77. Is Influence Overrated?

Foreign Kenny Chapman here, your host of leadership in a nutshell. We're cracking the code on the driven mind and primarily for home service contractors, people just like you and me that have this monkey brain going crazy and we're trying to corral it in. Today we are episode 77 and we're talking about is influence overrated? So, you know, here we are living in a world of the influencers, right? So, you know, I'm going to talk about that in a moment. But influence means a lot of different things to a lot of people. And one of the things I want us to really kind of zero in on here today with our time together is, number one, influence is incredibly powerful. It's one of the factors that literally makes the world go round. And well, I got maybe figuratively makes the world go round, but you know what I'm talking about. It's why we do what we do. We follow influencers. And I don't mean from the social media realm, I mean people that make an impact on you, people that inspire you, people that motivate you, people that help paint a picture for you, people that are in a place that you might want to be, that have a story that you want to understand, that have a goal that you want to go to as well. Like, that's the type of influence that I think about and I want to kind of focus on here today as, as we play full out together. So the first thing I want to really touch on is there's different times and ways and just like all the different things that evolve in your career as a leader, there's what is influence used for? It's used to help create vision and paint vision and really share vision. So when you're at a space of kind of a top level leader, then you're using it maybe at your company meeting and maybe with your leadership team and sometimes with bankers or investors, like, hey, this is the vision. This is where I see us going. This is where I really have the awareness of what we want to create. And then there's an area of goals that influence can also come into play with and impact goals and what our goals are set at, what we want to accomplish as a team, as an organization, organization, as a department, whatever that may look like. And then we also utilize influence when it comes to building alignment. And you know, when we're creating alignment and sometimes when we're building leadership teams and we are, are kind of coming together, create there's influence that certainly comes to light when it involves alignment. So really we have vision we have goals and we have alignment. And one of the things that we want to understand and honor is how it varies by level of leadership. So this podcast is largely focused on leadership, obviously. And in a nutshell, for lack of a better term, it very much depends on where you are in the organization and sometimes where you are in life. Because is it possible that you've been in an influencer role maybe before your time or before the clock says it's your time? So you might be a young leader that was a great service technician or a selling technician, and suddenly you find yourself in the role of a service management role or a field supervisor because you're good at your job, but you're young or maybe you look young, right? So how you influence can definitely vary greatly by level. In fact, in my own world, I became an entrepreneur. I started as a dead broke drain cleaner with my own company when I was 23 years old. And so at 23, I still had that baby face on sport today, baby. But I looked young when I was 23. And so what happened was there was a previous owner of the business. It was a small company, one truck operator for eight years. He did $12,000 in revenue the year before I bought the business. Yes, great acquisition, Kenny. So I bought a bad job from a guy, and then I had a bad job that I was paying for. So how. But anyway, that's how I got in, and I won't spend any more time there. But the reality was that I didn't have any influence with customers. I didn't know what I was doing. I had no business being in business. And this gentleman named Richard used to own the company. So I would show up and I was wearing a T shirt and jeans like a good drain cleaner would in the 90s. And I show up and they go, where's Richard? I'm like, well, Richard sold me the business. Why? Because my ego had something to do with that. I'm going to talk to you about that in a couple of episodes too, coming up. But I was like, oh, yeah, no, he sold me that business. And they went, what? You're not old enough to own the company? Literally. I had clients tell me that, like, you're not old enough to own the business. And I went, huh? So I had a little ego that I wanted to own the business, but I had more ego that I wanted to become successful. So I said, oh, okay, well, let me put on a uniform. So I put on, like one of the gas station attendants. I'd worked at the Grease Monkey for One of my uncles when I was in high school. So I put on what I looked like a lube shop uniform. And when I wore that to the door, people didn't ask me where Richard was because they just made an assumption that I worked for him. So I couldn't influence them as an owner of the business, but I could influence them as a technician of the business. So, yeah, I started wearing uniforms before it was popular. How about that? I'm just playing. But the reality is that there's different levels, right, as we go through. And obviously, you know, I can't record this episode with you on, on Influence without just touching on. There's an influencer frenzy going on. And whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, like, whatever the new ones are that I'm not aware of yet because my nieces and nephews haven't told me. But there's this massive influence. And so what happens is there's this kind of caution and a concern. I actually personally believe that we're raising a generation now. It's going to be healthy for all the challenges that we're going through with this kind of reality. I see my nieces and nephews seeing things online and seeing influencers do things, and they start to go, is that real? Did that actually happen? Or did they stage that? And I think we need to question authority, and I think we need to question what's going on in the world. And so I think that's going to be a good thing. But what that means is we're going to start questioning influence, and we're going to start questioning authority at a whole new level. And so when we think about influence and authority, so early in your career, you might start, you know, with. You're influencing your peers. And maybe. I mean, heck, I think back to my army days when I was an E1, as a private in the United States Army. I. I had a buddy that influenced me. We were the same. We were the same rank, but he influenced me. Trying to skip out of duty and do different things and whatever. And you know that old saying, wherever you go, there you are. Wait a minute, hang on, wait. I found my peeps even in the military, right? But the fact is, you start influencing peers in your organization right now, junior technicians are influencing junior technicians, apprentices are influencing apprentices, Techs are influencing each other. And then the other interesting thing is now we get a little time in grade, we start understanding the way the roles are and the way the world works in your own organization. And then sometimes People influence the boss, right? And now all of a sudden I'm influencing my service manager because I don't want to take that call or I don't want to run that to. I don't want to take a 4 o' clock and drive across town. Now I can start influencing my boss based on my own performance sometimes. And then we go on up and say, okay, well in a management role then I definitely influence and create some influence around my own direct reports and how that shows up. And so think about that for yourself and do me a favor and just, you know, like rate review this podcast and just copy this episode and kick it to somebody else on your team and somebody else maybe in your own peer group of other company owners or leaders where it's like, hey, let's keep this conversation around influence going and understanding that there's up and down influence, if you will, and there's cross channel influence, right? We talk a lot about cross selling and marketing. Well, there's cross influence going on. How your H VAC department operates, operates, is influencing how your electrical division operates, which also may have an influence on how plumbing and drains operates. And your install department influences how service happens and your marketing influences how your call taking department operates and so on and so forth all the way through the organization. Right? So is influence overrated? I don't think it is. I think we're just getting started. What I would say is that we've got to remember authority and authenticity. So where I want to hang my hat, where I encourage you to hang your hat, is around authentic influence. That's where we draw the line between these quote influencers on social media. And I'm not dogging anybody or bashing anybody. I don't know enough about it to know other than what I see and hear from my nieces and nephews that you know, hey, there's some different stuff that might not be real or authentic that is influencing some thinking, some thought process, some, some different ways that information's being filtered, whatever that is. That's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about is you face to face with your team. Even if it's on zoom or camera or whatever levels of shutdowns or open ups or different things that happen in the universe based on the, the quote, craziness of pandemics. And whatever happens, I'm talking about authentic authority. And in my upcoming book that'll come out in early 22, I'll talk about one of the laws of leadership is authentic abundance. And so when I talk about authentic. I'm talking through and through. And when it comes to influence, when you're true to who you are. And first off, you can't be true to who you are until you take a little bit of time and do a little bit of work and really explore and uncover who you truly are as a leader. And as a leader, you uncover how you are as a leader, sometimes uncovering who you are as a follower. And sometimes you uncover who you are as an influencer, as a peer, as to how you might influence the manager or direct reports influenced by the manager. So with influence, no, it's not overrated, in my own opinion. Challenge me on that. I'd love to hear your feedback. But I also want you to just think about these three areas. There's three ways that we really create influence. Number one, there's influence through logic. Okay, so, yeah, look, here's the deal. It's black and white. This logically makes sense. This is where we need to go. So we could put logic in air quotes and say, it's the head. So I come to you and influence you through logic. I'm speaking to your head. If I come to you and I use another opportunity of influence, which is emotion, right? So I can influence you with logic. Like, this is exactly what needs to happen. It's black and white. It's cut and dry. That's a logical situation of why I need you to do what I need you to do. Number two, Then we go to emotion and put heart in air quotes. That's when I'm speaking to your heart. Logic. I'm speaking to your head. Emotion. I'm tapping on your heartstrings. I'm going to feeling. And that's where it might not really make sense logically, but, man, this is what it feels like. That's where vision comes in and that's where goals and like, oh, my gosh, I don't even know if we can do that. But, man, I believe it. I feel it. There's something within my being that's resonating somehow in my heart. I feel this. So we've got logic in the head, emotion in the heart. And then third and last but not least by any stretch is influenced through cooperation and put hands or touch in air quotes there. So that's where I'm influencing by getting people engaged with me and getting team involved with me and getting our fingerprints on the change that we want to create. That's the reality. And when we take and structure authentic influence and we mix in a little bit of logic, like, hey, this really makes sense for us. And I get that in my head. And then we sprinkle in a little bit of emotion and go. You know, I can feel that in my heart as I'm saying it it right now. Like, man, I. And I'm a. And I'm a heart guy. Like, that's. I spend a lot more time in emotion and feeling than I do logic. And my life reflects that. Right? And hopefully my Logical enough to honor my truth, which your feelings and your truth and your connection to the divine, they never lie. It's just a matter of us accepting and honoring what that is. And then if I mix in a sprinkle of cooperation with my team, my peers, my managers, my direct reports, if we can all kind of play together with. Put our fingerprints on it, put our hands on it, maybe touch it and feel it, and do some things together. Logic, emotion, cooperation. Now I'm on to something, my friend. Is influence overrated? Absolutely not. Maybe certain kinds of influence are overrated, but certainly not authentic authority. Utilizing logic, emotion, and cooperation. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host of leadership. In a nutshell, this has been episode 77. Please do me a favor. Like it, rate it, review it, share it with somebody. Let's keep growing this amazing community that you've blessed me with until we talk. Make it a better than fantastic week, and we'll talk to you real soon. Thank you.