5 GUARDRAILS OF TRUST-BASED INFLUENCE

I was fortunate to have Kevin Harrington , the inventor of the infomercial, and one of the original sharks from popular TV series, Shark Tank, write the foreword for my book, The Power of Strategic Influence. In his Foreword Kevin wrote, "The Power of Strategic Influence," is a playbook for resourcefully rising to the top by purposefully utilizing tactics such as understanding the marketplace, specializing in your field, differentiating yourself, achieving competitive leadership competencies, and how to make strategic, game-changing connections...Gary breaks down how to build influence, maximize it, and share it … to achieve true success in life." Thank you Kevin!

In my 25 years of corporate experience and 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, I've learned that nothing impacts your reputation and personal influence more than Trust and Integrity.

I've further learned, that your sphere of influence is the essential ingredient in your recipe for success, respect, and a lasting legacy. Therefore, to avoid the perils of obsessive ego and need for popularity and their potential negative impact on your personal influence, leaders must make a conscious effort to use influence wisely and ethically.

This article serves to outline the first in a series of Five Guardrails of Trust-Based Influence that will keep you from succumbing to unwise impulses. Why guardrails? Andy Stanley said it best, "Guardrails not only protect us from bad places, they also redirect us toward good places!"

GUARDRAIL NO. 1: LEADERS MUST LEARN TO LISTEN

Practice active listening! Too many times leaders are accused of only wanting to hear what they want to hear. Too often, people in power love to hear themselves talk. They think that listening to others is a sign of weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A leader who wants the full support of the organization must be willing to seek feedback and even guidance from employees, customers, and strategic partners. To achieve this, a leader must be an active listener, or as my friend Bill Bennett taught me, "be fully present," not allowing distractions to derail conversations and meetings.

If you don’t listen to others, especially the subject matter experts who are charged with reporting to you the facts, and your customers who support you and whom can provide invaluable feedback regarding quality, useability, and value, then you’ll just listen to your own “echo chamber.” You’ll tell yourself what you want to hear, and you’ll resent or reject the world when it doesn’t conform to your expectations. This will result in your making decisions that are not based in reality—and which can therefore be very damaging.

Check your ego at the door!

As Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

Get an Accountability Partner

One way to improve your listening skills is to choose an accountability partner. Everyone, even a center of influence needs an accountability partner who has the authority to say, “Stop and listen,” without fear of your retribution. Serving in that role should be a person who genuinely cares about your success and has nothing to gain or lose from it. You might start with your mother or father and then look for a mentor, or even a fishing buddy—anyone to whom you can speak honestly and who will give you their honest answer.

Seek Feedback

Proactively seek feedback, not just from people you want to impress, but from all levels. This goes beyond simply having an “open-door policy.” In your organization, you must have processes in place to regularly and systematically gather feedback across all levels of the organization.

Summary

To gain trust-based influence, leaders must learn the skill of active listening and to proactively seek feedback from all levels and customers. If you can learn to check your ego at the door in business, then your engagement with employees, stakeholders, and customers will catapult you to new and sustainable dimension of success. Finally, engage with an accountability partner who cares about your success and can give feedback without retribution. By learning to actively listen and allowing yourself to be open to constructive criticism from people you trust, your reputation and your influence will grow and allow you to create an influential legacy that will inspire many others long after you are gone.

**NEXT EDITION FEATURES GUARDRAIL #2 - ACCEPT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!

#Perspective #Purpose #Passion #Direction #leadershipmindset #success #influentialleadership

?Copyright 2025 Become a Super Leader, Gary C. Laney, The Power of Strategic Influence. All rights reserved.

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