INTRODUCTION
Everyone talks about it; few understand it. Most people want it; few achieve it. There are more than fifty definitions and descriptions of it in my personal files. What is this intriguing subject we call “leadership”?
Perhaps because most of us want to be leaders, we become emotionally involved when trying to define leadership. Or perhaps because we know one, we try to copy his or her behavior and describe leadership as a personality. Ask ten people to define leadership and you’ll probably receive ten different answers.
How would you complete this sentence?
Leadership is
[Your Response Here]
After more than four decades of observing leadership within my family and many years of developing my own leadership potential, I have come to this conclusion: Leadership is influence. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less. My favorite leadership proverb is: He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.
James C. Georges of the ParTraining Corporation said, “Once you define leadership as the ability to get followers, you work backward from that point of reference to figure out how to lead.”1
Most people define leadership as the ability to achieve a position, not the ability to get followers. Therefore, they go after a position, rank, or title, and upon their arrival they think they have become a leader. This type of thinking creates two common problems: Those who possess the “status” of a leader often experience the frustration of having few followers, and those who lead but lack the proper titles may not see themselves as leaders and therefore don’t develop their leadership skills.
My goal with this workbook is to help you accept leadership as influence (that is, the ability to get followers), and then work backward from that point to help you learn how to lead. Each week is designed to place in your hand another principle that will assist your leadership development.
This first week is designed to expand your amount of influence. As you explore the concept that leadership is influence, keep in mind these key insights:
1. Everyone influences someone.
To illustrate this in your life, take a moment now to jot down a few names:
| List the People You Lead | List the People You Follow |
| [Your Response Here] | [Your Response Here] |
Tim Elmore shared this amazing statistic with me: Sociologists tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand other people during his or her lifetime! Tim and I concluded that each one of us is both influencing and being influenced by others. That means that all of us are leading in some areas, while in other areas we are being led. No one is excluded from being a leader or a follower. Realizing your potential as a leader is your responsibility.
2. We never know who or how much we influence.
J. R. Miller said: “There have been meetings of only a moment which have left impressions for life, for eternity. No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence . . . yet . . . every one of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.”2
3. The best investment in the future is a proper influence today.
The issue is not whether you will influence someone. What needs to be settled is what kind of an influencer will you be? Will you grow in your leadership skills? In the book Leaders, Bennis and Nanus say, “The truth is that leadership opportunities are plentiful and within reach of most people.”3
4. Influence is a skill that can be developed.
Robert Dilenschneider, the former CEO of Hill and Knowlton, a worldwide public relations agency, has been one of the nation’s major influence brokers. He skillfully weaves his persuasive magic in the global arena where governments and megacorporations meet. He wrote a book titled Power and Influence in which he shares the idea of the “power triangle” to help leaders get ahead. He says, “The three components of this triangle are communication, recognition, and influence. You start to communicate effectively. This leads to recognition and recognition in turn leads to influence.”4
For years I have believed that we can increase our influence and, therefore, our leadership potential. Out of this conviction I have developed a teaching tool to assist others in understanding their levels of leadership so they can increase their levels of influence.
This week you will
• explore the five levels of leadership:
Day 1: Position
Day 2: Permission
Day 3: Production
Day 4: People development
Day 5: Personhood
• discover what it takes to be a leader on each level
Read through the chart, “The Five Levels of Leadership,” and then start your daily study.
