The following contains excerpts from the book, Becoming a Person of Influence (John Maxwell).
Ultimately, the goal of a musician or artist is not to make great music, but rather for that music to influence others. Influence is leadership.
In our music school in Odessa Texas, we hope to help students see the benefit of growing in influential Leadership.
This is a book with combined teachings from both John Maxwell and business entrepreneur Jim Dornan. They show that each person, whether or not they have a high profile position in life, can be (and should aspire to becoming) a person of influence. Every person wants to know that his or her life has made a difference. The way to influence others is to give one’s life toward the betterment of someone else.
Jim Dornan’s unique story of a son who was born with cerebral palsy, living life in a wheel-chair, gives a unique perspective on the role a certain individual played in his son’s development. Jim and his wife tended to be overprotective of their child, not allowing him to do things that might be dangerous. However, their son’s trainer saw things differently. He would constantly challenge their son’s ability to do things physically, participating in certain special sports or even skiing in a specialized set-up. Although these activities were nerve-racking for his parents to watch, their son loved the new challenges, always coming out with a big smile pasted on his face. The role of their son’s trainer in just one life has made a huge impact. This is an example of how just one person can play a significant role in influencing a life in a positive way.
Influence is like a series of four stair-steps: the bottom one is ‘modeling’ (people are influenced by what they see), the second, ‘motivation’ (communicating on an emotional level), the third level, ‘mentoring’ (helping someone how to grow personally and professionally), the fourth, ‘multiplication’ (helping them to become influencers themselves)
We endeavor to lead and teach our students in our music school in Odessa Texas these attributes, as well as encouraging them, in their own journey as influencers in our society, to aspire to these qualities.
A person of influence will have the following characteristics:
1. Integrity with people (integrity is your best friend, and it’s also your friend’s best friend)
2. Nurturing- “You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time” (John Knox, ancient clergyman). A great story of nurturing was when John Wesley wrote a letter (in 1791) encouraging William Wilberforce in his pursuit to abolish the slave trade in England, and ultimately had a world-wide impact on slave-trade in other nations. Just days later, Wesley died, but his encouragement lived on.
3. Faith in people. They gave an illustration of trust in a story of French acrobat, Charles Blonden, who crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope several times, once carrying another man on his back! It’s amazing to think of the kind of trust the man being carried gave the tightrope walker.
This is a beautiful picture of a teacher/student relationship. The student trusts the teacher to impart wisdom and direction, especially at the beginning of the growth process. We have a vision in our music school in Odessa Texas that once we have carried the student, the student will in turn carry another across the learning process.
4. The ability to listen. “The ear of the leader must ring with the voice of the people.” (Woodrow Wilson) According to Brian Adams, author of Sales Cybernetics, 9% of the day is spent writing, 16% reading, 30% speaking, 45% listening. How to improve your listening skills are as follows:
- Look at the speaker
- Don’t interrupt
- Focus on understanding
- Determine the other person’s underlying need at the moment
- Check your emotions
- Suspend your judgment
- Sum up at major intervals
- Ask questions for clarity
- Always make listening your priority
The value of the skill of listening cannot be overstated, especially in the lives of students in our music school in Odessa Texas. The preeminent quality of a successful musician is the ability to listen.
5. Understands people. Knowing what people need and want is key to understanding them, and if you can understand them, you can influence them. Important things to know:
- Everybody wants to be somebody
- Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care
- Everybody needs somebody
- Everybody can be somebody when somebody understands and believes in him
- Anybody who helps somebody influences a lot of bodies.
6. Enlarges people. “There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being to succeed.” (Alan Lloyd McGinnes)
- You raise their level of living
- You increase their level of success
- You increase their capacity for growth
- In the process, you increase the potential of your organization
We hope to enlarge the students in our music school in Odessa Texas by believing in their potential and encouraging them to pursue their artistic goals and dreams.
7. Is a good Navigator- help people identify their destination. “A leader is one who sees more than others see, sees farther than others see, and sees before others do” (Leroy Ines).
8. Connects with People
- Don’t take people for granted
- Possess a ‘make a difference’ mind-set (about yourself and others)
- Initiate movement towards them (it is not the followers responsibility to initiate communication)
- Find common ground
- Recognize and respect differences in personality (meet them where they are)
- Find the key to other’s lives, what’s important to them
- To understand the person’s mind, look at what he has already accomplished
- To understand his heart, listen to what he aspires to achieve
- Communicate from the heart- be genuine
- Share common experiences- cement the relationship, create a common history
- Once connected, move forward (share yourself before you share the journey)
9. Empowering. Giving your influence to others for the purpose of personal and organizational growth, investing in others so that they can function at their best.
- You must first have position. You can’t empower people you don’t lead
- You must have a relationship with the people you empower
- Respect. Relationships make people want to be with you, but respect causes people to want to be empowered by you
- Commitment
We want every student in our music school in Odessa Texas to feel respected, as we embark upon their unique path of growth.
10. Reproduces other Influencers. Moving from maintenance to multiplication:
- Level one: scramble (attrition high)
- Level two: survival (50% of all organizations)
- Level three: syphon (potential leaders leave, because they are not being developed.)
- Level four: synergy (empowers leaders, progress and momentum happening) (19% of organizations)
- Level five: significance (leaders develop other leaders (1% of leaders and organizations)
This is good knowledge to have in leadership for any organization, and is even more powerful when consistently lived and applied.