The Influence Issue

Who’s the Most Influential Person You’ve Ever Met? – Think about this for a moment:

Now, if you’re a leader, reframe it: Who is the most influential or inspirational leader you’ve encountered —and what impact did they have on you?

For me, two people immediately come to mind. One I met in my late twenties, the other in my late forties. They couldn’t have been more different. One was blunt, direct, and polarising—like Marmite, you either loved him or hated him. The other led with a far gentler, softer style (what I call soft power). Yet both fundamentally shaped my professional life when our paths crossed. One sparked my lifelong fascination with what makes a truly great leader.

There’s a saying: “We can’t be what we can’t see.” When I used to run workshops on developing high-performing teams, I’d often ask participants: “Who’s the best leader you’ve ever worked with?” Surprisingly, many struggled to answer.

And that raises an important point.

• If you’ve been fortunate enough to experience exceptional leadership firsthand, you may worry you’ll never measure up.
• If you haven’t, you may wonder where to even begin. What skills do you need? How will you know when you’ve “got there”?

Here’s what I’ve learned from working with hundreds of leaders across industries: those who intentionally cultivate exceptional influencing skills don’t just lead better—they enjoy leadership more. Influence is the golden key that unlocks other traits of successful leadership. Without it, leadership feels like pushing uphill. With it, leadership flows, a lot easier and its more fun.

How Influence Has Evolved: 25 Years of Leadership Transformation

When I started my career at Hewlett Packard in the late 1980s, influence was about presence in the room or in my case often on the shop floor as I worked in a manufacturing division. The ability to command attention in face-to-face meetings was paramount. Leaders influenced through proximity, hierarchy, and formal authority structures that everyone understood and respected. HP had at the time a creative unique way of connecting leaders with the entire workforce called Management By Walking Around (MBWA). Every week the GM used to walk around the site and production areas talking to everyone.

Fast-forward to 2025, and the game has fundamentally changed.

The Digital World and Influence

Today’s leaders must master a much wider range of skills – the ability to be equally compelling whether they’re presenting to the board in person or leading a team call from their home office. The executive who could hold a room spellbound but comes across as wooden on video calls is operating with half their influence toolkit.

I’ve watched seasoned leaders—people who commanded respect for decades—struggle to adapt their influence style to Zoom screens and Teams channels. The subtle body language cues, the ability to read the room, the power of physical presence—these traditional influence tools require complete recalibration for our hybrid world.

The Authority Shift

The most significant change I’ve witnessed is the erosion of positional authority as an influence tool. In the early 2000s, “because I’m the boss” still carried weight. Today’s multi-generational workforce, particularly Gen Z employees, expects leaders to earn influence through competence and character, not hierarchy.

This shift has caught many traditional leaders off-guard. I regularly coach executives who are frustrated that their teams question decisions, want to understand the “why” behind everything, and expect to be influenced rather than directed. What feels like insubordination is a fundamental shift in how influence works in the modern workplace and many seasoned leaders struggle to both understand and adjust to this dynamic.

The Intergenerational Influence Challenge

Leading across four generations simultaneously—Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z—requires influence agility that previous generations of leaders never needed to develop.

Different Influence Languages

Each generation responds to different influence approaches:

• Boomers often respect experience and track records
• Gen X values efficiency and results-driven communication
• Millennials seek purpose, collaborative decision-making and use of technology
• Gen Z demands authenticity and understanding for flexible work and life patterns

The most influential leaders I work with have learned to switch their influence style within the same meeting, adapting their approach based on who they’re trying to reach. This isn’t manipulation—it’s meeting people where they are with skilled natural agility. This is now a super power for todays influential leaders.

The Trust Equation Has Changed

Younger employees, having grown up with social media and online reviews, are natural sceptics of authority. They research their leaders on LinkedIn, read Glassdoor reviews, and expect transparency that would have been unthinkable decades ago. Influence built on information imbalance—where leaders had access to data their teams didn’t—no longer works.

The Hybrid Reality: Influence Without Presence

The shift to hybrid working has further complicated the situation.  Leaders must now build and maintain influence across multiple touchpoints:

Realtime Daily Influence (video calls, in-person meetings) requires energy, clarity, and the ability to create connection through screens.

Ongoing Multi Channel Influence (emails, Slack messages, recorded videos, voice messages) demands writing and verbal skills that many leaders never developed, plus the ability to convey personality and build relationships through text.

Always-On Influence (your digital presence, how you show up consistently) means every interaction is potentially influence-building or influence-destroying.

The leaders struggling most are those who haven’t recognised that influence in 2025 is omnichannel. You can’t just be influential in person anymore—you need to be influential everywhere your leadership shows up. It needs to be both authentic and consistent to work.

The Three Pillars Reimagined

The traditional Effective Influencer Formula still holds true, but each element has evolved.

1. Character: Authenticity in the Age of Transparency

Be authentic and trustworthy but recognise that authenticity now plays out across multiple platforms and contexts. Your character needs to be consistent whether you’re in the boardroom, on a team video call, or responding to a phone message at 9 PM.

The bar for authenticity has also risen dramatically. Today’s workforce can spot performative leadership from miles away. They want to see your real reactions, your genuine passion, your actual problem-solving process—not just the polished executive persona.

2. Competence: Continuous Learning as Influence Insurance

Deliver results consistently but also demonstrate that you’re evolving as fast as your industry. In my HP days, expertise could last years. Today, what you knew six months ago might be outdated.

The most influential leaders I work with are passionate learners—they openly discuss what they’re studying, what they’re struggling with, what they’re experimenting with. This vulnerability increases their influence because it shows they’re keeping pace with change often learning by painful mistakes.

3. Connection: Relationship Building in a Fragmented World

Learn to connect with people across generational, cultural, and geographic divides. Handle both the boardroom handshake and choosing the right emoji. Build relationships that survive job changes, reorganisations, and hybrid work arrangements.

The leaders who’ve maintained the strongest influence through the past five years are those who became intentional about relationship maintenance—scheduling regular check-ins, remembering personal details, creating moments of human connection even in digital interactions.

What Leaders Need to Do Differently Now

Start Doing More:

• Invest in digital communication skills: Take courses on virtual presentation, learn video editing basics, master AI applications.
• Practice influence across generations: Consciously adapt your style based on your audience’s preferences and expectations even if they are vastly different to your own.
• Build transparent decision-making processes: Share your thinking, not just your conclusions.

Start Doing Less:

• Relying on positional authority: Stop expecting compliance just because you’re the boss or high up on an organisation chart.
• Assuming face-to-face time equals influence time: Quality of interaction matters more than quantity. Don’t have tech on when in a 1-1 conversation be 100 percent present.
• Using one-size-fits-all communication approaches: What worked for everyone won’t work for anyone.

Keep Doing:

• Building genuine relationships: This never goes out of style, regardless of the medium.
• Delivering consistent results: Competence remains the foundation of sustainable influence. One of the high performing habits I work through with leaders is delivering on your results be that reliable person not the flaky one.
• Staying curious and humble: The best influencers are always learning.

The Unforgettable Leader’s Edge

The right kind of influence is not about being the loudest voice in the room (Introverts you are ok to be Introvert as you have exceptional listening skills)—or the dominant presence on the screen. It’s about being authentic, impactful, and compelling across every interaction and platform where your leadership shows up.

Leaders who master modern influence can:

• Motivate and inspire teams whether they’re together or distributed.
• Build powerful, trust-based partnerships with stakeholders across generations.
• Serve as role models for aspiring leaders navigating a complex workplace.
• Expand their networks and attract top talent in a competitive market.

So, here’s the real question for today’s leaders: How much work are you willing to put into becoming that leader who’s remembered not just for what they achieved, but for how they made people feel empowered to achieve their own greatness?

The answer to that question will determine whether you’re simply managing in 2025—or truly leading.