Courage

We have for too long now believed that influence is the practice of what we “do” to people. We persuade them. We negotiate with them. We manipulate them. We intimidate them. We coerce them. We feel if we get them to do what we want, we are influential.

However, these are external actions. While they may influence others, they don’t make us, at the core, influencers. 

The goal of every leader is to be influential, not by merely using tactics but as an expression of who they actually are.   The good news is that real influence - being influential - can be cultivated, learned, and enhanced. Essentially, becoming influential is a process.

For any organization to move forward, they must possess a clear and clarified vision. Even though many organizations do have a clear vision, they fail to reach it. Why?

It’s what I call The Fear Gap.

The distance between the you-are-here point and the vision of where-you-should-be point is what I call The Fear Gap. The farther the vision is from the current status quo, the more room there is for fear to enter and cause us to retreat from accomplishing the vision. We have the potential to interject our personal and organizational fears into this gap, which leads to action paralysis.

What Causes This Fear?

A large part of avoiding or overcoming The Fear Gap is knowing what triggers this response with us.

Part Three in our series on the Seven Commitment Traits and Coaching Leaders.

In Part Two, we looked at coaching commitment. Next, we will discuss the third of the Seven Influence Traits™—Courage.

The Cowardly Lion

Little Toto, now that he had an enemy to face, ran barking toward the Lion, and the great beast had opened his mouth to bite the dog, when Dorothy, fearing Toto would be killed and heedless of danger, rushed forward and slapped the Lion upon his nose as hard as she could, while she cried out:

Through examining how servant leadership is tied to each of the Keller Seven Influence Traits® and strengthening each of these traits, a crucial step will be taken in creating a healthy culture of servant leaders.

 You’re hard wired to do what’s best for you in most situations; all you need to do is learn to follow your gut instincts. Animals do it day in and day out and it works fairly well for them. They do what comes naturally and typically they do more than stay alive; they thrive!

We were given a gift of intuition and we should rely on it more often. Ignoring it can often lead to very bad results!

5 ways to approach an anxiety-producing scenario with courage instead of fear.

Don't let adversity get you down.  Learn to take the challenges posed by adversity and turn them into stepping stones to get you back on track.