. The results help drive a balanced life that is for the good of others while being spiritually rewarding.
Nothing that I’ve shared is unique, created by me, or the same for any other leader. What is valuable as described is the application of concepts from those that influence me so that I can continuously improve to grow them as great leaders.
Next week, I’ll share how this has evolved in me the three channels that our brain uses, thinking, doing, and feeling. Have a great weekend. I want to encourage you to connect with me any time for help, guidance, sharing, or other thoughts you have.
Be strong and courageous next week!