7 Ways to Increase Your Influence with Your Team

Being a leader is a privilege. It's a responsibility. It's rewarding. But, it's not easy. I talk to many leaders who WANT to lead well - they just don't know how.

Early in my leadership journey, I WANTED to lead well. I WANTED to be the leader everyone wanted to follow. But, I didn't know how until I began to learn, develop my leadership skills, and grow. Today, what I love is being able to share the leadership principles I learned in a way that other leaders can learn them, apply them, and get results as a leader.

Are you struggling with leadership frustrations such as:

• Team members who aren’t engaged: they could do more, but don’t – and you don’t know why?
• Stagnant culture: a lack of trust, poor communication, low morale, or high turnover?
• Confusing “leadership” materials that don’t help you understand how to lead effectively?

These are the frustrations I love to help leaders learn to overcome. I believe leaders deserve leadership tools that are 1) Easy to understand; 2) Easy to use; 3) Effective.

One of the leadership tools I created is The Ladder of Influence?. The Ladder of Influence? provides a powerful, yet simple framework to help you realize the practical steps you can take to increase your influence with the people around you. This newsletter is going to focus on some of the practical ways you can increase your influence with the team members who follow you. My last newsletter focused on 7 Ways You Can Increase Your Influence with Your Leader.

If you are looking for more leadership resources here are a few:

Our YouTube Channel playlist "Real People Getting Real Results!"

Free downloads to most of our books

Now, let's dig into 7 Ways to Increase Your Influence with Your Team!

1) Build good relationships

Leadership is influence. Influence is built on relationships. Relationships require trust. If you don't know your people, you won't be able to influence them at a high level because they won't trust you. People want to feel like they matter. They want to be valued, respected, and they will trust a leader who makes them feel like they matter. Get to know your team members. Their hopes, dreams, their goals. Help them reach them. Build a relationship with them because you care about them.

I used to have monthly lunches (one-on-one) with my team members. They picked the place. I picked up the tab. And, we didn't talk about work. We talked about them. Their lives. How their kids were doing. What was worrying them. What was going well for them. I got to know them. And years later, some of those team members are still following me. Sure, you may not can do this with your team or with everyone on the team but I bet you can figure out a way to build good relationships with your team members - if you care to.

If you don't care enough about your people to build a good relationship with them, you are missing a fundamental leadership quality. And, probably shouldn't be in "leadership" since you are more a "manager" than a "leader." Managers manage things. Leaders lead people. If you treat your team like they are objects instead of people, they aren't going to follow you.

2) Put the person first

This concept builds on #1 above but it's critical to make sure your team members feel like the matter more to you than the work they do. YES OF COURSE you must get results in the organization and get the job done but if your team members feel like you care more about the numbers than you do about them - you are missing out on influence. Your team will be disengaged because employees who follow a leader only because they "have to" will only do what they "have to." Team members who follow a leader because they respect and trust that leader are 40% more productive.

Reward them more often than you correct them. Mack and I often are invited to be a part of a celebration event to reward and recognize team members, especially around the holidays. If you want to show your team you value them at a high level, have a party and show them. If you need help with an inspirational message at the event, call me and I'll help you make them feel like they matter. We're booking now for the end of the year with our special offer that includes copies of our books or journals and we have limited times available for end of the year celebrations.

I remember a situation where I had to choose to put the person first before the job at hand. We had an office policy of only two people being out at one time. Two people had scheduled vacation for a certain date (and I was one of those two people!) and the week before that date arrived, one of my team members came crying to my office. She had been told she possibly had cancer and they needed to run a scan but the only available slot they had for weeks was the specific date we already had two people scheduled for vacation. She wasn't asking to be off - she was upset about having to wait weeks because she had no expectation of being allowed to be off work that day. For me, the solution was simple and without question: I canceled my vacation request and let her take off that day. Leadership often comes at the cost of self-interest and if you aren't prepared to put your team first, you probably aren't a high impact leader.

3) Give credit but take blame

This one is hard. But, if you are the leader, it's your responsibility. End of story. And if you aren't ready to give credit to your team when things go right but take the blame when things go wrong, you aren't ready to be the leader. Leaders know they are responsible for steering the boat. If the boat is going the wrong direction, the leader must figure out why, how to correct it, and make sure they don't blame others for their lack of leadership.

If you aren't sure how to do this, then get busy developing your leadership skills.

There are no bad teams only ineffective leaders.

4) Offer opportunities

Team members need opportunities to develop and when you trust them with projects or tasks, you are demonstrating you trust THEM. And, you will build influence with them because you are building trust when you offer them opportunities to shine.

Give your team members an opportunity to shine with a high profile project. Make sure they have the resources and you have removed the roadblocks so they can be successful. It's not unlike when your child started learning to walk. You hold their hand, give them guidance, move the rug out of the way, and catch them before they bump their head on the coffee table. Give them an opportunity and get out of their way, but do everything in your power to make sure they have what they need to be successful.

5) Offer development

There are many ways to offer development for team members. You'll notice most of these cost little to nothing - and your influence as a leader will soar when you help your team be successful as PEOPLE.

Onsite Leadership Development Sessions

Kickstart and sustain your organizational growth initiative with live, engaging sessions to motivate and inspire leaders and team members.

Provide Resources for Leadership Development

Create a company library with leadership development books. Invest in team members by giving them books. Encourage team members to listen to leadership podcasts or audio books. Finally, set the example. Leadership is more caught than taught.

Book Studies/Roundtable Sessions

Select a facilitator(s) to regularly lead a group of 4-10 in the break room, work area, or on the job site. Simply read and review one chapter together from leadership books every session. This takes approximately 15-20 minutes.

Identify Top Performers as Champions

Engage top performers by giving them opportunities to champion leadership development and organizational growth. Allow them to post motivational quotes or lead book studies to incentivize them.?

Online Video Courses

Enroll in our online Blue-Collar Leadership? Academy online video training courses to sustain the growth over time with short micro-lesson videos and fill-in-the-blank worksheets.

6) Learn to coach

If you’re in a formal position of authority, learn how to coach your team members by asking questions. Of course, only if you make a habit of listening to the answers is this helpful! Coaching is different than teaching. When teaching or training, you are transferring knowledge. When coaching, you are helping the person think through to a solution and often, you both will learn something. You will learn how they think. They will learn that you trust them enough to think. They will feel empowered and respected. You will have more influence with them if you coach them (when appropriate) instead of always just telling someone what to do.

7) Set the example

In order to be the leader your team wants to follow, you have to role model the behaviors and values that you expect in them. You will not have a high level of influence if you aren't "walking the talk."

Sometimes this means getting in and helping them do the work. Not micromanaging but show the team you aren't afraid to get your hands dirty and you won't ask them to do anything you aren't willing to do as well. Do you need someone to stay late? Are you willing to stay late? Be the example. If you want your team to keep a clean workplace, be willing to pick up trash. If you want your team to treat your customers well, then treat your team well.

Someone is always watching - be the leader worth following.

Have a leadership question? Get in touch: [email protected] or call me: 334-332-3526.