S10-Ep10: How Influence Leads to Great Leadership

Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

Guest: Brian Ahearn, Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE

Employee engagement at work continues to nosedive. So how can you motivate your team?

Show them you care! That’s just one tool in the influence toolkit guest Brian Ahearn shares with Maureen Metcalf in this episode. Influencing people is a critical art in motivating people to engage in their work—and forge success for your entire team. It’s not about manipulation; that’s for poor leaders. It’s about very transparent persuasion. The theory is simple; the difficulty of putting it into practice is up to you!

Here's what Brian and Maureen cover:

1. The difference between persuasion and pre-suasion;
2. Why keeping your focus on ethical influence is so important; and
3. The three elements of ethical influencing.

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

- The Power of Praise: Making People's Performance Positive with Ben Marcovitz

- Ignite Your Leadership Game with Dre Baldwin

- The Human Energy Crisis at Work with Joshua Freedman

For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Twitter, too!

RESOURCES:

Brian’s TEDx Talk about persuasion (and the great story about his marriage proposal) is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6ZqO8POtgo. You can learn more about Robert Cialdini and the Cialdini Institute at https://cialdini.com. The website for Brian’s company is https://influencepeople.biz; he posts his blog weekly there.

Brian also has several books, including Influence PEOPLE: Powerful Everyday Opportunities to Persuade that Are Lasting and Ethical (print: https://amzn.to/4bPv3Yy, audiobook: https://amzn.to/3OVoF84); Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents (print only: https://amzn.to/42QWUDD); and The Influencer (print: https://amzn.to/3uNl19y and Kindle: https://amzn.to/3UO3A3o).

Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here.

Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.

Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:

• Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane. Hardback (https://amzn.to/48Doh6j) and audiobook (https://amzn.to/48YCRF4)
• Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First by Martha Piper & Indira Samarasekera. Paperback (https://amzn.to/3tOtzg4) and audiobook (https://amzn.to/41OYdT5)
• Jilly Truit murder mysteries by Beverley McLachlin:
  • Full Disclosure – https://amzn.to/46TxW6Q (paperback) https://amzn.to/46VDL3Q (audiobook)
  • Denial – https://amzn.to/46YCbhs (paperback) https://amzn.to/3GJc0AA (audiobook)
• Women and Leadership: Journey Toward Equity by Sherylle J. Tan & Lisa DeFrank-Cole

NOTE: As an Amazon partner, we may make a small commission from books you buy through these links.

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OUR PODCAST TEAM:

Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf

Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko

Video & Graphics Editor: Devon Mushalko

Assistant Editor & Raconteur: Luigi Morelli

(Information requiring higher security clearance than you have): Jenna Reik & Mike Morrow-Fox

CONNECT WITH US:

YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership

Threads: @innovativeleaders

Twitter: @IL_Institute

LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ILI-LinkedIn2

Instagram: @innovativeleader

TikTok: @innovativeleadership

Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating!

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About Our Guest:

Brian Ahearn is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE and a faculty member at The Cialdini Institute. An international keynote speaker and TEDx presenter, Brian is an expert in the science of influence, certified in the Cialdini Method for Persuasion and Pre-suasion. Brian is the author of "Influence PEOPLE" and "Persuasive Selling for Relationship Driven Insurance Agents." His insights have reached over 700,000 people through his LinkedIn courses and more than a million views on his TEDx Talk. Brian’s latest work, "The Influencer: Secrets to Success & Happiness," weaves these teachings into an engaging business parable.