The Ripple Effect of Influence

As we looked at both fostering a mentorship culture and how humility serves as a counter to firm positional authority, I was very intentional each time in using the term “leadership legacy.” John Maxwell opens the final chapter in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, “The Law of Legacy,” by saying that “A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession.” Here are a few of the quotes John goes on to share throughout that chapter:

• “Success is not measured by what you’re leaving to, but by what you are leaving behind.” - Chris Musgrove
• “We have made at least a start in discovering the meaning in human life when we plant shade trees under which we know full well we will never sit.” - Elton Trueblood
• “A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” - Jackie Robinson

While I’ll never suggest that all of our relationships need to be based solely on the premise of leadership, I will say that every relationship - personal or professional - has some sort of impact on the lives of everyone involved. And whether we like it or not, there’s no such thing as neutral; we’re moving forward intentionally or we’ve chosen to allow the world to move forward without us, and are therefore moving backward intentionally. In either case, the influence we have is a weight on one side of the scale.

If our reach is limited to the positional authority that comes with our title, any potential positive ripple we make most likely ends when the employment relationship does - if there’s ever a positive ripple to speak of. By earning influence with others around us, those ripples go far beyond what we may ever see or even know about; I suppose that’s why my friend Mark often tells me about never knowing this side of heaven who gets value from things I’ve written… When we’ve earned genuine influence and we choose to sow positive into each person we interact with, the results carry on long after we move in other directions.

My grandmother passed away in August 2020, just a month before her 97th birthday. She lost a lot of mobility in her last few years but she volunteered in various roles throughout the community she lived in into her early 90s. She frequently commented on how she couldn’t do as much as she once did, but she was happy to be able to help out where she was able. Each time we talked about it, I made sure to emphasize how much of a positive impact I knew she had on every person she interacted with. More than a decade removed from her serving in those volunteer roles, and still routinely hearing from people who knew her during that time, I’m confident that the influence she earned as a volunteer had more of a positive ripple effect than most of the highly paid executives who ran the community.

As I’ve mentioned before, many of the mentors I’ve been blessed with have always been intentional about sharing who taught them what. Seeing someone I’ve had the chance to pass things onto pass those lessons on to people they’re mentoring is a snapshot of the overall impact we can have through the ripple effect of influence. Tying things I learned from Kevin that he learned from a guy named Dave, knowing that I had a hand in Jake picking it up and now teaching it to the folks he works with, I’m confident that would have never been the case if any of it were based on title alone. We’ll look at how influence helps us overcome the inevitable resistance that comes with initiating any kind of change next. First though, I’ll challenge you to seek a team member you’ve mentored and ask them to share a lesson you’ve taught them; not to inflate your ego, but so you get a glimpse of the ripple effect you’re a part of.

Overcoming Resistance with Influence

I realize I’ve shared it several times already, but I don’t believe it’s possible to overstate John Maxwell’s comment that “Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less.” As I detailed how having the humility to ask our son to change his behavior (while still explaining the potential results if he chose not to) rather than throwing around our parental authority helped us avoid at least a little bit of turmoil over the years. Even by just remembering to choose humility over authority on occasion, I was able to earn more of his trust. That has compounded over the years since to produce a tremendous ripple effect; in our relationship and through the impact I see him making as a husband and father today. The same applies in our professional relationships, and every bit of that influence we earn plays a critical role when (not if) we need to overcome resistance.

Early on, I listed exactly how many people I’ve seen openly welcome change during my career: aside from the person driving any specific change initiative, no one openly welcomes it. Most of the folks I’ve seen initiating change have more than a fair amount of resistance when they’re not driving the ship. A good mentor navigates resistance to change by practicing patience, but the influence they’ve earned - rather than the authority of their position - will be the determining factor in overcoming that resistance.

From May 2000 through February 2001, my primary responsibility was to implement the “5S” process - one piece of our overall corporate lean manufacturing initiative - across various departments within our facility. As I mentioned previously, I held zero positional authority and received very little support from the folks who did. My job was to work with team members to rearrange their work areas, organize how they stored all the different types of tooling required for fabricating and assembling exhaust systems, and to encourage them to get rid of (or at least relocate) anything they didn’t use frequently. Just in case you’re not tracking, this involved massive change to how many of them had done their jobs for longer than I had been alive.

When I left that role and accepted the position facilitating our location’s behavior-based safety process, I was no longer asking folks to get rid of their special wrench they used once every seventeen years but I had frequent conversations about how changing their behavior could reduce or eliminate what I saw as potential for them to be injured. While asking someone to make a slight change in how they moved didn’t require them to give up a tool they had developed an emotional attachment to, the resistance was still there - albeit more passive since it involved consciously changing a habit. And even if that behavioral change was something as simple and straightforward as wearing their safety glasses, I still had no positional authority to make them (although safety glasses were indeed required).

In either case, I saw plenty of examples where supervisors or managers demanded similar changes to what I was working to achieve, in various lean manufacturing initiatives and with safety compliance. The most common approach used by folks with those titles relied largely on their authority: do it, or else! That usually led to the desired results, at least until the supervisor or manager returned to their office. Once they were out of sight, team members typically returned to business as usual; gloves came off and safety glasses disappeared. I remember a time where an entire Kan-Ban system ended up in a scrap hopper while the manager overseeing the implementation had a few days off.

I won’t begin to suggest that I achieved flawless results in the 5S implementation or the behavior-based safety process, but the changes I was able to help initiate generally stuck because they were based on the influence I had earned rather than positional authority (because I had none). In the areas where I had earned the most influence, I was able to overcome at least some resistance. There were, however, folks I never earned influence with. The only way they complied with any initiative I was a part of was if their manager forced the issue. Even then, their compliance was halfhearted (at best) and only lasted as long as the manager was nearby. But even with the folks I had earned a reasonable level of influence with, buy-in to change was slow unless I could balance that influence with just the right amount of confidence that the change I was asking them to make would actually benefit them.

Balancing Confidence with Influence

In wrapping our look at the strength of humility, I stress the need for a confidence-humility balance in order to earn trust and buy-in that rarely comes through the sheer force of authority. With that being tied predominantly to the importance of developing and maintaining humility when our title tells everyone around that we’re in charge - at least when they’re in our line of sight - I was very intentional about challenging you to consider who you were most receptive to receiving direction or guidance from; an arrogant boss or a humble peer. The reality, at least for me, is that humility gains buy-in where arrogance slams the doors. The individual’s title has little to do with it. Arrogant input is automatically received as constructive criticism where even the most candid conversation delivered through a spirit of humility quickly takes the shape of alliance feedback.

With each role I held during all my years in manufacturing, it was critical for me to balance humility with confidence. I, personally, didn’t possess the authority to demand compliance so humbly requesting support was a very necessary step. That said, I couldn’t rightfully expect that support without having the utmost confidence in the process I was charged with implementing. Through all that, though, I did have some management support backing me - be that from a few managers locally or from the corporate office. Let’s be honest, it’s easier to be confident when you know someone (even if they’re a thousand miles away) is standing behind you.

With that in mind, let’s fast forward to the present day. When Cindy and I work with a group, whether that’s 15-20 supervisors and managers on-site for a specific organization or we’re speaking to hundreds of leaders from across the country within a specific industry, the only authority we can ever hope to gain will come from earning authentic influence. Those folks may, and I stress MAY, receive direction from someone in their organizations detailing how they take action on something we’ve shared, but we never rely on that. Our responsibility is to display complete confidence in the message we share while modeling a level of humility that allows each participant to connect with us on a personal level. When they can feel both through everything we say and do during our time with them, they understand that we’ve walked in their shoes and recognize the issues they face. And we never stop (or even start) there; from the time we arrive, we’re intentional about having as much one-on-one interaction as we possibly can. We talk with as many individuals as time allows for and we learn as much as we can about them - personally and professionally. Doing that allows us to tailor our delivery to their specific situations and needs. We’re extremely confident that when applied, the material we share gets results - because we’ve lived it personally. Balancing that confidence with the humility to meet each audience member where they are helps influence how they receive our message and the action they take afterward.

I realize that your interaction with the team members you lead is significantly different from what Cindy and I do. It doesn’t matter. Any time we pair confidence with humility, especially when we show each person we interact with that we genuinely understand and care for them, it boosts the influence we have in their life. And regardless of the power we can wield through our title or position, that influence earns trust and long term results we’d never achieve by expecting that our team members comply with our overconfident demands. (Remember how that turned out in my story from late 2012?) Before I tie this look at influence over authority together with a larger call to action, I’d like you to think about how you can immediately practice a confident yet humble approach in a conversation to strengthen your influence.

A Call to Lead with Influence

Every title and position has its limitations; for our investments into relationships to have a lasting impact, the influence we earn will always trump any authority we hold. That influence, especially when balanced with a healthy dose of humble confidence, can produce a ripple effect that reaches farther than we’ll ever see.

In every aspect of Leveraging Leadership Growth that we’ve worked through to this point, I’ve emphasized the value so many amazing mentors have provided for me - the strength I’ve gained through those great professional relationships. At the risk of minimizing the crucial difference many of them have made in my life, I’ll reference Terry once more before making a specific call to action.

While there have indeed been many mentors who played key roles in my leadership growth, some during times I might not have been able to navigate successfully otherwise, the timing, longevity, and consistency that Terry provided stands out. After speaking at an event near his home a while back, Cindy and I had the opportunity to catch up with Terry over dinner. At that point, he had been a part of my life for around twenty-five years. (If you’re not completely convinced of the power God’s hand can have in our lives, reach out to me directly and ask about the timing of meeting Terry and Cindy…) Before we were even waited on, Terry handed me a yellow sticky-note that had ten specific dates with brief details for each. As we talked, he shared exactly what he remembered about them all, and we proceeded to discuss at least as many more. Nearly two hours later, we headed our separate directions but I would have been fine if it had gone all evening. That said, our dog-sitter’s time was up and we still have a two hour drive to get home.

I can make direct ties to the influence Terry (and many others) has earned with me to everything I’ve shared to this point. Make no mistake, though, influence transcends boundaries that authority never will. In 2016, as part of the second large public event we ever hosted, Terry served as part of an executive panel. I can’t remember his topic, but I can vividly picture him - a West Point graduate, Army Veteran, and Bronze Star recipient - in tears as he told the audience about a simple thank you card I had sent him a few months prior. Before that, I had often asked Terry how I could ever repay him for all he was investing into helping me grow. His response was always, “Pay it forward.” Seeing his emotion in front of that group was the first time I realized that I was on the right track to fulfilling his request - and I’ve been diligent about continuing that process ever since.

Nearly ten years later, Terry joined us for another event as a spectator. During the lunch break, he was intentional about talking with my mom and my son. He hadn’t met my mom before that and it had been close to twenty years since he had seen my son. He was extremely complimentary to both, but had to excuse himself to regain his composure before having the conversation with my son. For close to twenty-seven years, Terry had provided me with an amazing example of what servant leadership looked like; he had been my gold standard for what it looked like to lead with influence rather than through the authority of a title. Seeing the reach we had through that event, which was significantly greater than the one he had been part of years prior, and the man our son had grown into was just a small glimpse of the strength he’s helped me gain through our professional (and now personal) relationship.

Leadership thrives on influence, not authority, unlocking potential for anyone who’s willing to grab hold of it. My challenge for you is to commit to one influence-building action daily, aligning with each of the points we’ve worked through so far, and keep me posted on how that leverages your leadership growth. To do this to the best of our ability, though, we’ll need to come to terms with our own worth - so we’ll pick up there soon!