5 Ways to Improve Personal Influence
5 Ways to Improve Your Personal Influence
As a Leader and as a person, whether we are leading our family, leading an organization, leading a company or leading a country, we have to have the skill of Influence.
The best way to start with influence is not trying to influence someone else but it is best to start by influencing ourselves.
I want to give you 5 ways to improve your personal influence in this session.
The first way to improve your personal influence:
Don’t Conform.
Don’t’ confirm to what others are doing. Don’t get caught up in a trick bag of following what other people are saying and what other people are doing and following along in the crowd. An example of that is, if there were two doors that were going into a building, let’s say a concert, you would see a line of people that are lined up to go in through one door. Have you ever noticed that one person gets out of line, they go over to the other door, they open the door, and they walk in? Then you see all these other people jump in behind that person and bolt right through that door that was actually opened all along. They just didn’t take the initiate to see if it was open.
That’s what happens with conformity. We follow in a line, we get in a line and we assume someone in front of us knows the way, so we stay in that line and follow. But someone takes the lead, someone says let me try this door, let me try a different way, let me try something different in life, then I will get a different set of results. So don’t conform if you want to improve your personal influence. Number one is don’t conform.
You know the enemy of influence is not cowardliness, it’s not being afraid, the enemy of influence and building your personal influence is conformity. Conforming means you lose your will and your free right to choose anymore because now you are just following along in the crowd, doing what everyone else is doing. You get mediocre results, and average types of results because you are simply following what everyone else is doing. So do not conform. That is the biggest way to start improving your personal influence.
Use the Power of “Applied Knowledge.”
Have you heard the statement before, “knowledge is power”, “knowledge is power”, “knowledge is power”? I want to challenge that statement with you today. Knowledge is NOT power, “APPLIED Knowledge” is Power. You have to apply the things that you learn. It’s not just enough to read a book, or take a class and then all of the knowledge that you receive, you put it on the shelf of your library, and you put it to the side. No that’s not acceptable. If you really want to grow, if you really want to improve your skill of influence as a person and as a leader, you have to apply the knowledge that you are being taught. You know as you listen to this session right now, will you really apply the things that you learn?
Will you really begin to see, how have I been conforming in my life and how can begin to take the lead in my own life first? Will you really apply the knowledge that you will learn today or will you just let it fall by the wayside?
It’s not enough to be competent without being confident. You have to build up your influence, build up your confidence so that you can become confident. We want to be able to make sure we are using “applied knowledge”, and “applied power.” Applied knowledge is power. Taking the information that you have learned, taking the books you have studied, the classes you have attended, in your career and on your job, learning from a mentor, or in your relationships, you want to apply what you have learned and that is one of the fastest ways to start building your personal influence.
Confront Change.
Now this is a big one. There is confrontation, there is to confront, to approach and then to avoid.
Are you approaching the challenges in your life? Or are you avoiding them? If we are going to improve our personal influence, we have to be willing to confront the things that we need to change. You have to confront your own weaknesses, you have to confront your misbeliefs in yourself. You have to confront things that are holding you back in life. We have been in the same place last year as we are this year because we didn’t confront the things that are holding us back. So the third thing in building our personal influence is that we must confront change.
Nothing will change when you don’t confront it. You will never be able to see change and make progress in life, and improve your skill of influence if you are not willing to confront the things in your life that have been holding you back. Maybe it’s a belief system, maybe you believe that you are not good enough, or you are not smart enough, or you are not pretty enough, you are not handsome enough, you weren’t born from the right family, you don’t have the right type of education, you didn’t graduate from the right college, whatever your belief system is that has been stopping you, you have to confront that belief system.
You have to say, wait a minute, let me change my perspective, because I have been running from the truth. Have you been running from the truth in your life? Have you been running from things that you know you should confront? You know that you should deal with them, but you put them on the back burner, you put them on the side and you say, hey I will deal with this at a later time. And then the years roll by in life, the months roll by and we look to see we are five, ten, twenty years down the road in our life and we are still having problems in areas that we never confronted.
That’s the challenge for you today. So number three in improving your personal influence is that you must confront change. You must approach and not avoid. Don’t Stop Growing.
We have nature as our guide and anything in life that is not growing, anything in nature that is not growing is on a slow path toward death. Are you growing everyday? Are you constantly looking for ways to improve? Are you reading? Are you studying? Are you improving your handshake? Are you improving your smile? Your communication? Are you working on the areas that may be weak in your life that you could make a little bit stronger?
Are you growing or are you on a slow path toward death?
If you look at the blades of grass, if you go outside and look at the trees that are swaying back and forth in the wind, you can see a cycle of growth or death that is constantly happening. A flower is either growing or it’s dying. Life is on a continuous path.
We as human beings that are within the laws of this land and the laws of this planet, have to also be on a path of towards growth. If not we are dying. Did you know a lot of people that have terminal illnesses and conditions that causes them to die sooner than they would have or even at all is simply because they stopped having something to look forward to? They stopped growing, they stopped advancing, so eventually they followed the path toward death.
I want to inspire you today with these points to realize that the forth way to improving your personal influence is to never stop growing. Set an intentional plan for growth.
Growth doesn’t just happen. You won’t just wake up and you have all the answers. You not going to wake up and in a new place in life or you have gained some new skills. No you have to set a plan. You have to write down your goals and write down your vision and you have to write out, how I am going to get from point a to point b.
If I don’t have the education level, if I don’t have the skill set I need, how do I get from where I am today to where I want to be tomorrow? You cannot stop growing, you have to write down an intentional plan for how you can grow. Next year this time, you can be at a new level in life because you never stopped growing.
One of my goals in growth is that I read a book a week and I make sure that is my goal. I get books and I may be reading multiple books at the same time. But I am always on a path for growth. I am a sponge for learning and always seeking to grow and to expand and to be the best that I can be in every area of my life. That is what I want for you as a person today.
Breathe Life Back Into Your Dreams.
Have you stopped dreaming? Have you had a dream as a child or you had a dream you wanted to be something? Have you wanted to grow up and achieve this goal? Have you stopped believing in your dreams? The word inspire means to breathe life into. Have you believed life into your dreams? Or have you just let them die? Have you stopped dreaming and believing in yourself? Have you stopped believing in your abilities?
If you want to improve your personal influence, you have to bring your dreams back to life again, and the only way you can bring dreams that have died back to life is you have to breathe life back into them.
It’s by doing these things. It’s by building your personal influence. It’s by not conforming to what others have said you can’t do. It’s not conforming to what others said is not possible. You can’t let knowledge just go by in life and not apply it to become better. You have to be willing to confront the changes, and confront the things that are holding you back. You have to continue on the path toward growth. That is how you breathe life back into your dreams again.
Listen, I don’t know what age or stage you are in life, but here is what I want to tell you…It’s never too late. I don’t care how old you are, I don’t care what you have gone through in life, I don’t care how many mistakes you have made, I don’t care how many failures you had to deal with in life, I don’t care if it seems like life has thrown a bad deck of cards at you or if you’ve had a bad blow in life. It doesn’t make a difference. You can breathe life back into your dreams again. It starts with breathing life back into yourself. Connecting with your creator, connecting with creation, connecting with yourself and getting back to that place where you have that innocent faith again to believe in yourself and to believe in your dreams.
Breathe life back into your dreams. I promise you, if you breathe life back into your dreams, and you start dreaming again, you will find your purpose in life. You will find meaning. You find your mission.
That will inspire you, which will motivate you to get back in the game. You will build personal influence.
The beauty of building personal influence is that once you have mastered influence here, you can reach out and help others to build their skill of influence, and you become influential in the lives of others.
Your relationships will improve. Your work, your co-worker relationships, and those you associate with will improve. Things will begin to get even better for you simply because you followed these 5 steps to improve your personal influence.
You don’t give the responsibility to someone else. You don’t give it to your mom, you don’t give it to your boss, you don’t give it to your spouse, and you don’t say hey, I want you to help me.
You are responsible for your own results in life. Take these 5 initiatives and I promise you will see tremendous results in every area of your life.
This is the 5 ways to improve your personal influence:
Don’t Conform.
Use the Power of “Applied Knowledge.”
Confront Change
Don’t Stop Growing.
Breathe Life Back Into Your Dreams.
Want to Improve your Skill of Influence? Take Adam’s Skill of Influence Course – Watch here to learn more
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About Adam White
Adam White is one of the most thought provoking speakers and leadership experts that you will ever experience. Entrepreneur and Author of the bestselling book, “A Leader Others Will Follow: The Power of Influence, Adam speaks to organizations across the country inspiring them to be their very best both personally and professionally. He speaks in the areas of Leadership, Psychology, Human Behavior, Motivation, and Professional Development
At one point in his life, Adam lost everything he had and was forced to move into his parent’s basement. The basement experience was a turning point in his life and in 2 short years he turned his life around, buying a Subway Franchise and more than 14 investment properties. Adam quickly became an inspiration and mentor to many others and leaders in particular. 10 years of research and experience became things that he has used to add value to the lives of others. Adam’s life purpose and mission is to help others become great leaders, great influencers and leave their impact on this world by sharing their voice.
Michigan SGMP named Adam “the best speaker they had ever heard.”
Fox Rothschild Attorneys at Law said “Adam’s message should be shared with government leaders and the world.”
To learn more about his speaking, seminars, books, and online courses, visit him at www.adamwhitespeaks.com.