The more valuable you make your team, the more valuable they will make others.
As your influence increases with your team members, their influence will increase with each other and with other colleague’s too. It is your role as a highly effective leader to give your team the freedom to be influencer.
As yours and your team’s influence increases beyond your usual inner circle, you will find it a lot easier to find extra support to help you achieve your team’s mission. You will also find it a lot easier to convince and gain buy-in from colleague’s who are not in your team, or even in your department.
1. Spreading Your Influence Through Others
As your influence increases through your team, they will increase your influence cumulatively, a lot further than you could alone.
With your influence increasing cumulatively through your people, they will be connecting with others, and building strong relationships in the same way as you did with them.
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As you prioritise personal growth and leadership development with your people, and you keep investing in their growth, yours and their influence will constantly becoming stronger. The more time you invest in your people, the bigger the benefit will be for both them and you. Investing creates a win-win situation for all.
The more people are influenced by you then your people will want to help you and your team. They will share the same vision as you, and will want to work with you to help you and your people strive to achieve it. As they are positively influenced they will feel the difference both in their professional life, and their personal life.
2. Positive Mindset
Their mindset will change and they will want to do everything they can to increase your influence too. Soon, all departments throughout your organisation will have been influenced by you.
This really sounds great, and in theory will be amazing when your influence can be increased cumulatively through your team, then others, and then others beyond them. But, how do we do this in practice, and continue to work every day to ensure this happens.
With leadership development, constantly teach your team principles that will help them to lead themselves and others. As you do this, you are setting them up to increase your influence through them. Then, as you are training them to lead others, teach them principles that go beyond the world of work.
As you are beginning to be the best person you can be as a highly effective leader, by teaching your people to do the same, you will receive further support. They will increase their influence with you, and you can then leverage their influence in a positive way.
As you are investing time into your people, and going the extra mile for them with teaching them leadership and personal growth, you may receive some negativity from the low performing leaders in your organisation. I received quite a bit of negativity from low performing leaders, they thought I should be “focussing on the job”.
They are managers, not leaders of people, and they focus on processes, not people. Do your best to avoid this negativity, and don’t listen to it.
3. Investing In Your People
Whenever I talked to the low performing leaders about why I wanted to invest in my team’s leadership development and personal growth, I used to receive some “interesting remarks”. For example, “You’re not a trainer, why are you training your team?”
Or, “You’re not going to get the work done if you put the team first.” I found these remarks to be very amusing because I knew that by putting the people first, the job would take care of itself. How can you get the work done anyway, if you have a de-motivated team?
Even though I ignore the remarks I receive from low performing leaders, I would try my best to explain to them the reasons why I invest in my people, and teach them leadership. It would be better for them and the organisation if more leaders followed me in investing in their people.
If we have more and more leaders teaching their team’s leadership and personal growth, then imagine what kind of culture we would be creating. Imagine how far our influence could increase.
Low performing leaders only see things short term, but if we could convince them to change their mindset and think longer term, then our influence will compound.
The more people who follow us because they want, not because they have to, our influence will increase so far that we will be influencing people who we have never met. We can do that because the people who our people influence will be influenced by us too.
Thinking long term, and having your vision at the forefront of yours and your people’s minds is what you need to focus on if we want to keep gaining buy-in from people.
For example, if I wanted help from an engineer who worked in a different team and had a different leader, it would depend on the relationship I had with his/her leader. As the engineer doesn’t report to me, I wouldn’t be able to go straight to them, I would have to ask permission.
If I had a poor relationship with his/her leader, then they would probably say something like, “I don’t have time to let my engineer do some work for you at the minute. Maybe in the near future.”
By telling me that there is no time to let the engineer help me, is giving them a way out. There is always time to help each other, but because of the poor relationship, the leader is choosing not to help me.
I used to find this quite a lot when I took up my first leadership positions. I didn’t dedicate time to building strong relationships in the beginning, so I didn’t receive the co-operation I was looking for.
However, instead of just focussing on building relationships with leaders, I began to build strong relationships with engineers outside of my own team.
4. Building Stronger Relationships
I did this so that I could increase my influence further, and so they could increase my influence outside of my usual inner circle. So, when it came time to ask for the engineer to help me, I would find it a lot easier.
The reason I would find it easier is, the engineer was already influenced by me, so he/she would go their leader and gain their buy-in to supporting me and my team. The leader may not have been influenced directly by me, but their team member would use my influence to gain their buy-in.
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Just as I had with them, and my own team members. Leveraging other people’s influence is a great way to get the support you need from outside your usual inner circle.
When your team, and others in your organisation know your vision, follow your vision, and want to support you, you will find that they will offer you help even when you don’t ask for it.
There is a saying, “It’s who you know, not what you know.” When it comes to increasing your influence far beyond yourself and your people, that saying could not be truer.
The more people you can influence, the better for you and for your people. As you influence others, listen to them. Embrace their ideas, lead them, and give them the freedom to influence. Allow yourself to be influenced by them.
I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.
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All the best,
Hi,
I am so glad to see a website on team influencers with the aim to help people through your knowledge and experience. I must say that this is a a well written article and you have taken great pains to get the facts right. I like the flow of your writing and the way you list your thoughts. It’s a good read.
It also contains some great information about that we need to build stronger relationship with our team to increase influence power further.
What do you think about the effect of positive mind set on a team..?
Do also try and review a few online sites about this topic as this will help us expand and read more about our mutually shared interest.
Thanks. Deep Regards,
Aparna
Hi Aparna,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found the article valuable.
The effect of a positive mindset on a team is like night and day when it comes to a negative mindset. A positive mindset is how a team knows what they need to do, how they need to do it, and most importantly why they need to do it.
I will do my best to have a look at some websites and do a review too as you have requested.
All the best,
Tom
Tom,
I loved your article. It makes total sense. I just wish that more leaders would use your ideas and concepts to increase their teams morale and thus increasing their productivity. Great job on a well written article.
Regards,
Courtney-
Hi Courtney,
Thank you for your comment. I’m really happy that you found the article helpful.
I wish exactly the same, and that is why I am building this site and my YouTube Channel to hep more leaders become highly effective leaders. Just like you.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Very well put Tom!
Leadership is a very important role. Some leaders are made for the job while others need more training in how to lead. Spreading your influence through others can be a very powerful thing. In a negative way or in a positive one. So why not spread more positivity to your team. Even if your job title has nothing to do with “being the head” influencing your teammates says a lot about an individual. They are not just thinking of themselves they are thinking about everyone involved, which is what it should be about!
Great post!
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found the article valuable.
I completely agree with you, why not spread more positivity through your team and to your team. Influencing others has nothing to do with job titles or positions, you are absolutely right.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Very good post. I really believe the same. I think the best way to lead a team is to make the team lead itself, through basic principles, sense of responsibility, and even admiration of the leader.
I always think that a good leader makes us work well “alone.” And wondering, “if he were here, what would he think, what would he say to me”
I really like this topic of leadership. I’ll keep seeing your blog!
Thanks for the input.
Regards
Jason
Hi Jason,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you believe in the same too, I wish more leaders would.
I couldn’t agree with you more, the team leading itself is how to do it. Responsibility, trust and influence is what a team must have and is what they must feel if they want to work well together. They must feel that if they want to work individually on behalf of the team too. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
I wish everyone who becomes a leader or a team leader would be forced to read this. The re-read it until they internalized the message. I’ve had good bosses and I’ve had bad bosses. And the only difference seems to be that the good bosses focus on their team first, the job second. The bad bosses focus just on the job and getting it done.
“How can you get the work done anyway, if you have a de-motivated team?” This is absolutely true and pretty much sums the point. People will not get their work done if they are de-motivated and the only thing driving them are deadlines from the team leader. If they feel like they are working for the team, something greater than themselves and feel like they are helping other out they will do the work in half the time.
This is one of the reasons I’m focusing on getting out of the 9 to 5. These things seem obvious when you observe them for a few years but it seems that more places get it wrong than right. Even if something works a while, the management or organization changes or maybe the workers change etc. and then there’s friction again. And don’t get me started with friction… Let’s just say that sometimes I could sware that there are people that enjoy when things aren’t going smoothly and there is drama. Demotivates the whole team.
Hi Chuck,
Thank you for your very thorough and informative comment. I’m so pleased that you found the article valuable, and I too would like more leaders to come to my site to read my articles.
I really appreciate you sharing your experiences of the bosses you have had. I have had very similar experiences, and I agree that the better bosses focus on the team first, as they should be. People must become the priority for the leader, no the job as you have said.
I really believe that people who come to this article will learn from reading your thoughts on this topic. Thank you again.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
I had actually heard the saying you mentioned at the end, “It’s who you know, not what you know,” only once in my life from someone who seemed to be pretty successful in life. I definitely believe that saying to be true because it simply makes sense that forming bonds with people will allow you to co-operate with them in ways that might have been impossible if that person was a complete stranger. I think that it’s very important for all of us to learn that making connections with people is important in life for anything that we do.
Hi Alejandro,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found the article helpful.
Yes the saying “It’s who you know, not what you know” is true. However, a lot of people think of that saying in the wrong way to get what they want in life, not to help others. So like anything in life, we must use our resources in an ethical way.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
This is a very inspiring article that should be shared around. I completely agree that a positive mindset is a top-priority. So few team leaders think to use positivity and teach members of their team to do the same and become leaders themselves… from my past experience, managers have always wanted to be the ones with the “power” so to speak, and they use intimidation to get what they think they need from their employees and not train them properly.
I wish this article was around during my office days!
Hi Darcy,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you find the article inspiring.
It’s great that you share your experiences of past managers, as I have had very similar experiences of managers with power trips. I have been manipulated, intimidated etc. to do what they want, to get what they want. This is part of the reason why I am building this site and providing the content I am, so I can help current and aspiring leaders to be the opposite to that. I want them to become highly effective leaders and put people first, not themselves.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
A good leader is essential for a team. A good leader knows spreading his or her Influence through others. Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more great articles.
Hi Lena,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found the article valuable.
You are so right that good leaders are highly essential for a team and for others. Increasing your influence through other people is the best way to lead and help others.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
A great read as always and this all makes perfect sense to me now.
I’ve always been one to build strong relationships, even with those that I didn’t directly work with.
I also encouraged members of my team to do the same.
I didn’t really “get it” until a few years later, it was just something I did.
However, looking back now I realise that I did “influence” a lot of people in my working life, and this opened many doors for me, and also had people willing to help me no matter what.
It is also something that a few ex-colleagues have said they learned from me, and that has stood them in good stead ever since.
Just reading your article has reminded me that I actually learned this type of leadership from a Regional Manager of mine, who I truly believed was a great man, and who was obviously years ahead of his time.
Thanks
Partha
Hi Partha,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found the article valuable.
I really appreciate you sharing your experiences with us thoroughly. There will be so many people who can relate to how you were influencing people, but you kind of didn’t realise that it was happening. That has happened to me before, and when you realise it, you just need to remember how you did it so you can do it again and again.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
This is an excellent leadership article! Your four points demonstrate that you are in touch with the essence of how to get the best out of any team. Each team member brings something special to the table and should be encouraged to be an equal part of the leadership experience. Thanks for all the great info!
Hi Frank,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found the article excellent, it really does mean a lot to me.
You are absolutely right, every team member can bring something special to the table and it is up to the leader to find out what that something special is.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
I love to see the connection you have made here with a positive influence in your own team and other departments. I truly believe that actions speak much louder than just words and as a highly effective leader who keeps a positive mindset, keeps investing in your team and others, and constantly works on building relationships further than just surface-level your influence will be spread all around. I like reading your post and they inspire me to keep being the best leader I can be for my team. Sometimes I fail, and have to remember to get back to basics though.
Hi Cheyenne,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so happy that you found the article helpful.
I couldn’t agree with you more that actions do speak louder than words, and they are a lot more powerful than just telling someone something. We need to SHOW people.
It’s great that these posts inspire you, thank you so much for saying and please share what you learn with others to keep inspiring them too.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hi there and thanks for this great article,
It’s so important to focus on the team when you’re a leader. Unfortunately there are too many people in positions of power who’s focus is their own ego.
Hi Marketa,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found the article important.
I could not agree with you more, focussing on the team is imperative for any leader.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom