Leadership and influence

There can be no leadership without influence, because influencing is how leaders lead.
In their classic book on leadership, Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis and Burt
Nanus echo this point: "There is a profound difference between management and leadership," they
wrote, "and both are important. 'To manage' means 'to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or
responsibility for, to conduct.' 'Leading' is 'influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion.'"
They add that "an essential factor in leadership is the capacity to influence."

Leadership is described as the ability to envision a goal or needed change, to take initiative or action to
achieve the goal, to take responsibility for outcomes and to work well with, relate to, and communicate
effectively with others.
According to author and psychologist Daniel Goleman there are six different leadership styles, which he
argues spring from different components of emotional intelligence:

 Commanding- leaders demand immediate compliance

 Visionary – Leaders mobilize peope toward vision
 Afilliative- Leaders create emotional bond and harmony
 Democratic- Leaders build consensus through participation
 Pacesetting- Leaders expect excellence and self direction
 Coaching- Leaders develop people for the future

Leadership competences are:

 Knowledge (interests, concerns and needs of leader’s team; leadership skills and styles, group
dynamics, delegation, basics of management and planning; understanind of diversity of culture)
 Attitude, Values and Motivation ( curiosity; selw-awareness; confidentiality, interest in views of
others, open-mindedness, integrity...)
 Skills (decision making; critical thinking, conflict resolution; stress-management; teamwork,
ethics; active listening, group facilitation and management)

As the common result of these three competences we have the most important one-
Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and interpersonal
skills

Being a leader means to be a part of group with one additional role- to keep the group organized and
well-functioning. According to my opinion, this position requires having a sense of responsibility and
sensitivity towards the needs of the group and associated people.

But, leadership and influence are not interchangeable.

Being leader is not only about people report to me, and it may give me the power to control them, but
influence is about producing results and creating change. It's the capacity to have an effect on the
character, development or behavior of someone or something. So as a leader, it’s important to have the
ability to impact a person's character and behavior — a responsibility that shouldn't be taken lightly.

In everyday work in the organization and on various projects, there are various roles a leader can find
him/herself in. Visioning and setting an example, empower, inspire and energize people, build and lead
a team… Although a good leader has the influence on his followers and on the environment, he is not a
big boss, a know-it-all, the one that needs to be the best and wants to show everyone that he is better
than others.
From my point of view, for example I will not want to start the initiative to show that I am the best, I will
want to do it because I genuinely believe it will be for the benefit to others. As a good leader, I will want
to inspire others to take action by taking my own action.

Little changes make a big difference. A sum of many little changes can produce a huge storm of positive
changes in one’s society. And we can be the ones that have created it. Be a change you want to see.