Last week, we started a new series called Reciprocal Influence, where we talked about our definition of leadership, and the importance of influencing your world AND allowing your world to influence you.

Throughout this series, we’ll continue to share our leadership definition as well as providing you with some details and scripting examples of how you can use it in your life.

Today, we’d like to start with our definition of leadership:

Leadership is the willingness to influence your world
and the willingness to be influenced by your world,
regardless of your role or title.

As you can see from the graphic below, we think of leadership as an infinity loop. One where you’re leaning in to share your best (you influencing them) and then allowing space for others to share their best (them influencing you).

To support you in what influencing your world and being influenced by your world could look like (and NOT look like), we’ve put together some descriptions below.

YOU INFLUENCE YOUR WORLD

  • You step in to share your thoughts and shape the conversation.
  • You think about how to communicate your perspectives without dismissing others.
  • You challenge things that are not in alignment with the shared vision or initiative.
  • You share your perspective—even when it differs from what others are saying.
  • You consider the whole, not just your own self (or team) interest.
  • You sit up at the table, and you don’t shy away from difficult or messy conversations. Your voice matters!

YOUR WORLD INFLUENCES YOU

  • You seek and openly listen to feedback because feedback matters to you.
  • You value what others can bring to the table, and you set them up to succeed in communicating.
  • You create a climate where differences are welcomed and valued.
  • You open the door to discussions on innovation or improvement.
  • If someone comes to you with a concern, you dig deep to understand the core issues.
  • You try to understand other people’s perspectives and strive to come to decisions together. Their voice matters!

NOT LEADERSHIP

  • You get reactive and push to get your way.
  • You get reactive and shut down or walk away.
  • You go off by yourself to solve the problem.
  • You decide to let someone else handle it.
  • You make excuses about why it can’t be done.

Throughout the years, we’ve come to know that most of us have a tendency one way or the other. This isn’t to say that we don’t sometimes do both, it’s just that most of us are naturally more comfortable with either influencing or being influenced by.

What’s your natural tendency? We encourage you to think about it, and then, look for areas in your life where you want to practice doing both.

As you read through this post, consider opportunities where you want to work on influencing others AND being influenced by others.

Let us know what comes up for you!

Stay tuned for our post next week when we’ll cover what reciprocal influence could look like in your professional world.

If you’d like support
influencing your world or
allowing your world to influence you,
contact us today.