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INFLUENCING YOUR FOLLOWERS | THE DYNAMICS OF INFLUENCE

INFLUENCING YOUR FOLLOWERS | THE DYNAMICS OF INFLUENCE

Yesterday, I discussed the two kinds of followers that every leadership will encounter in the cycle of leadership with their corresponding observable characteristics to help identify them and I promised to discuss the dynamics of influence with respect to the followers. Today, I am going to make the deliberate effort to explain the dynamics of influence associated with the follower in the cycle of leadership and why their responses to following leaders are somewhat selective and often times idiosyncratic.

Having established in the previous essays that each of us influence and are also influenced uniquely, and yesterday, I also laid out the three points of influence, which I will further consider to be gates that are contingent upon temperament and personality dimensions that make us vulnerable to the people that lead us or we lead, which are spiritual, intellectual, and physical gates that also correspond to three realms of life. There are four personality dimensions and 16 temperaments according to personality science in behavioral psychology. Each of these dimensions are characterised by a pattern of preferences to the way we perceive and make judgments about information gotten through the five senses or intuition. However, to be able to explain the dynamics of influence associated with these personality dimensions, there is need I first lay them out:
1. Rationals
2. Artisans
3. Guardians
4. Idealists

In understanding these dynamics, I will further parallel these dimensions to the way followers are influenced along the three gates in a less explicit but concise manner, thus:

Heart Influence: Rationals can only be influenced through their first point of contact with the leader, which is their spiritual gate, followed by intellectual gate and then physical gate. Because they are in tune with their spirit, they value spiritual things more than anyone else. The often check people out with their spiritual sense and also value the antecedents of their leaders as such.

Sense Influence: Artisans can only be influenced through their first point of contact with the leader, which is their physical sense gate, followed by intellectual gate and then spiritual gate. They are influence because the leader is able to make physical sense by the way and manner he or she talks and excites them physically.

Help Influence: Guardians can only be influenced through their first point of contact with the leader, which is their intellectual gate, followed physical and then spiritual gate. They perceive leader as helpers, who should help them move on in life because of their close affinity to their physical gate. They value intelligent leaders and would gladly follow without arguments.

Soul Influence: Idealists can only be influenced through their first point of contact with the leader, which is their intellectual gate also but followed by spiritual gate, and then their physical gate. They only are influenced by leaders who they know to be intelligent, and when the leader does not meet up to their standard they become silently stubborn and sometimes oppositional because they believe that, even as followers, they know they should be led by those who lead them.

Those are routes that explain the dynamics of influence common to followers that many leaders who recognize them and play along that path would end up influencing their followers according to their designs. To discover your temperament and personality dimension, whether as a leader or follower, sign up into the School of Leadership Development (SOLD) an arm of IDB Consult coming next week with a Saturday free weekend class for everyone.

Elvis C. Umez
Leadership Consultant
School of Leadership Development (SOLD)
IDB Consult

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