By Tiffany Cheng, Founder of Inspire My Day.

Influence is one of the most important qualities of a leader. If you can not influence, you don’t have followers. “If you think you’re leading, but no one is following, then you are only taking a walk.” – John Maxwell.

  • The bigger the job title, the easier it is to influence?

Let’s look at the biggest myth about leadership: Titled people = Leaders, the bigger the job title, the easier it is to influence.

Many believe once they get a bigger job title or higher level of leadership, people will automatically respect them and execute what they ask for. They believe that title comes with the ability to influence – authority leadership. Authority leadership makes others act in the way you want based on the position and level of hierarchy.

People may not agree with you, but they will perform their jobs because they are doing so in exchange for something of value in the future, such as a pay raise, or promotion; or they are afraid of your sources of power could result in consequences if they don’t.

Authority leadership can get you quick wins, but it won’t necessarily change other people’s beliefs or commitments. As it relies on external forces to deliver performances.

Influence leadership however focuses on having an impact on the belief and actions of the people you are leading, so they become motivated and committed. People have a choice, they decide how much they will give to their job and certain projects. The command and control method is outdated and often leads to low engagement and even creates resistance.

When you lose a position of power, you lose the power that came with it, but not the influence you generated.

  • The Formula to Success

The best leaders are not necessarily the one who has the best strategy – you can have the best plan, but if you can’t persuade others to get on board and take action, you won’t hold that title for too long.

Leadership success is a multiplier:

If your strategy is an 8/10
Your ability to influence (up, down, and cross) is 0/10
= your success rate is 0

If your strategy is an 8/10
Your ability to influence is 6/10
= your success rate is 48/100

If your strategy remains the same 8/10
You increase your ability to influence by 2 points to 8/10
= your chance of success is 64/100

Improving your strategy by 1 point costs months and millions. Therefore, the fastest and most cost-efficient way to improve your chance of success is to work on your influence ability.

Your chances of being successful highly depend on your ability to influence. This is because anything you do involves people, from up, down, and across.

Influence abilities limit leadership just as much as they limit organizations’ growth. That’s why, when an organization is doing poorly, often the first step is to change the leader.

Excellent influence skills are what sets strong leaders apart and take their teams and business to the next level.