What does this mean, to Understand your Influence?
Everything thing you do - every interaction - influences your environment, relationships, and the course of events. You have an impact regardless of the level of your awareness. To Understand your Influence is to be aware of, and therefore more intentional about, and as a result, more in control of, how situations, relationships, and events are affected.
Understanding your Influence requires that you focus on the shadow side of leadership. In other words, your weaknesses, distorted beliefs and assumptions, and ineffective patterns of approaching situations. Exploring these things is basically a willingness to look in the mirror; you may not like all of what you see, but by looking you are presented with an amazing opportunity to dig deep and learn about yourself in a way you might not otherwise be able to do.
In order to cast a shadow, there must be a light source. Shadow is not the opposite of light; it is an obstruction of light. In leadership development, it’s important to understand that your weaknesses would be impossible without your strengths. — Your weaknesses are actually related to your strengths in direct ways.
For example, if you are someone who is easily distracted by new ideas and have difficulty finishing what you start, you might be a highly creative and spontaneous person. If you tend to take too much responsibility for others and avoid conflict, you likely care very deeply about people. If you micromanage and waste time trying to make things perfect, you must have wonderfully high standards.
Remember that by understanding that weaknesses are distorted expressions of strengths, and not opposite of strengths you can have compassion for yourself and others allowing you to make a change.
Discover the shadowy areas of your influence with a Leadership Style Assessment.