Anyone can lead when the plan is working. The best lead when the plan falls apart.
– Robin Sharma
On any given day, organisations can run on autopilot. Of course, this doesn’t refer to a flat organisational structure where everyone is equal. Leaders at different levels will still need to lead their respective teams. But, a leader’s true mettle is tested best during times of crisis. A leaders only gets to join the ‘above and beyond’ club after battling a few unforeseen crises and challenges.
This blog is not about leadership development. It is not even about leadership. Rather, the limited scope of this blog is to discuss what a leader must do when an unexpected storm hits the team. The pandemic is on everyone’s lips now, but it is not the first or the first, or the only, crisis that leaders across organisations have faced. And nor, will it be the last.
The three quick pointers explained in this short blog will certainly be useful this year. And, they can also be part of a playbook later for any of the leadership challenges that you are bound to face even after the pandemic is over.
1. See, and Be Seen
The worst thing that can happen to a team during a crisis is the leader doing a disappearing act. Some leaders feel that employees might feel burdened with people looking over their shoulders while dealing with a workplace crisis. And, they would be right. But a leader needs to keep a close watch, nonetheless. This can help you identify the team members who might need your intervention. Also, it is important that you communicate your round the clock availability to your team. They should feel comfortable enough to reach out whenever they need you.
To further understand the art of communicating with your team effectively, here’s an insightful article by the Harvard Business Review. Another critical aspect of the leader ‘being seen’ is the leader’s public communication. When done effectively, this not only reassures the world at large, but also gives a boost of confidence to the employees as well.
2. Being compassionate doesn’t hurt
”Compassion is empathy in action”
A common behavioural trait expected of leadership development folks is zero tolerance for mistakes. And it might even prove useful in normal times. But, often times, during a crisis, it can do more harm than good. Think of a cab driver who misjudges an angle and brushes his car against an electric pole –
If this happens during a regular trip, all that he needs to do is correct his steering wheel and straighten the course of the car.
Now imagine this happening in a crowded city street on a day when you have given him twenty minutes to get you to the airport. In a corporate environment, this would be a crisis, right? Both his and your nerves would be fraught with tension.
As soon as he hears the sound of metal on metal, and your cry of warning, he gives a violent jerk on his steering wheel. The car careens towards the other side of the road and almost hits an oncoming vehicle, and you yell again in fear. To avoid a collision, he gives another sharp turn of the wheel.. you get the picture, right? One thing will lead to another do nothing for his self-confidence.
A much better strategy would be to assure him that mistakes happen only when someone is trying. Tell him you are okay with him committing an error, and he should do the job right the next time. Encourage him to learn from this error and move on.
3. Delegate and network effectively
Most organisations have a command and control structure with clear circles of influence. Everyone knows their place in the hierarchy and owns up their responsibilities, accordingly. This works fine when things are going in a routine manner. But this becomes a serious leadership challenge when the organisation is facing an adverse situation. Mckinsey and Co. published a blog in 2020 about leadership challenges during the pandemic. Any leader could replicate the recommendations of the article at other times as well.
The article explained that a top-down approach for decision making, based on a bottom-up approach for information gathering can be highly effective. But during a crisis, the volume and velocity of changes to the ground situation are too high for a regular hierarchy to handle. Thus, the senior leadership should not even consider taking all the pressure on themselves. Instead, it is better to place a different structure in place. Let us try to understand this alternate leadership development process, a little better.
The article suggest that aside from the senior executive team, two more teams should be set up. The first is the response leadership team that acts as the control centre for coordinating the different teams on the ground. This team would also act as a bridge to the senior executive team. The second team would consist of smaller decentralized sub-teams. They would be responsible for handling smaller bits of the crisis, like external and internal communications, technology, supply chain, company assets, employee support, outreach, and others.
Apart from a more efficient response, deploying such a decentralised network could also help the organisation efficiently employ its leadership development plan. The younger team members entrusted with handling some of these ad hoc teams would effectively be ready to take on greater responsibilities down the line.
Final thoughts
An organisation’s leadership development skills are truly tested during difficult times. You may continue with your routine leadership development strategies during the course of a regular year but the pandemic calls for a more proactive and decentralised approach. You can explore more such opinion pieces on leadership in the blogs section of our website for a wealth of literature on the subject. We hope our strategies will come in handy in helping you sail smoothly through these troubled waters.
For more leadership strategies that you can implement during the pandemic, speak to our team for a custom program.
Being an avid book reader, I come across a number of leadership books. And yet, “Extreme Ownership: How Navy Seals Lead and Win” is one book that has stayed with me ever since I first read it. For anyone in the leadership development industry looking to be inspired, I’d say this is a must read.
Have you ever stopped to wonder about your ability as a leader to influence people? How it can empower them, accelerate results, and ultimately ensure an easier working environment?
Influencing is about understanding yourself and the effect or impact you have on others. Influence has long been the key to successful leadership. Leaders need impactful influence to sell ideas, to motivate teams, and to support and implement decisions. Identifying personal triggers is important to truly master the art of influencing others effectively. This can help in adapting your leadership style to make an impactful impression. Effective influence can enable you to get the desired outcome, with grace and ease.
Great leaders don’t just manage tasks; they inspire people, guide decisions, and shape the culture of their teams. The ability to influence without authority is a key trait of transformational leadership. Leaders who can effectively communicate their vision, build trust, and develop emotional intelligence can steer conversations and situations toward the desired outcome.
According to 6 Steps to Become Your Team’s Motivational Officer, true leadership isn’t about control—it’s about the ability to guide and motivate people toward a shared goal. This is especially important in modern workplaces where collaboration and soft skills for leadership play a vital role.
Core Principles of Influence in Leadership
Trust & Credibility
Trust is the foundation of effective leadership. People are more likely to be influenced by leaders they trust. Transparency, authenticity, and integrity build credibility over time.
Tip: Be consistent with your actions, follow through on commitments, and communicate openly.
2. Emotional Intelligence
Leaders who develop emotional intelligence can recognize, understand, and manage their emotions while also influencing others positively.
Tip: Listen actively, show empathy, and be adaptable in conversations.
3. Strategic Communication
Communication is at the heart of leadership influence. The way a leader articulates ideas and conveys messages can determine how well their influence is received.
Tip: Learn to speak with clarity and align your messaging with your audience’s values.
4. Coaching Skills & Mentorship
The most influential leaders also serve as coaches and mentors, guiding their teams toward success.
Tip: Provide constructive feedback, encourage personal growth, and foster leadership development in your team.
Influence vs. Authority: What’s the Difference?
Many people assume that leadership influence comes from holding a position of power. However, influence is about persuasion and guidance, whereas authority is about commanding obedience.
For example, consider a team leader who motivates employees by inspiring them to achieve personal effectiveness rather than simply enforcing rules. Research from 4 Motivation Lessons from Whale Training suggests that positive reinforcement and encouragement work better than strict orders.
Practical Ways to Use Influence in the Workplace
Here are some simple strategies to boost your influence as a leader:
Storytelling:
Use compelling stories to inspire and connect with your team.
Lead by Example:
Actions speak louder than words—demonstrate the behaviors you want to see in your team.
Collaborate & Network:
Build relationships across different teams to strengthen your leadership and management effectiveness.
Encourage Open Communication:
Foster an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns.
100 Quotes on Influence & Leadership
Below is a collection of 100 powerful quotes that highlight the role of influence in leadership and how it shapes our actions:
Here are 100 collected thoughts on how influence can play a role in steering a conversation or a situation towards your desired outcome –
1. It is more important to influence people than to impress them.
– Adrian Rogers
2. I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.
– Beatrix Potter
3. We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.
– Stephen King
4. One of the best ways to influence people is to make them feel important. Most people enjoy those rare moments when others make them feel important. It is one of the deepest human desires.
– Roy T. Bennett
5. Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
– Albert Schweitzer
6. Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
– Napoleon Hill
7. If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person’s life in a positive light, and that’s what I want to do. That’s what it’s all about.
– Tiger Woods
8. Your minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you.
– Deepak Chopra
9. The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.
– Ken Blanchard
11. The people who influence you are the people who believe in you.
– Henry Drummond
12. People exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced.
– T. S. Eliot
13. If you were born with the ability to change someone’s perspective or emotions, never waste that gift. It is one of the most powerful gifts God can give – the ability to influence.
– Shannon L. Alder
14. The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.
– Salvador Dali
15. Nobody should be whipped. Remember that, once and for all. Neither man nor animal can be influenced by anything but suggestion.
– Mikhail Bulgakov
16. Children are more influenced by sermons you act than by sermons you preach.
– David McKay
17. A parent gives life, but as parent, gives no more. A murderer takes life, but his deed stops there. A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
– Henry Adams
18. Evil influence is like a nicotine patch; you cannot help but absorb what sticks to you.
– E.A. Bucchianeri
19. Smiling, unknowingly influences how other people will respond to you.
– Liam Jackson
21. The past influences everything and dictates nothing.
– Adam Phillips
22. A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.
– Jackie Robinson
23. The ability to influence people without irritating them is the most profitable skill you can learn.
– Napoleon Hill, Selling You!
24. Don’t be a pepper on the eyes of people; Rather be the salt on their tongue and make a difference that influences their sense of belonging to the earth.
– Israelmore Ayivor
25. You don’t need to be a saint to benefit from Mother Teresa’s example. Her influence has led us to a higher standard of leadership, and we hope it will raise your own bar too.
– Ruma Bose
26. The real beginning of influence comes as others sense you are being influenced by them ― when they feel understood by you ― that you have listened deeply and sincerely, and that you are open.
– Stephen R. Covey
27. You don’t have to be a person of influence to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.
– Scott Adams
28. No matter how much you love the person, you cannot change them. You may influence them; but at the end of the day, they must decide for themselves.
– Robert E. Baines Jr.
29. Some of the most important decisions I have made might well have never been made or might have been very different if it hadn’t been for the influence of the people in my life. We all need mentors.
– Tony Clark
31. A young child is a leader to an elderly person once his purpose has a faithful, sincere and trustworthy influence on people. Leadership is not restricted to position and age; it is self―made and influential. Everyone has this self―leadership quality.
– Israelmore Ayivor
32. Whether you flounder or flourish is always in your hands ― you are the single biggest influence in your life. Your journey begins with a choice to get up, step out, and live fully.
– Oprah Winfrey
33. Whether we like it or not, the reality is that our decisions are influenced by a whole host of factors, many of which lay beyond our conscious awareness and control.
– Nathalie Nahai
34. Nothing has a greater influence over your life than your thoughts rather they are negative or positive.
– Tasha Hoggatt
35. The only way in which one human being can properly attempt to influence another is by encouraging him to think for himself, instead of endeavoring to instill ready―made opinions into his head.
– Leslie Stephen
36. Each of us should be aware of the energy we are putting out into the world. Are we a positive influence or a negative one
– Laurence Overmire
37. As an educator, I’ve seen the positive influence that fathers have on their children.
– Nicoline Ambe
38. Your expectation influences your disposition.
– Ekere Marshal
39. A woman of wisdom has so much influence. The wise learn from her, and they do not ignore her wisdom at all.
– Gift Gugu Mona
41. Real control is influencing someone to the point that he believes his choices are his own.
– G.R. Morris
42. Those sweet souls who speak kind words when they could rightly criticize are the most influential beings in all the world.
– Richelle E. Goodrich
43. As a person on planet Earth you are capable of influencing another with your journey.
– Rachel D. Greenwell
44. Influence does not require position.
– Richie Norton
45. Influencers are not leaders, but leaders are influencers.
– Richie Norton
46. The humblest individual exerts some influence, either for good or evil, upon others.
– Henry Ward Beecher
47. A great verse can have a great influence on the soul of a language.
– Gaston Bachelard
48. He who influences the thought of his times, influences all the times that follow. He has made his impress on eternity.
– Hypatia
49. I prefer to cut the negative people out of my life. The people you spend time with influence your attitude and thoughts more than you think.
– Fuad Alakbarov
51. Leaders are influential because they live and inspire other people’s future.
– Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel
52. If you try to influence everyone, you won’t influence anyone.
– Josh Steimle
53. We are more likely to influence people if we are willing to minster with kindness and patience to their needs.
– Richelle E. Goodrich
54. Without love, influence is merely transactional and lasts only as long as there is a clear, mutual benefit.
– Josh Steimle
55. The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.
– Deepak Chopra
56. Your influence on others is your net worth, treat it as such.
– Peprah Boasiako
57. Influence is no respecter of education or experience; it goes only with the one who will set aside his status ― be it high and mighty or low and lowly ― and put himself in the place of another.
– Dale Carnegie
58. A life without influence is a life without meaning.
– Josh Steimle
59. It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people’s lives.
– Clint Eastwood
61. Never underestimate the Power of Influence!
– Benjamin Suulola
62. A person who causes you to react controls you. A person who compels you to think and consider doing differently influences you.
– Jeffrey Duarte
63. The most critical success factor for leaders is their ability to influence the right people, at the right time, about the right thing.
– Daren Martin
64. Don’t trade in your integrity for influence.
– Richie Norton
65. Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.
Steve Jobs
66. Family and impact come first, income and influence come second as a supporting role.
– Richie Norton
67. Knowledge is not power. You may know many things, but without influence you can’t do anything.
– Josh Steimle
68. Love, and specifically good will, is key to influence. Without it, you can do everything else right and still have no influence. With love, you can do everything else wrong and still make an impact.
– Josh Steimle
69. Your thoughts greatly influence how you feel and behave. In fact, your inner monologue has a tendency to become a self―fulfilling prophecy.
– Amy Morin
71. Restrain from someone because they are a bad influence and not because they are different from you.
– Don Santo
72. Leaders don’t care about followers; leaders care about something bigger than that. Leaders care about making an impact and difference in their community, Influencers almost never go on to be leaders, leaders always result in being influential.
– Mmanti Umoh
73. Faith doesn’t deny a problem’s existence. It denies a problem a place of influence.
– Bill Johnson
74. Influencing the world for good starts with service, self―care and specificity in time contribution to family.
– Richie Norton
75. The influence of teachers extends beyond the classroom, well into the future. It is they who shape and enrich the minds of the young, who touch their hearts and souls. It is they who shape a nation’s future.
– F. Sionil Jose
76. All you do in life is influenced greatly by what’s in your heart.
– Jeffrey G. Duarte
77. All the decisions that an African man makes will be weighed in terms of influence not only on himself but also on his wife and his entire family.
– Sunday Adelaja
78. The focus should be on becoming a strong and
influential personality – cultivate compelling communication skills, focus on building trust and learn how to expand and leverage your professional network.
– Abhishek Ratna
79. Influence is everything. One wrong influence can single handedly destroy every bit of your innocence and innocence is the root of all wisdom.
– John Maiorana
81. If you have influence on other people; Don’t be influenced by their hate, money, jealousy, anger and popularity.
– De philosopher DJ Kyos
82. Influence creates affluence. Affluence does not create influence. Affluence makes you more of who you already are.
– Richie Norton
83. Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.
– Henry George
84. You don’t influence people by commanding them. When you are doing that, you are a manipulator and not a leader.
– Israelmore Ayivor
85. The future influences the present just as much as the past.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
86. All human beings wield influence—a powerful sword granted at birth. Wield your sword with care.
– Richelle E. Goodrich
87. Power is nothing unless you can turn it into influence.
– Condoleezza Rice
88. You get more reach and influence when you are being productive.
– Sunday Adelaja
89. Strong communicators increase their influence because they are intentional and focused with their language.
– Dianna Boohe
91. Many things go into influence. You must have a vision, develop your skills and abilities, know your audience, and plan, but at some point, you must take action. Without action, you have no influence.
– Josh Steimle
92. Having a title only doesn’t make one a leader; talented people without a title don’t follow blindly, they practice leadership via influence.
– Pearl Zhu
93. Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
– Mark Twain
94. It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life.
– Margot Asquith
95. Influence is like a savings account, the less you use it, the more you’ve got.
– Andrew Young
96. Influence is when you are not the one talking and yet your words fill the room; when you are absent and yet your presence is felt everywhere.
– TemitOpe Ibrahim
97. The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor.
– Orison Swett Marden
98. The path to influence starts with your identity. Who you are, and who you become, will determine the impact you make.
– Josh Steimle
99. Influence is our inner ability to lift people up to our perspective.
– Joseph Wong
Building Influence Through Team Development
Strong leadership influence extends beyond individuals—it strengthens teams. According to 5 Low-Budget Indoor Team Building Activities for Employees, team-building exercises can enhance collaboration and trust, which are essential for leaders looking to expand their influence.
Leaders who integrate team motivation strategies into daily operations see higher engagement and productivity. This is because people respond positively to inspirational leadership that aligns with their goals and values.
Final Thoughts
Leadership influence is about much more than giving orders—it’s about inspiring action, shaping perspectives, and leading by example. Whether you’re looking to enhance your leadership training, develop personal effectiveness, or improve coaching skills, focusing on influence over authority can lead to long-term success.
The following blog has been contributed by Sanjeev Pathak – Head, CMIT Business India Market ( India, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka). A passionate leader with over two decades of experience, he has dedicated his life to creating a sustainable impact on business growth and empowering his team to grow through innovation and collaboration skills.
Fans of action movies, worldwide, are no stranger to the power of US Marines. From fighting alien invasions to putting underground terrorist groups to waste – they are truly the real life Avengers! However, their reel-life image does no justice to the real life power and strength of the world’s most powerful military group.
The following blog has been contributed by Manavi Baveja – Global Head, Organisational Development, Uber. A leader with over a decade of enabling organisational development across companies, she truly practices what she preaches. With a journey rooted in intelligence, caliber, and a decade worth of unbeatable experience – she is a force to reckon with! Read on to discover her take on the changing face of leadership in a pandemic prone world.
The following blog has been contributed by Shikha Verma. She is a woman who has worn numerous hats over the 17 years of rich acumen in HR & Learning & Development space across IT and Manufacturing Industry. With passion, perseverance, creativity as her driving force, she is a force to reckon with!
Business acumen is not one skill; it is an amalgamation of many skills. Simply put, business acumen is how keen and quick you are in dealing with risks and opportunities in business to lead to a favourable outcome. Of all the skills it encompasses, two stand out in particular –
