The four I’s of Leadership: Inspiration, Influence, Innovation, and Impact

Strong companies are built by efficient teams, and good teams are built by good leaders. It takes leadership to guide the people and help them navigate through the unpredictable business landscape. At the core of good leadership are four components- Inspiration, Influence, Innovation, and Impact. 

The job of a leader is to bring out the best in people and help them work in a way that helps the company grow. By breaking down leadership to its key components and mastering these elements, you can start transforming your company into a well-oiled machine that delivers results. 

Inspiration: 

When employees are stuck in their routine work and don’t get excited about trying new things, the company’s growth will also stagnate. It takes an inspiring leader to help the team to think out of the box and push the boundaries on what they can achieve. 

According to Harvard Business Review, inspiring leaders are those who motivate their team to take on “bold missions,” but at the same time hold them accountable for the outcome. You don’t want to be in a situation where the leader is inspiring but doesn’t deliver results or a situation where the results are great but they come at a huge long term cost for the company because of the way in which the leader got things done.  

Leaders should be able to help their teams to change their behaviors when needed to become more productive. It is the leader who builds the culture of the company, and she has to able to set the tone with clearly defined expectations. 

Influence: 

A business owner may be an eloquent speaker, a hard worker, and a confident expert in her domain. However, these traits are of little use if she is not able to influence her team to bring about the needed changes for growth. 

There is a difference between being an efficient employee and becoming a leader who people respect and follow. There may be several reasons why someone finds it hard to make this transition after starting a business or being promoted. According to a report by the University of Florida Training and Organizational Development, there are a few steps leaders can take to be able to positively influence her team.  

Leaders will be able to influence their teams if they earn their trust, and for that the first they need is credibility. An honest and capable leader will begin to build trust over time. The nest step in gaining the trust of the employees to engage with them from an early planning stage for major projects and decisions, especially if it affects them. With these two traits you should be on your way to leading efficiently with a team that will follow you. 

Innovation: 

The world is changing fast and companies need new kind of leaders with new mindsets in order to stay relevant in the next decade. The nature of jobs is changing with increased use of technology that is making human intervention unnecessary, but at the same time it is creating new opportunities. 

Innovation is the ability of the leader to adapt to the changing scenario and be able to take advantage of new opportunities quickly. According to Forbes, Innovation Leadership is all about being in “Opportunity Mode,” where the leader is always looking for turning problems into business opportunities.  

No matter how big the problem is, human capacity to innovate has always been able to find solutions. For a leader, all it takes is to have empathy for the end user or the customer. If you can use your imagination to envision what can be and make the lives of your customers a little more comfortable with innovative products, your company will be on a path to growth. 

Impact: 

As the economy deals with one kind of a crisis or other, economists are increasingly looking to new models of growth and entrepreneurs are the key to the new development formula. According to a paper published in Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, entrepreneurs are the reason why the US economy revitalized in the 2000s. 

Entrepreneurs move the world forward through their passion and their ability to see opportunity where others only see problems. Business leaders are the ones who bring about a change in the economy and they are the ones who have the ability to change the world. 

More women are increasingly recognizing the value of starting their own businesses instead of working for someone else. Back in 1997, there were 5.4 million women-owned businesses, which increased to 7.7 million in a little less than a decade, and that number has continued to grow.  

Leadership in business is not just about creating a viable product or service. It is also about the impact on the community. Business owners create jobs and are the pillars of their community.