Want to be an Influencer?
From the new book Influencer: The Power To Change Anything
Philosophically you need to see yourself as an influencer. Believe that you can influence your school, your district, your grade level, and most importantly, yourself.
You must also study the works of those great influencers who have proven they are good at what they do.
Thinking about strategy, you or your organization should develop what is called an Influence Strategy. An Influence Strategy will produce the behaviors that create, drive, and produce great results in their organization. Not just any behavior, but those few vital behaviors that are the real key.
Would you say your organization, district, school, or team has anything resembling an Influence Strategy? Do you know what vital behaviors make the difference for your organization?
So how you create such a strategy and discover your vital behaviors?
Step 1: Be Specific
There are hundreds of strategies that can be used, be you must use only those strategies that help you focus like a laser on behaviors, for it is behavior you are trying to change or develop.
“It turns out that all influence geniuses focus on behaviors. They’re inflexible on this point. They don’t develop an influence strategy until they’re carefully identified the specific behaviors they want to change. They start by asking: In order to improve our existing situation, what must people actually do?”
The key here is to focus on what you must do, not what you want to achieve. For example, raise test scores is end or goal, but not a means to accomplish the goal. If you focus on behavior you would ask how could we improve teaching and better our instructional plan to improve test scores. The teaching and the improving is the behavior, the test scores are just the result. Do not confuse the two. Focus on behavior.
Leaders when you say what must be achieved without focusing on the behaviors to achieve it, it amounts to saying, “Do something; we’re not sure what it is, but do something that results in…. (Fill in the blank goal).
Discipline at your school will not improve just because you set the goal of good student behavior. Discipline will only improve when you focus on those behaviors that produce good student behavior. You need to focus on influencing the behavior that will drive you to the results you seek.
Catalytic Questions:
What behaviors have you identified that drive performance in your organization?
Do you have an Influence Strategy? In what ways could you develop an Influence Strategy?
How might your organizational leadership be impacted if the focus was more squarely placed on behaviors that get results and not the results themselves?
Does your organization spend the time to clearly identify vital behaviors and then teach or coach them across the organization?
How would or organization benefit if vital behaviors were taught and embedded into your culture?
How is a vital behavior different from knowledge or information?
How would a vital behavior focus change your staff development or professional training?
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