In this TED Talk, Simon Sinek attributes success to leaders who think, act, and communicate the exact same way. He further elaborates on why some leaders are able to influence great action by suggesting a simple model.
In the present business environment, leaders navigate complex challenges that require more than technical expertise or strategy. One of the most crucial skills to master for leadership success is influence. Leadership influence includes the ability to guide, inspire, and align teams toward a common goal. The capacity to garner support from stakeholders for implementing decisions is a part of strategic influence.
Leadership coaching helps build influence and drive action. Working with professional leadership coaches helps leaders to refine their influence skills, enabling them to drive consensus and prompt meaningful action.
Contents
Understanding Influence in Leadership
Influence in leadership is the power to shape outcomes without relying on authority or coercion. It involves fostering trust, credibility, and connection with stakeholders—whether they are employees, peers, clients, or external partners. True influence allows leaders to:
- Encourage ideas, strategies, and changes.
- Create psychologically safe environments in workplaces.
- Navigate resistance and resolve conflicts amicably, with the focus being on goal alignment.
- Motivate teams to act decisively with commitment.
- Foster collaboration across different functions and departments.
- Leave a legacy of leadership based on trust, accountability, and openness.
How Leadership Coaching helps you build Influence
Leadership coaching provides a structured approach to developing influence, offering leaders the tools and frameworks necessary to enhance their ability to drive consensus and action. Some of the key ways leadership coaching fosters influence include:
Deepening Self-Awareness
Leadership coaching helps individuals reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, and behavioral patterns.
Assessments, feedback, and guided introspection, coaching enables leaders to recognize their communication style and the impact of their decisions on others. Cultivating self-awareness can be considered to be the first step in refining influence strategies.
Suggested read:
Strengthening Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is at the heart of influence. A leader who can manage emotions, their own and their teams, is more effective in building relationships and fostering collaboration. Leadership coaching helps leaders develop:
- Empathy
- Self-regulation of own emotions
- Social skills when interacting with others
- Tuning into the feelings of others during conversation
A leader with a strong emotional quotient can engage with their teams and peers in ways that nurture trust and cooperation. This automatically increases their ability to influence effectively.
Connected read:
Developing Solid Interpersonal Communication Skills
Leaders have the responsibility to communicate their vision and ideas to the concerned stakeholders in a persuasive manner that garners them support and drives action. Leadership coaching focuses on refining communication skills that include:
- Storytelling that includes narratives that inspire teams and peers with an ability to connect emotionally.
- Active listening for truly understanding the other person’s point of view.
- Clarity and brevity while speaking to deliver messages that are clear and impactful.
- Picking on emotional content in a meeting and feeding it back to drive clarity with senior stakeholders
Through role-playing exercises and feedback, coaching helps leaders to fine-tune their communication skills, ensuring they can engage and persuade their audience effectively.
Connected read:
Enhancing Trust and Credibility
Influence is strongest when built on trust and credibility. Leaders who are perceived as authentic, transparent, and consistent earn the respect and loyalty of their teams. Leadership coaching supports trust-building by helping leaders:
- Align their words with actions.
- Demonstrate integrity in decision-making.
- Show vulnerability and admit when they don’t have all the answers.
- Sharing boldly what they think and feel about an issue
With these qualities, leaders cultivate an environment where people are more likely to support their vision and collaborate willingly whenever required.
Mastering Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Driving consensus involves navigating differing opinions and resolving conflicts along the way. Leadership coaching equips leaders with techniques to negotiate effectively, such as:
- Identifying common ground to find shared interests to create suitable solutions.
- Keeping discussions productive rather than venturing into hostile areas.
- Leveraging influence styles that adapt different approaches based on the audience and situation.
With these skills, leaders can guide discussions toward mutually beneficial outcomes, strengthening their ability to influence and drive action.
Connected read:
Example of Madhav building Influence:
Madhav’s goal was to be included in the Executive Council of his organization in 18 months time. Coaching included some of these steps and more
- Madhav got a map of his key stakeholders ready.
- Together we assessed his relationship with these individuals, including looking at where were weak and strong bridges.
- We together mapped a few predictable possibilities to rekindle a strong relationship with these stakeholders through a variety of different events, conversations during his visits/trips to HQ, and tuning into what these stakeholders cared about
- Madhav began to see influence as a long journey of 1-2 years, where he realistically could build stepping stones towards creating both trust and value. Coaching enabled him to see influence as a slow cooking process rather than a flash in the pan idea
- He began to pay attention to his reputation, credibility, and perception by all his stakeholders, including his team and peers, which he had ignored before, especially by not handling situations of conflict wisely.
- We worked together on his listening skills through somatic awareness exercises. He understood that the more he learnt to tune in and listen to what was important to the other he would be able to craft an offer that was found useful, and this helped him build credibility.
Final Thoughts
Mastering influence is a critical skill for leaders seeking to drive consensus and action. Leadership coaching provides a well-defined dynamic approach to develop this vital capability. Organizations that invest in leadership coaching not only empower individual leaders but also foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and alignment, leading to long-term success.
By leveraging leadership coaching, leaders can transform their ability to influence, ensuring they inspire teams, build strong coalitions, and drive impactful change.
To learn more about leadership coaching services offered by Physis, click here.
Suggested further read:
