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667. When Influence Becomes Responsibility: What Experience Requires of Leaders · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Be sure to follow, subscribe, and share Daily Influence with someone who could use a little extra positivity today.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: And make us part of your Daily routine, whether it's during your commute on a walk or an quiet moment just for you, because you're influenced matters.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everybody, Brian Smith here with the Icon team series and your daily influence and today you know I'm going to reflect our last episode a little bit before I move into this transition of what I would like to talk about for the next.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Probably the next couple of weeks as we really dive into 2026, and you know, I talked about what the last 30 years of smart management has taught us about growing without breaking our organizations, the people in our organizations.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: or even our purpose.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: But reflection without responsibility doesn't really, you know, move anything forward.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this episode is going to be about what those lessons require of leaders today.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think, you know, how do you apply lessons in your present area of influence?
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, what is required from our leaders now, especially in times where
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: loud, pressure is high, and influence is often exercised without awareness of our consequences.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: We do this as leaders all the time and experience doesn't just earn perspective, it creates obligations.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think those obligations often are misinterpreted or not really even thought about
• 2:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: from the perspective that they need to be thought about by those of us that are in leadership roles.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And look, mature leadership shifts from proving to storting.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what does that mean?
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, early leadership is about building.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about proving.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about surviving even.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: and mature leadership is about protecting.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about developing and it's about storing, not just our systems or our organization, but the people in them.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: At some point leadership stops being about capability and starts being about responsibility, titles, intelligence,
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And speed, matter less than judgment, timing, and awareness of the impact, the influence that we have within our area of influence and our organization and our homes and our families everywhere.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the question is change from can I to should I, and if I do at what cost him, not just a dollar cost, but an emotional cost, relationship cost is cost across all of your influence.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So look, influence without awareness can become harm even when our intentions are good.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Influence is always happening.
• 3:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's never stopped.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're being influential all the time.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even if it's intentional or not intentional.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leaders don't get to opt out of the impact they create.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You create influence in everything you do.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So your responsibility stretches far.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: wide and deep.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Systems amplify our behavior.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good and bad.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when you develop those systems, you're responsible for the ripples that they create.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're responsible for what they do.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're responsible for how they're accepted and also how they're carried on.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Words spoken casually at scale become policy, culture, and consequence.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is where responsible influence becomes non-negotiable.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: You need to be thoughtful about how you're influencing as a leader.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Influences are measured by your intention.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's measured by the outcome, especially for those without the power.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when you are influencing those who carry on in your area of influence, you have to give them everything they need to be as responsible and positive as they can.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: The work we have now as leaders is integration, not accumulation.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Early careers accumulate knowledge, they accumulate assets, they accumulate wins, mature.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: leadership integrates experience, failure, empathy, and context.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It comes from that knowledge.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: It comes from those assets.
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: It comes from those wins and those losses that we had.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Integration shows up as slower decisions with deeper clarity, less ego, and more listening,
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Organizationaly and socially, and look nowadays, it's really hard to rip apart the difference between those things.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: What each of us has learned to understand is that we carry our person, our organization, and our social responsibility almost at the same moment at the same time, and it's almost all the time now.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Progress doesn't come from adding more.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: It comes from aligning what we already know.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: and doing it within our core values in the most positive and responsible way we can.
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look, growth gave us experience, maturity gives us responsibility.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: The question now isn't about how much influence we have.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's how carefully we choose to use it.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's where leadership stops being about success and starts being about the contribution we're making to the areas of influence we find ourselves and it doesn't matter where they are.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So,
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Be intentional about your leadership.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Be intentional about what you're contributing and be intentional about how you're doing it Like I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to our next discussion here at Daily Influence.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day