4 Types of Influence Leaders Use to Make a Difference
4 Type of Influence Leaders Use
The subject of influence continues to be one that fascinates me. It must be of interest for many others as well, as it is often the top question I receive when speaking to developing leaders. Much like leadership itself, there is a belief that influencing others is something that comes with a title or an activity that not everyone can participate in. However, like leadership, anyone can be an influencer.I spoke about authentic influence in my article, What is Influence, and described it as:
Authentic Influence is providing the information to allow others to support your beliefs on their terms. By understanding their perspectives, their goals, and desired outcomes you can provide knowledge for them to come to the conclusion that is right from their situation.
I revisited the subject further in the article, Why is Influence Important as a Leader?. Here I explored the outcomes people want to achieve through leadership and influence. We all want to make a difference in some way; influence is the path to take in achieving that goal.Looking beyond the why and the what of influence leaves us with how you may influence those around you. I have broken this into four key areas that begin to describe how people may influence others for their position.
Character Influence - Character influence persuades people to do things because they are connected to and believe in you. Even if they do not fully agree, they want to please you because of the established relationship. In marketing campaigns, this might be a use case for a famous actor to make a recommendation for a product or service. I like Brad Pitt, and if he is suggesting this, I will follow his suggestion because I like him. In many areas, character influence will be enough to sway people in the direction you would like them to go.
Positional Influence - In this type of influence, people do things because of your position or title. I will do this because my boss told me to, or his boss told me to. I am not going to think too much about this; I need to do it because of who told me to do it. This type of influence is most relevant in the workplace, especially where the culture is hierarchy driven. We all experience this in our communities as well. Police officers, lawyers, politicians all have some positional influence over others purely based on their position as well as their real or assumed authority.
Quid Pro Quo Influence - Influence can always walk a fine line between the proper use of it and the bad. In quid pro quo, people are trading action for something of value in the future. This leans much more towards manipulating versus influence. This could also be seen as negotiating influence. In either instance, you have to question whether real influence is occurring. Or is it just the fear of the consequences of not agreeing to the trade of actions? I do not want to imply that this is always bad. It still comes down to intent, as it does with all type of influence. This type lends itself to a more delicate line between the two. Politics, both corporate and governmental, both are examples of where this type of influence can occur regularly.
Intrinsic Influence - One final type of influence, intrinsic influence, comes from being provided enough information and feeling empowered to make a decision that makes the most sense for you, the team, and the situation. Effective leadership should lead back to this level of influence. When the team feels as though they can make the right decisions for themselves, it creates engagement. It also will lead to more consistent brand-driven outcomes. This can become the most powerful type of influence since it comes from within. When someone states that they feel passionate about this subject and continue to provide deeper knowledge on the subject, they are likely intrinsically motivated and hoping to move you in that same direction.
These are by no means an all-encompassing look at the complexities of how influencing others work, but through my own research, they seemed to encapsulate the most common methods of influencing. Influence is both a personal and a community-driven activity. It can mean something different to everyone, which is why it is such an interesting subject, yet one that presents some many challenges to its full understanding. Take time to explore these four types a little further. Find examples in your environment on how they may be influencing you, or how you many using them to influence others around you. I expect it will be a very interesting experiment.What type of influence did you most commonly experience in your environment? What impact does that have on you and those around you?Some additional reading on the subject:Responsibility Without Authority – How to Influence Without TitlesUnderstand the 4 Components of InfluenceThe Four Types of Influence Join other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive FREE leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills all at no cost. JOIN NOW!No spam ever - just leadership goodness.Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash