Influence - Why LS Pt.4

Welcome, and thank you for tuning in to the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast. I'm your host, Ralph Owens, along with Terry Baylor. In today's podcast, we'll cover topics such as what is influence, why is influence important, the power of influence, and the results of influence. Enjoy the show.

To your point, we got some stories to tell. I'll just leave it right there. And, so let's do this, though. Can you share a little bit about, what you're doing now? And, just so I think it's important that the audience understand who you are and just where your journey is right now.

Yeah, absolutely. Like I talked about, I went from being a welder to a desktop support person in IT. This was back in 1998. And today I am the chief information officer of a credit union here in Houston, Texas. So God has taken me from, you know, the very base level, and I've gone through all the different levels in between, all the way up to the person who's the most responsible for IT in an organization.

Very, very blessed to have been able to make it this far.

So so real quick, we're not we got we're not gonna unpack, unpeel that onion all over today. But if you had to say the the biggest what is the single biggest, transformative idea from being in this and I'm on you know, just I'm gonna prove to you that I listen to. So Ralph gave me some homework today. So what is the single biggest idea that you believe? I don't maybe not single biggest, but a big idea from a thought perspective, that took you from a implementer to a creator.

Because in essence, the role that you're in right now is about creating. It's not about implementing. And so, you know, and this again, from a technology standpoint, you know, implementer meaning hands, you're touching the very technology, you are directly interfacing with the end user or with the technology to now being the creator, or the thought behind what the platform or what the unit or what the business unit does. From implementer to creator, what would you say, if you had to just boil it down to one thing that was a transformative ideal or thought?

I think that for a long time in my life, I really focused on being the best implementer I could be. That was the game for me. I wanna be at the top of the ladder as an implementer with this assumption that with that came the success that I really wanted for myself and my career. Once I got to the top implementer in that in the area of IT that I was in, I realized that there was so much further to go. And I remember the big thought that came to my mind was, okay, I wanna get into management.

Well, you think that what you did as an implementer that got you so far is gonna make you successful in management and it is the complete opposite. It takes 100% your ability to influence people to achieve when you get from the management position, the first manager position all the way up to the top. It does. I won't say it has nothing to do with your technical ability, but your technical ability is probably less than 10% of it. 90% of it is your ability to influence those people who are your colleagues, influence those people who report to you, influence those people who you report to.

Right? Up, side, and down. Your ability to relate to people and influence them is what determines your success and how far you go up the management round. So so the biggest idea I said all that to say the biggest idea what for me that helped me to become successful was understanding the shift of my focus from being the best in technology to being the best with people. That's good.

Because that is a never ending journey. It's a never ending journey. No matter how many books I read, no matter how many podcasts I listen to, no matter how many people I talk to, never ever stop learning how to become better with people. That's good. I'll tell you, man.

And I cannot go without saying at the end of the day, if you find a person that's good with people and they're not good with technology, they'll gain technology skills. But they'll shoot straight up the ladder. Because at the end of the day, people like they wanna know, like, and trust who they work with. It all comes down to that. That ability to relate to a person, to get them to enjoy working with you.

To look at you as a solution provider, things of that nature. They don't care anything about how much technically. And when I got that and my shift focus to the leadership development and people development, my career took off through the roof. I started passing people up. They're like, when I first started getting into this leadership thing, there were people that I knew in the industry, things of that nature.

And my salary started to double. I just started going right past people who were still focused on the whole technology piece of it Because I understood that it takes your ability to work well with people in order to move up those types of ladders. Below that ladder is all about technology.

So it's funny, two things come to mind for me. One, I don't know if it was a conversation we were having, but it was about, look, I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. I want to be the person leading this smartest person in the room.

So true. So true. So true. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely. And the the other aspect of that is, which, I'm sure

you're gonna have some nuggets to drop on this. Look. You got three different options when it comes to people. You can push them, you can pull them, or you can lead them.

That's it. That's it. And people people don't understand that leading is not pushing. Exactly. It's it's not.

Right? You know, that you ask 15 people what their definition of leadership is and you get 15 different answers. But once you really start to understand what leadership is and you really start to apply the principles of leadership and you start to see change in your environment, opportunities and doors will open for you. And that's the one thing I think I love the most about leadership is there is no prescriptive if you do one, two, three, this exactly is gonna happen. But we do know that if you do one, two, three opportunities will open because leaders are always looking for other leaders.

They're always looking for other leaders and when they see it and they identify with it, they'll start to open up doors for you. So it's gonna be some good conversation.

Now that's good. So what I hear is influence. Influence is the key.

That's it. That is it. Is what leadership is. Us both being spiritual individuals, followers of Christ. He was the greatest influencer that ever walked the earth.

And he is the greatest example of leadership that anyone could ever even read. There are times when we talk about this all the time. Sometimes the best way to lead a person is to ask them a question. If you looked at a bible, there's so many times where he asks people questions that he already knew the answers to to try to lead them to get to a certain place. Right?

So many great great examples. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's all influence.

That's that's all it is.

I appreciate that. You you man, you helping me. I gotta go I gotta go call my 20 year old today. So I need to ask some questions. I need to ask some questions.

Yes.

Powerful powerful tool. Thank you for listening to the Leadership Sovereignty Podcast. We hope that you not only enjoy the content but gained something to help you on your personal leadership journey. Feel free to reach out to us on X and Instagram under the handles Leadership Sovereignty. Until next time, stay safe, peace, and blessings.