A big component of leadership is about influence and not control. Ronald Reagan once said, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He [or she] is the one that gets the people to do great things.” When you have the essential leadership skills to influence others, you also have the opportunity to positively shape and impact behaviors, attitudes, and perceptions. Additionally, influence uncovers one’s true motivation and drives performance.

Depending on your role, there may be instances where you lead when you have no authority. When I think back to the earlier days in my career as a Product Manager, leading by influence was one of the most important aspects of my job.

The old  “command and control” method does not work in today’s modern workplace. In fact, it leads to pushback and avoidance from team members.

When your peers are selective of their time, this means they have a choice as to how they spend it, and this ties strongly to influence. In a healthy organization, where positive influence is widespread, there is a shared goal and focus on what will truly advance a company’s mission and vision, thus making an impact. People in the organization are likely to feel more appreciated and empowered, because they make decisions based on how they are respected, involved, and engaged.

A leader’s ability to drive influence within an organization starts with the level of trust. Building certain trust helps to establish credibility and integrity as a leader. This can prove to be the most important element of one’s career.

Are you trustworthy?
As trust is a gradual process, it must be earned, especially when joining a new organization. This starts with being true to your word and dependable, while setting realistic team goals and expectations. Nothing can discredit you more than overpromising and under-delivering. As a leader, people are placing their faith and confidence in you. They trust you will make the right decisions at the right time to secure early wins.

Therefore, decisions should be strategically assessed and not rushed.

Not everything will go smoothly as there can be ups and downs. Being a humble, transparent, and genuine leader who is not afraid to admit his or her mistakes further builds trust and respect. It also shows that you are an imperfect human.

Time, budget, and resources can be quite finite, whether in a start-up or large matrix organization. Being an influential leader means prioritizing and saying “no” when necessary. You don’t want to be seen as the person who is overly-agreeable. Genuine and trusted leaders challenge ideas and their team to do better, especially when some things don’t make sense.

It also helps to remember that trust is a two-way street, as an influential leader shows trust of a team member’s ability and judgment that they can autonomously carry out specific projects, tasks, and responsibilities.

A leader who constantly self-promotes can dampen trust. Although team promotion is important for visibility, the key is to be selfless. Being a trustworthy leader who is open, honest, and unafraid to get involved in the trenches on team projects can make a lasting impression and impact. When you help others, they are more likely to want to help you.

Trust also comes from championing your internal values and beliefs, and doing what you believe to be right, even if you disagree. Undermining or  “second guessing” yourself or your values will only hurt your trustworthiness. Once you build a certain level of trust on all levels, meaningful relationships take hold.

Creating and nurturing key relationships
As an executive recruiter, I place many leaders in new senior level roles all over the world. The question I often get is,  “How can I establish a strong rapport early on by being influential?”

When onboarding at your new job, this can involve setting up informal meetings with colleagues, starting with coffee or lunch. You will want to find out what they care about the most, and how they want to accomplish their goals. 

Diving into these answers will help to plant seeds and spread influence. The purpose of these discussions, however, is to establish strong connections, while being an active listener. You are getting to know a team member as a person, not just professionally, but personally. Showing genuine interest and identifying where you can add value will also help to build trust, as you formulate a meaningful message that will truly resonate.

Aligning and communicating a strong message
When the time comes, you will want to be ready to “personalize” or tailor a specific message, idea, or goal to a group of colleagues. On an individual level, you will want to know what matters to each person, what motivates them, and in what context or situation they thrive.

For example, in Biopharma, your common goal or shared mission may be to ensure quality, affordability, and delivery of performance, whether through innovation of a novel therapeutic, drug, or biologic to better human life. On a more granular level, your colleagues may share the same “pain points,” but from different angles or viewpoints. After you’ve had numerous discussions with them, you will be better equipped to break down and understand each pain point in order to build your map of influence.

After focusing on the “big picture” and how you can better plug into each of these cross-functional teams, the path forward will become clearer over time, just like pieces of the puzzle all coming together. You could also think about some other influential leaders you could talk to and establish good rapport.

You may also find when expanding your network, that influence can and will extend into multiple layers. Influence spans not only horizontally across the organization, but vertically as well. In each scenario, you discover who is involved, at what stage, and how to effectively reach, influence, and involve them.

When pitching an idea to an R&D project leader, does he or she appreciate more of a data and results driven perspective? If so, perhaps an influential leader can best appeal to their analytical side by effectively leveraging or emphasizing scientific evidence or metrics.

On the other hand, the VP of Sales may want to know how your solution will help solve the need or problem of a customer. Explaining the algorithms you utilized that linked hundreds of genetic polymorphisms to drug sensitivity will likely be ineffective or inappropriate. Therefore, it is important to be flexible with your message. You may be surprised how an expert in their field may tend to only formulate or drive a message through a narrow lens or niche area. In this scenario, you may be seen as someone who is intelligent, but at the same time, closed-minded and not respectful of other’s opinions.

When ego gets in the way, it becomes more of a “one-size-fits-all” approach and message. You may be the world’s leading expert on Car T-cell therapy, but if you bog down your message with a scientific data dump, it will only hurt your influence in the long run.

Another great way to increase your influence is to build on other areas of knowledge and expertise by diving into all the latest industry trends and literature, and engaging in shared and productive discussions with your colleagues. This will help you to step out of your comfort zone, garner respect, and better relate to teams from different functions and backgrounds.

Delivering on your promise: leading by example
Nothing builds credibility and trust more than a leader who follows through on a promise to get results. A track record backed by success stories will speak for itself. As a result, team members will want to become more directly involved in your initiatives or strategies, as time goes on and you get more “wins.”

A pitfall to avoid is overreaching for the “big splash” in order to get noticed, such as trying to achieve too much, too soon. For example, this could be rushing to launch a new product in record time. Although this could raise eyebrows, this maverick-like approach will likely fall short and potentially lead to burn out.

Strong influence results from the unity and cohesiveness of team members throughout the evolution and journey of your work. Your team members will look back and remember how you got them involved and why they were valued. After all, their shared and inspired contributions ultimately led to the overall team and market success.

Inspiring others through impact, purpose, and passion
Passion and enthusiasm is contagious. A leader who is purpose-driven is able to incorporate this into the company culture, and day-to-day projects. As these projects come to life, so does the impact and meaning of the work to the team and the world.

Be the leader who is excited by what your organization’s mission stands for. Your passion manifests itself and drives the true motivation behind your work, and inspires belief in others. Belief fuels others to keep moving forward.

Although influence can be hard to measure, it is certainly not invisible. Increasing your capacity to influence others will help to build both credibility and a reality based on tangible values.

Overall, aligning and balancing trust, passion, and belief with meaningful relationships will further increase impactful levels of influence that can span into many areas of your life. As you continue to inspire, encourage, and be persuasive, this will drive new success throughout your career.