The Secret of Influential Leaders (Part 1: Power Distancing)

Influential leaders seem to have mastered a secret. They stand out. But what strategies are they implementing?

They aren’t following mainstream leadership advice — that content is stale and generic. No matter your industry or discipline, the messages are all blending together into a pot of “meh.” 

Almost every book and blog you pick up will teach you the same things: empathy, vulnerability, servant leadership. I’ll summarize it like this: be authentic and treat your people like family.

This is fine advice, and it has its place, but following it also keeps you down in the crowd. You’re absorbing the same content as everyone else, which has its costs. As Japanese writer Murakami said: 

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

We all know that the best leaders differentiate themselves. They stand out; they’re remarkable. And as they find a way to become a signal amidst the noise, they earn the opportunity to make an impact.

That’s your task — to stand out so that you can drive the change you seek to make.

In a world that argues for leaders to be magnetically close to people and issues, you’ll take Peter Thiel‘s contrarian advice and do a 180.

Influential leaders decide to be deliberately distant.

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