What Type of Influence Do You Have?
What is Influence?
Influence is what speaks to you directly or indirectly and impacts your opinions, decisions, and even buying habits. It's what drives advertising agencies to pay BIG BUCKS to celebrities and athletes to represent their product or brand. Sometimes the influence doesn’t even come from a particular person but from the frequency of the advertisement. Most likely, the influence came from one of the many social apps that are so readily available to us today. Let’s take a mental inventory. When was the last time you purchased something or changed a behavior in your life because of an ad you watched or heard?
Passive Influence
I’m sure you’ve seen a little boy or girl trying their best to stand, sit, or speak like their dad or mom. Have you ever wondered why a child would try to copy their parent in this way? It’s a matter of influence. This type of influence comes from relationship and proximity. There is an automatic familial relationship and in the case of seeing children act as their parent’s Mini Me, it is a cultivated relationship. Time around one another, time spent talking to each other and observing conversations with others. This is a type of passive influence. No one lives in a vacuum and where a relationship is cultivated there is opportunity for influence to be given and received.
The Fruit of Doing the Work
A precise definition of influence is the capacity to have an effect on the character development or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. When it comes to diversity and belonging, influence is not readily given but rather it is the fruit produced after having done the work of understanding first that your identity begins with knowing who God is and who you are as an individual. Next is understanding the power of invitation. When you know your identity, you are able to confront any insecurity that may arise and be comfortable in how God has designed you so that others can be invited to do the same and belong. Your work in understanding identity and invitation will yield the fruit of influence because those two building blocks build unity. When there is true unity and not simply uniformity, you will help lead an environment that is attractive to others. Your influence will invite others to do the work of knowing their own identity in relation to who God is, so that they in turn become invitational and grow in influence.
Intentional Influence
Whether in business, education, or ministry, influence can be a type of currency. Your influence can open doors and remove barriers for those you lead or mentor. The converse of the previous statement is also true. Your influence can close doors and build barriers for those you lead or mentor. This is not a passive type of influence but one that requires intentionality. As people of faith, it is important to steward the influence you’ve been given in a way that first honors the Lord and second serves those you lead.
Stewarding influence is crucial when being intentional about diversity and belonging. Your curiosity about someone’s experience or thoughts that differ from your own invites others to be curious. Your invitation to others to explore topics that maybe is not a passion point for you personally, but impacts someone in your faith community or work environment is an intentional use of your influence.
Let’s Reflect.
So what about you? What type of influence do you have? Is it passive or intentional? How is God inviting you to steward the influence you have been given?
