Learning to lead with influence is the No. 1 way to achieve any goal in any organization. No matter how far up an organization you’ve risen, every decision for every initiative requires someone else to buy into your ideas. Leaders who think that merely telling their employees what to do will result in them doing it happily and well are sorely mistaken.

Whether you are the CEO or a leader of one person, you need to influence others to want to perform a task or lead an initiative, inspire them to do it well and give them the support they need to be successful.  

Build Trust

Before you can use your influence to lead, you must build trust. Learn about the business goals and personal needs of others. When you know the personal, career and business-mandated goals of individuals, you can think about what’s in it for them to work on your initiatives, support your decisions or go the extra mile to make things happen.  

Furthermore, you should build trust across the organization. It isn’t enough to see your department succeed; you must want the same for the other departments. By demonstrating a commitment to other teams, you present yourself as someone who values the company as a whole, not just your role in it. Don’t be afraid to “reach across departments” to develop initiatives or learn more about how they work. Doing so will enable you to be more effective and rise to the top faster. You will be seen as a strategic leader to the members of your own team, other departments and the leaders of those organizations.

Walk The Talk

Once you’ve earned your seat at the table and built the trust of your peers as well as those who are below and above you, your work isn’t done. You must continue to be engaged, courageous and innovative. It is your responsibility to demonstrate to everyone in the organization who you are and what you stand for. This means acting and working in a way that you want your entire team to emulate. This “walking the talk” is something that senior leaders must do if they want to continue to be seen as motivational and influential.

The most strategic leaders think one, two and 10 steps ahead. For instance, many companies experience major changes in business strategy and industry trends. If your organization goes through a period of change, take time to digest the change for yourself before trying to lead your people through new expectations, methodologies or processes. Think through factors that might slow down the process or ideas you have for optimizing the change. By taking time to personally digest the change, you will more clearly see how it will impact your team, anticipate their questions and be ready to share feedback upward.