A number of years ago, J. Oswald Sanders defined leadership with one word. That word was "influence." He was so right. Leadership is influence. The truth of the matter is that we influence a hand full of people every single day. It might be as simple as influencing someone at work to go eat lunch at restaurant xyz or as important as influencing your teenage daughter not to get on drugs. Since influence is leadership then how do we do it?

President Dwight D. Eisenhower described leadership as "the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." That is the key right there. Did you catch it? The key to influencing others is motivation.

So, how are people motivated? Many times we are taught that we have to logically convince someone of something if we are going to influence them. But that isn't the first step. There are two steps to motivating people. People are first motivated by their emotions, not their logic. To truly influence, you have to get the person passionate about what you are talking about or the direction you want them to go. Think about it for a moment. Have you ever walked into a department store and there it was, the most incredible, beautiful big screen HD Television you have ever seen in your life? You want it! Passion, not logic is leading your motivations.

When you passionately want something, have you ever been able to convince yourself that you logically need it? "I really need this big screen HD Television. Think about all the people I could entertain. I just want to have a warm, inviting home for people to visit." Now, I will admit, this is kind of a silly illustration, but it makes an important point. People are influenced first emotionally, second logically.

So, the next time you need to lead an individual or a group in a certain direction, think first on how you can emotionally connect with them, then back it up with the logic. When you and I do this, our influence grows and our leadership strengthens.