Four Rules of Influence

John Maxwell says that leadership is influence. You can't lead without it. You can drive people without it, but that won't work for long. Leadership by fear or intimidation is doomed for failure.

Chris Widner’s new book, The Art of Influence, gives the proper emphasis regarding the topic of influence. He says in this entertaining short story, that influence is a gift followers give you because you have become the kind of person they want to follow and be influenced by. He provides four rules of influence:

• Living a Life of Undivided Integrity. Notwithstanding that integrity is in fact being undivided, he writes that while leaders do make mistakes, followers “do expect their leaders to admit and correct their mistakes, mend the cracks in their integrity, if you will. Left unchecked, eventually a lack of integrity erodes the trust that is needed between a leader and a follower.”
• Always Demonstrate a Positive Attitude. People respond to optimism. Bad things happen. And when they do, you need to ask not “Why did this happen to me?” but “What’s next?” or “What good can come from this?” “You are choosing to believe that something good can come from negative circumstances and that the future will be better than the present.”
• Consider Other People’s Interests as More Important Than Your Own. “Even more important than being interesting, is being interested.”
• Don’t Settle For Anything Less Than Excellence. Widner encourages us to grow our influence by improving ourselves around seven areas of excellence: physical appearance, emotional health, intellectual growth, spiritual depth, relationships, financial success, and charitable giving. Excellence is in the details.

Integrity - What Is It, Really?

Richard Dortch was an Assembly of God state overseer when Jim Bakker hired him to come to PTL before the demise. He was brought on board as an executive and member of the Board of Directors of PTL.

In his book, Integrity: How I Lost It, and My Journey Back, he describes how the position, prestige, and authority led him and Jim Bakker to believe they could bend the rules because they were anointed to do the work of PTL.

It's kind of like a God syndrome. Once one believes that God has put them on a pedestal, they then begin to believe that their thoughts are God's thoughts, their words are God's words, and they can do no wrong. If challenged, they react with the presumption that they can do no wrong. Everyone lacks integrity but them. It seems easier to defend actions than to honestly examine them. They are quicker to attack than to admit.

Admissions require courage! When we summon the courage to take ownership of our experiences, to see them just as they are, to feel them, we will recover the blueprints of our lives. We will face our fears and find the transparent beliefs that create them. Becoming more honest with ourselves means introducing more honesty into the collective consciousness of the world, and this lays a foundation upon which an enlightened planetary civilization can be built.

If someone tells you that they have not committed any transgressions, realize you are talking to either a saint or a liar. Human beings make mistakes. They are supposed to. That’s how they learn. Human knowledge is the product of mistakes. It is only when the mistakes are hidden or become intentional (as in a hidden agenda) that they lead to inflexible viewpoints. It is how you handle a transgression that is important, not why you did it.

The wrong way to handle a transgression is to hide it, or to justify it, or to deny it. These are the actions (hiding, justifying and denial) that harden consciousness into an inflexible identity. Hardened consciousness projects a reality that can be viewed only in one way. Listen to these responses. Would you make them?
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“I didn't do it.”
“They made me do it.”

Creating these beliefs is like pouring concrete into your mind.

The solution is to begin to practice self-honesty from this point forward. I will exert my best efforts to become less deceitful, to be more fair in my dealings, more sincere in my speech, more deserving of trust and MORE FORGIVING.