The Law of Influence

What is influence and how do we get it?
How critical is it to leadership and why?
What are three concrete things you earn influence each day with your peers and teammates?

First of all, I don't think that there's a specific way that influence is "gained" or "earned" or anything of that sort. I think influence just happens--and it can be a positive or negative influence. I see plenty of people that influence me to be unlike them, and there are also plenty that I see and am influenced to do things similar to what they do.

Obviously, influence is very critical to leadership. Without it, you have no impact on others and therefore you are not leading anything. I don't think it's possible for someone to NEVER make an influence on another person, though. Each person influences another in some way. However, some think that they have a bigger influence than others. In "The Law of Leadership" there are 5 leadership myths: the management myth, the entrepreneur myth, the knowledge myth, the pioneer myth, and the position myth. Basically, these are about people who think they lead because they know certain things, hold a certain position, or had the initial idea for something. Many times these people can be leaders, but most of the time they are not.

Three concrete things I do to gain influence? Again, I don't think influence is gained, it just occurs. I guess three things I do are: working hard, not giving in to anything I don't want to do, and being independent. But I think there are more things I can do to influence people, like giving compliments, participating more in in-class discussions, and asking for some time off at work so I can have free time to hang out with my friends.