Influence

Leading without Position

Philip E Morrison, Hankuri Tawus Gaya

• Publisher: Oasis International Ltd NFP
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781594527685
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Chapter One

Earn the Right to Be Heard

To earn the right to be heard – you must listen, understand what matters most and assist people in some form or fashion.9

—— Maria Elena Duron ——

Students at the southern campus of Kaduna State University in Nigeria were not happy with the state government’s decision to relocate one of their campuses to the northern part of the state. They gathered to protest, shouting and brandishing posters. When the vice chancellor of the university came to address them, the students only shouted louder. In the midst of this chaos, a lecturer, Prof Abbas Sodangi Ibrahim, simply raised his hands. All the students became quiet. This lecturer had invested a lot in mentoring students, so they listened. In front of the vice chancellor, he convinced them to shelve the protest and give room for dialogue.

In the introduction, we learned that influence is the ability to bring about change in another’s beliefs, thoughts, actions, or behaviour. Influence cannot be forced or commanded but only earned. Influence made the students listen to a lecturer instead of the head of the university. Influence is demonstrated when people will listen to you, believe in the cause you are advocating, and begin to move in the direction you are encouraging them to go.

Beforxe you have influence, you have to earn the right to be heard. This chapter will teach you how.

Build a Reputation for Trustworthiness

Influence will come as people trust you. Often leaders can be threatened by others below them who appear to have potential. They shouldn’t be, but sometimes they are. It may be because they don’t have as much education or drive, or because they don’t have the ideas that the potential leader has.

Older people sometimes don’t understand youth culture and this threatens them. People can also feel threatened by women or members of another tribe because they represent different groups. However, if they can trust you and your motives, then you can start to exercise influence.

Trust can take time to build, but it reaps wonderful results. You can develop trust by being dependable in character and faithful in your actions. Some people want to take the quick and easy way to the top, but there is no shortcut to the development and proof of one’s character. There is no shortcut to faithfulness. You demonstrate character and faithfulness over time as you live them out in many different circumstances and situations. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much” (Luke 16:10). As you are faithful over a period of time, you will begin to develop a growing influence within your sphere of life and ministry.

If you want to have influence with positional leaders, you need to have a reputation for being trustworthy. Your reputation will open the door for you to give thoughts and ideas to the decision-makers. The book of Proverbs makes this point several times:

A good name is more desirable than great riches;
to be esteemed is better than silver or gold (Proverbs 22:1).

Do you see someone skilled in their work?
They will serve before kings;
they will not serve before officials of low rank (Proverbs 22:29).

A faithful person will be richly blessed,
but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished (Proverbs 28:20).

I (Hankuri) faced a challenge of acceptance when I reported as a new staff worker in Akure in the western part of Nigeria. I am from the north. Often the people from the western part of Nigeria don’t see anything good coming from the north. They view us as educationally backward. So I worked hard. I got involved with students through training, writing reports and newsletters to stakeholders, pioneering a new campus fellowship, raising resources for the work, and providing leadership in hosting conferences. Six months later, one of the professors in a federal university introduced me to the chapel board where I was invited to preach. He said, “We have observed him. We can now trust him and what he can do.” If your character is quality, be patient. With time and trust from others, your influence will grow.

Support Your Leader

Another way to build trust with people is to show that you are on their team. When someone suggests a new idea or a change, it is easy for leaders to be suspicious of that person’s motives. They may be concerned that you are trying to lead people in a different direction or divert resources that they need for other tasks. They may wonder if you are just looking to get power and followers yourself. The best way to prevent this is to demonstrate to your leaders that you care about their priorities and want to help them accomplish their goals. Show this over a long period of time by making their work easier and serving them. You will gain their trust and earn more freedom to implement your own ideas.

Suppose your leader wants your team to do something that you see as outside of your organization’s vision, mission, or strategic plan. This is common when new leaders come on board and their subordinates know the terrain better than they do. You might try speaking up and drawing attention to the difference between the leader’s proposal and the organization’s goals. However, if your leader is new or insecure, that person may see your action as trying to gain followers or shifting away from declared priorities.

To earn your leader’s trust and prove that you have good motives, consider helping that leader to achieve what he or she sees as critical instead of contributing new ideas, as long as you can do it without compromising your core values. Rather than disengaging, what if you were to do more than assigned to show your support and commitment to the organization’s goals? In the end, your leader might accept your ideas because you would have built trust by supporting your leader. Here are ways to show support to your leader to gain influence:

• Work hard and go the extra mile to accomplish the organization’s and leader’s goals.
• Be reliable.
• Provide good information to the leader.
• Identify potential problems or difficulties.
• Prevent problems instead of waiting for them to happen.
• Provide creative solutions.
• Defend and support the leader’s (and organiz...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Leading Is Influence
• Chapter One: Earn the Right to Be Heard
• Chapter Two: Power and Influence
• Chapter Three: What Does an Influencer Do?
• Chapter Four: How to Begin to Influence
• Chapter Five: An Influencer’s Heart
• Chapter Six:When Challenges Come
• Chapter Seven: Where Do We Go From here?
• Endnotes
• About the Authors