Spotlight on leadership: Leading by influence

The Leadership Toolkit is designed to provide you with tools to enhance the leadership qualities you already possess, while cultivating new strengths through education and training. Included in the toolkit are job aids, video/audio podcasts, and suggested readings.  These resources will assist your efforts in being a better manager and leader and are available whenever you need them.

This month’s Leadership Toolkit featured job aid looks at the Role Model competency, a part of the Build Trust quadrant of the UF Leadership Competency Model.

The ability to influence is an essential leadership skill. To influence is to have an impact on the behaviors, attitudes, opinions and choices of others. A leader’s ability to have influence with others is based on trust; in fact, our influence expands in proportion to the amount of trust that exists in a relationship.

Misused influence can bring about catastrophic results. But properly channeled, positive influence can bring about great change as individual actions align with group efforts to produce gains that grow exponentially. A leader who, through focused and deliberate effort, exerts positive influence in others, will build trust and become a true driving force toward excellence.

Visit the Leadership Toolkit to access the Leading by Influence job aid.