Launching A Leadership RevolutionMastering the Five Levels of Influence

Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward

Executive Summary

Chapter 6

The First Level of Influence: Learning

• The first level of Influence is becoming a student• Leaders must fall in love with learning.• Stanely: In the early years of your career, what you learn is far more important than what

you earn. In most cases, what you learn early on will determine what you can earn lateron.

• Presuppositions or the “Art” of Learning. Presuppositions are the foundational thoughtprocesses that open the door to education.

• Learning is a top Priority.• Leaders can learn from anyone. Everyone is your superior in some way.

• Leaders can best learn from those who have results. Success begins with informationfrom the correct source.

• Actions or the “Science” of Learning.• Leaders learn about people and they understand that it is only through people that

leaders have influence. It’s with, through, and for people that leadership exists. Leaders must be well disciplined in the art of human relations, and this cannot beonly at a superficial, surface level. A leader must learn about his peoplespecifically. This is an extension of people wanting to know that the leader cares.

• Great leaders understand that people want to feel important and make it apoint to treat their people as special, learning as much as they can aboutthem. This includes remembering names and details of the person’s life.

One of the most effective ways for leaders to learn about each of theirpeople is to find something in common with them.

• Leaders learn about basics. Leaders must learn an intricate knowledge of thefundamentals in their field.

• Leaders learn about goals and objectives. Leaders learn all they can about the goals thatare required or expected of their organization.

• Leaders learn about processes.

• Leaders learn about Measurements of Performance. Leaders cannot operate solely on“feel”. There must be concrete measurements of performance that provide the leader withon going feedback.

• Leaders learn about rewards.•• Leaders learn about history. Leaders must take an active interest in the history of their

organization. There are valuable lessons to be learned that can save time and energy. Notknowing the lessons of the past also compromises the leader’s credibility with his people,who may have actually lived through some of the events.

• Leaders learn about environment. Bill Gates: The leader’s job is to provide anempowering environment.

• Leaders learn about obstacles and oppositions. Often ignoring those in opposition is thebest course of action. The best antidote for criticism is success.

• Leaders learn from books. Our reading should not just be for enjoyment, but shouldfoster growth in our minds and persons. Reading should lead to better thoughts, which inturn lead to better actions, which then lead to better habits, which then produce betterresults, which then produce a better future. “Reading is thinking with another person’smind.”

• Leaders learn from audio recordings• Leaders learn from videos

• Leaders learn from Association with Other Successful Leaders. Robert Kiyosaki: Yourincome will be the average of the five people you hang around the most. It only makessense that by associating with success we will begin to understand the thinking behindthat success more clearly.

• Leaders learn from Coaches and mentors. A coach is someone who encourages, guides,and develops the performance of another. A mentor is someone who helps mold anddevelop the makeup and character of another.

• Leaders learn from action. Theory actively applied to experience is a leader’s bestschoolmaster.

Do not let all your learning lead to knowledge: let it lead to action.

• Leaders learn by controlling the flow of information they receive. A leader closelycontrols the quality of what is allowed into his brain. A leader’s strongest weapon is hisstandard of character and absolute values.

Active learning: Theodore Roosevelt “A Campaign of Self-Transformation. See pp 135-142.