The word influencer has changed in recent years, and when the word influencer is thrown around, there is often a social media connotation. This blog is not about those people. Right now, I do not care about how many followers you have or how many likes your last tweet got. I care about how you influence the people in front of you every single day. Every leader and every “boss” is an influencer, whether they want to be or not. Great leaders are positive influencers, and bad bosses are negative influencers. There are three types of influencers, and I urge you to be two of them.
The first type of influencers can influence large groups of people. You will find these types of influencers in executive roles and as keynote speakers. They are great orators with a strong message, and this message can give a large group of people a shared vision. Next time you sit in a large town-hall style meeting or watch a public address, make a note of who can inspire the crowd. Those people are strong group influencers.
The second type of influencers can negatively influence people. Unfortunately, sometimes, these influencers can be in management roles. These influencers intimidate, they do not listen, and they demand things to be done their way and their way only. Their behavior can be borderline harassment in some cases, and there really is no place in the modern management world for this type of influencer. This type of influencer can make a workplace worse than it needs to be, and I am sure as you are reading this, at least one person popped in your mind.
Finally, the third type of influencers can have a deep influence on just one person or a few people at a time. These influencers can create a deep connection through empathy, listening, and understanding. They truly hear what you are saying, and they can almost immediately relate and provide some perspective. These influencers can turn a negative situation around, and they can turn a positive situation up even further.
We all have all three of these influencers in us to some degree. Try to minimize the second type while invoking the first and third types of influencers. All three types change the world every day, be the first and third type to change the world for the better.
Servant Leadership 