The Power of Influence in Leadership Development

To a large extent, leadership is influence, and all of us already exercise some influence – whether positive or negative. If somebody else is watching you, you are a leader. The moment you have a child of your own to raise, you are a leader. When you know more about a particular subject than others and can teach it to them, you are a leader. When you are placed in a position of responsibility over your peers, you are a leader. 
Leader who exercise positive influence don’t try to prove themselves to others. They are more concerned with “manifesting” themselves, or revealing the purpose they were born to fulfill. When you inspire other people through your passion, you never have to announce that you are a “leader.” People will think of you as a leader, and will call you one themselves, because you will have motivated them to do something – change the status quo, create something new, find a solution to a problem, and so forth. 
The essence of influence is the ability to motivate other people to take action and effect change. You can’t lead if you don’t influence. You can’t influence if you don’t inspired. You can’t inspire if you don’t have passion. And you won’t have passion unless you are convinced about your purpose, convictions, and vision.

As leaders go, so goes the world. Therefore, if we don’t do something about the global crisis in leadership we are experiencing today, the state of our society is going to grow worse and worse. Moral leadership is urgent in human affairs because the character of leaders for good or for ill – affects the lives of their followers. Let us look at some specific ways in which influence occurs.

Leaders Influence the Mind-set of the Followers
Leaders can transform people’s outlook to the point where their perspective becomes completely different from the way they formerly thought. Such influence is a tremendous power that all leaders need to acknowledge and discipline in their own lives, ensuring that they do not abuse it – especially since a change in mind-set almost leads to a change in behavior.

A leader can use rhetorical skills to convince people that what they believed was good is evil, and vice versa-altering their values and conduct. Followers must always weigh the consequences of what they hear and receive from their leaders.
In contrast, an enlightened perspective is a gift that true leaders can give their followers.

Leaders Influence the Characteristics and Attitudes of the Followers
A leader who holds deep convictions can transfer those convictions to others. For instance, he can rouse the fearful so that they will take bold and necessary action in the midst of a crisis. Winston Churchill, through his powerful speeches, stirred the English people to continue standing against Nazi Germany after the fall of France. In one of these speeches, he famously declared, “….the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin…. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘this was their finest hour.   

In contrast, a leader who lacks conviction can transfer his complacency or timidity to his followers. There is an account in one of the books of Moses in which Moses sent twelve leaders to scope out the Promised Land before the nation of Israel entered it. When the leaders returned, ten of them expressed their fear of the inhabitants, declaring that they were too strong to defeat “we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them. two of the leaders insisted they would still be victorious, but the people grumbled and took on the perspective of the ten who were afraid and felt like “grasshoppers” in their own eyes. As a result, the victory was delayed for forty years almost two generation. The people lost out, largely because they allowed the fearful mind -set of their leaders to infect them.

 Leaders influence the morality of the followers
The ethics of a leaders can sway those who follow him - ethics directly, through the corporate values that are encouraged through his leadership, or through his policies. If the leaders are high – ranking official over a nation, his morals can permeate an entire culture. You may come from a country in which the leaders have tremendous gifts, communicate well, and are competent in various leadership techniques -but are lacking in ethical convictions. Many leaders do not take responsibility for their actions. They feel they should experience no consequences when they betray the trust of their constituents, whether their employees, their families, or the public.

 Leaders influence the commitment of the followers
If leaders have strong conviction, his passion will become contagious among his followers, leading them to commit to his vision. Earlier, we talked about martin Luther king. In relation to how leader develop vision. King’s vision gave him a passion that inspired and influenced average” people such as housewives, carpenter, masons, teacher, and religious leader to march in nonviolent protest against the refusal of certain state in the nation of acknowledge and permit voting right for black. A number of them personally faced the resistance of policeman armed with club, dog, water hoses, and tear gas.

A leader’s commitment can be transferred to enough people that his personal conviction eventually becomes a national movement. A leader principle can initiate an irresistible process of reform. But if you meet it squarely and remain constant in your convictions, others will join you.

Leaders influence the Destiny of the followers
The influence of someone who has conviction can lead people to a destiny they might not otherwise have reached.

Conversely, the influence of a leader who lacks character can condemn his follower to an appalling fate. In the 1970s, cult leader Jim Jones convince people to live loved ones and in the jungles of Guyana. Several years later, he led 909 of his followers to their deaths by inducing them to drink cyanide – then he shot himself to death.

Adolf Hitler was a gifted politician and communicator, wielding tremendous influence over the German people. He held thousands of citizens spellbound as they listened to his speeches in person on the radio. His oration was so powerful that some people thought he was a god. Hitler had many characteristics of an effective leader. But his philosophy, his personal code of ethic, was immoral. It turned his leadership assets into frightening tools abuse.
Hitler didn’t value all of human life --- just a small segment of it. His warped value system created disaster for his nation and many other nations of the world. Millions of people died as a direct or indirect result of his reign. They were starved, died of disease, or were exterminated in concentration camps, and quarantined ghettos. While fighting World war II---- a war Hitler instigated----many people were killed in battle or died when they succumbed to disease or accident; others were wounded, maimed, or emotionally scarred for life. Multitudes lost loved ones and possession, seeing their entire way of life vanish. Today, the German people are still trying to come to grips with the question,” how could our people have let that happened and even have participated in it?
The lesson for us is that whatever we accommodate, we will ultimately embrace or be destroyed by. We are not any level----social, economic, emotional, physical, or spiritual ------ if we didn’t know the person we are following .we can’t afford to be complacent.