“Changing the question gets to something deeper, broader and more activating – where influencers make their distinctive mark. They don’t just get results, they have reach. They have pull from the inside out.”

Chapter 5: Impact Is ALL YOU

       Have you ever noticed how three different people can execute the same steps in a plan but get wildly different results?

       Have you had a moment recently of one of those “bad news” traits taking over and saying/doing something you regretted as a leader?

       Have you ever been in the middle of a meeting and suddenly wondered what the point was?

      In the last chapter, we identified the ideal, default and bad-news traits about you as a leader with some specificity. Now let’s look at what you’re causing.

      First, some owning up.

      As you lead, direct, strategize, delegate, and even manage, you clearly juggle a lot. You’re the one ultimately responsible for your team’s results. Whether business is awesome, horrible, volatile, inconsistent, inspiring or sketchy… it’s on you. Got it. Yet it goes further than just being accountable for it all. You’re actually causing more than you realize. Beyond the visible results you hit, how each person under you orients to the work, feels in the organization, produces at the top of their game (or doesn’t) and brings energy to it is also on you. Consciously or not, you’re already having impact on all of those things. You leave a wake behind you, visible to everyone else all the time, even when you’re not intending it. Drop a stone¹ to get to the bottom of a pond, and the ripples it causes on the water’s surface cause impact on the pond’s edge, 90 degrees away from the direction of the stone’s travel. You’re a big stone now, so you cause big ripples. The bigger your position, the more it all counts. People hear what you say, watch what you do and pick up on where you are, usually magnifying it, good or bad. They then choose their path and interpretation of what it means as a result. That could be great, damaging or a missed opportunity multiple times per day. This may reassure or panic you. You might have a firm handle on it or be secretly hoping that it goes one way or another. Either way… what you’re causing counts, so let’s get it right.

      There are a lot of models out there that link result to cause, desire to plan. I’m not here to teach you planning models—you can get those in a simple Google search. I’m committed to your impact getting bigger, more powerful and more intentional. To do that, we’ll use a frame that’s simple in concept, but huge in impact moment to moment.

      1. Have

      Like most leaders, you spend a lot of time talking about results. Your success is judged, competition monitored and team’s success measured by them.

       What rank did we end up with? What metric are we pushing for? What are the final numbers?

      If your team doesn’t know the result they’re shooting for, they lose momentum, focus and direction. Without a clear finish line, no one will keep running faster. Got it. Really good managers make concrete results clear first. Yet great leaders look further than that, and you need to play a bigger game as an influencer. I’ll assume that you already do a great job at outlining the specific deliverables or framing out the metrics expected by your constituents, yet how often do you drive deeper and broader—beyond those measurables? What if you asked the question a bit differently…

      “What impact do I want to HAVE?”

      Critically different from the question “What result am I going for?”-this is more than just semantics. Changing the question gets to something deeper, broader and more activating—where influencers make their distinctive mark. They don’t just get results, they have reach, they have pull from the inside out, they have impact that creates intentional ripples of more and more impact. HAVE is the very first thing that every great influencer asks themself before they goes into any idea, plan, conversation, presentation, meeting and especially the office for the day. Yes, they call out specific results, but they also isolate all the other indicators that equal true impact.

      Result only: We want $XYZ in sales.

      Then ask yourself: If we had that number, what else would we have?

       We’d have a fired-up team,

       have buzz in the market,

       have people converting to our brand,

       have the street cred of solving what others couldn’t

      Now we’re talking about impact people can rally behind vs. a result for them to check off. As you broaden your thinking to have, it sets a bigger game and more meaningful orientation to it for everyone involved. Don’t just hit results—have impact.

       Real Influencer Moment:

      A coaching client from the restaurant industry took this on. A notoriously intense chef for the highest-grossing restaurant of a fun, successful brand, he leads teams under serious time and performance pressure. They do it, but it can be tense. With this HAVE question, he decided that he wanted to have a different environment- a fun environment with a kitchen staff of people who were having fun all of the time, cranking in their quality of results; productive, effective and happy despite the slams of pressure.

       Deep & Wide

      Have gets at impact that goes wide…. answering the question of, “If we have that… then, what else will we cause beyond that?” This is the ripple effect of what you do, and getting strategically intentional about what else you’re causing with your efforts.

      As in:

      If we have a fired up team, then what else could we cause beyond that (ripple effect)?

      Ambassadors for the brand, talking it up in their circles outside of work. Which could then trigger having…

       The word of our brand getting out there to new prospective clients, who will check us out…

      Which could then trigger having…

      This applies to individual interactions all day long, too. What good is Expansion to a completely new demographic of clientele coming in the door…

      You can see where this is going, right?

      Keep asking the question, “Then what?” and you’ll map the ripples of impact you can strategically have.

      Have also gets at impact that goes deep… answering the question, “If we have that, what else would we of course also have to make that happen?” This is drilling into the layers deeper than the initial obvious answer. Go intentionally for depth of impact, which takes root to grow stronger.

      For example:

      If we have a fired up team, what would that mean we also have?

       People who believe in what we’re doing.

      Which means we’d also have…