Leveraging Influence for Greater Impact in 2020
It's a start of a new decade! What will you celebrate on December 31st? In just a little over 350 days we will be upon another New Year’s Celebration. In this time span each of us has the opportunity to make an impact if we choose to do so. We are all uniquely equipped to use your influence to make a greater impact in 2020 than you did in 2019. The question is “What will you do with it?"
Let’s start with the basics…What is Influence? According to Dictionary.com it is “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.” According to John Maxwell, “leadership is influence.” Everyone influences others. You don’t have to be famous You Tuber or in a high-profile job to be an Influencer. Whenever your life connects with another person, you exert influence.
Influence is powerful. It can…
shift your mindset to pursue a new goal you never knew was possible
change your shopping habits
motivate a disenfranchised group to rebel
unite a community after tragedy
and, when used collectively it can lead to greater impact
When I was younger in my career I didn’t understand the impact of influence until I created the P&G Resident Scholar Program, a unique job shadowing experience to expose minority youth to careers leveraging STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Through that program I was able to share my experiences as a minority woman in STEM while leveraging many of the skills I use today as a coach, speaker and trainer. It afforded me the opportunity to show minority youth the possibilities of what they could become. The program touched hundreds of students and many, many P&G volunteers.
No matter what your goals are in life, you can achieve them faster, be more effective and the contribution can be longer lasting if you learn to leverage your influence for a greater impact. The Resident Scholar Program vision was bigger than me and the impact has surpassed what I could have imagined at its conception. It expanded beyond P&G. Many of those students are now STEM leaders impacting the world and generations to come.
How will you leverage your influence for a greater impact in 2020?
In “Learning to Become a Person of Influence," John Maxwell shares several characteristics of a person of influence. I would like to highlight 3 for you to consider:
Nurture Other People. It frees them to reach their potential.
Enlarge People. It helps them to stretch in order for their dreams to translate into reality.
Connect with People. It facilities relationship-building where people are in their journey and will help you understand their needs.
Let’s go back to the original question, What will you celebrate on December 31st? If what you jotted down on January 1st to lead you there can be accomplished by you alone, then you’re thinking way too small. Consider using your influence to make a greater impact in 2020 and the decade to come.
