Leadership: Intentional Influence

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We were stunned to discover that fewer than 1 in 20 had any evidence of success in spite of their belief that change was crucial. As we combed through the data, some key insights emerged that help us understand why so few leaders either grasp or exert influence well:

1. Leaders act as if it's not their job to address entrenched habits.

Most leaders put a great deal of time into crafting strategy, selecting winning products, and engaging with analysts, shareholders, and major customers. But few realize the success or failure of their grand schemes lies in influencing the behavior of the hundreds or thousands of people who will have to execute the big ideas—their employees.

By contrast, the most influential leaders—the 5% who succeed consistently at influencing profound and essential behavior change—spend as much as half of their time thinking about and actively influencing the behaviors they know will lead to top performance. The 95% who dither and fail tend to delegate what they dismiss as "change management" to others, most often leaders in human resources—who often lack the credibility to influence real change. The average leader spends little, if any, of his or her time on active efforts to create behavior change. Consequently, nothing changes.

2. Leaders lack a theory of influence.

Very few leaders can even answer the question, "How do you change the behavior of a large group of people?" And yet, this is what they're ultimately paid to do. It isn't just about making a decision; it's about getting people aligned to execute the decision. And this means influence. Imagine discovering just as the anesthesia is taking effect that your heart surgeon—the one hovering over your chest with a scalpel—is working off a "gut hunch" about how to conduct a bypass. Unless leaders become articulate about a repeatable and effective way of influencing profound, rapid, and sustainable behavior change—they'll continue to rack up predictably high failure rates at leading change.

3. Leaders confuse talking with influencing.

Many leaders think influence consists of little more than talking people into doing things. It's no wonder most influence efforts start with PowerPoint presentations. But profound, persistent, and overwhelming problems demand more than verbal persuasion. Anyone who's ever tried to talk a smoker into quitting knows there's a lot more to behavior change than words.

Leaders make the same mistake when they publish platitudes in the form of Mission and Values statements, give a few speeches on why these values are crucial, and then assume their job is done.

4. Leaders believe in silver bullets.

When leaders actually attempt to influence new behavior, it's common for them to look for quick fixes—to fall into the trap of thinking that deeply ingrained bad habits can be changed with a single technique. The failure mode is to rely on any single approach.

Some host star-studded retreats. Others hand out inspiring posters and color-changing mugs and think people will line up for change. Still others believe it's all about incentives, and so they tinker with the performance-management system or tie new behaviors to executive bonuses. The research shows that when leaders rely on just one simple source of influence to drive change, they almost always fail.

In the future, I'll use this column to share what we've learned from leaders who don't suffer in ignorance about influence. Over the past 20 years, my colleagues and I have sought out and studied a different kind of leader. We've tried to find those who had remarkable abilities to influence change—rapidly, profoundly, and sustainably.

We've studied up close the methods used by one remarkable influencer who—with no formal authority—has changed behavior in thousands of U.S. hospitals. We've looked first hand at one influencer who has saved 5 million lives from AIDS—simply by influencing behavior change in a country of 60 million people. We worked with a corporate chief who within 12 months influenced deeply entrenched habits in employees with an average of 26 years tenure.

What we've learned is that when you know what you're doing, change can happen relatively quickly. And it all starts with gaining greater clarity about what leadership really means, then finding a way of thinking about the fundamental principles of influence.

Joseph Grenny is the co-author of three immediate New York Times bestsellers: Influencer, Crucial Conversations, and Crucial Confrontations. He is cofounder of VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance, and a consultant to the Fortune 500. Learn more about the Influential Leader at www.vitalsmarts.com/influentialleader.

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