#davesdailychallenge (133): Influence. There are many things that you’ll never be taught in school. One of these things is the reality of how to lead in the real world. We are brought up to believe that there are two kinds of people most of the time…leaders and followers. The leaders say what to do and the followers do it right? In reality this is far from the case. Many times in your careers, be it personal or professional, you will find yourself an actual leader of people in the sense that you have folks directly reporting to you and you are responsible for their success. On many more occasions you will find that the real work isn’t done by any kind of direct authoritative leadership. It is done, and done well, through influence. You need to learn to lead by influence. Even in the aforementioned circumstances where you do actually have direct authority, you should never rely on that dynamic for too long. If you do, you will turn potential high performers into transactional drones that will only do what you tell them and only just enough to not get in trouble. Instead, and this has certainly been a theme of this writing series, do the hard thing that leads to much better results. Establish collaborative influence through shared values and goals. Make yourself human and expect the same from those you work with. Give and earn respect in a way that isn’t forced or inauthentic. When in doubt, just look inside and ask what you would prefer to experience in your life. The absolute best way to practice this that I have ever found is to try leading your peers. You will have no choice but to lead through influence and get your team to where you need them to go without relying on your authority. After all, you don’t really have any. Good luck.