The Concept of Influence

By Jessica Jeffress | Posted: 6/17/2020

In my recent keynote address during NetVU’s Annual Meeting of Members, I shared how one word has had such an impact on how I approach things. That word is influence.

Our agency annually attends the Global Leadership Summit, and this past year, one of its major themes was influence. The speakers defined it as “the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something.”

I love that! We all can affect someone or something. 

The team at GLS took it a step further and said that anyone who has influence (that’s all of us!) is a leader. We’re all leaders!

Fast-forward a bit, and the NetVU Executive Board was sitting in a meeting talking about member engagement and why people decide to attend Chapter meetings, go to Accelerate, attend a webinar, or post on NCOM. The concepts of influence and leadership from the Global Leadership Summit sessions immediately came to mind. We all do those things because we’re leaders, and because we want to make ourselves and our organizations better.

Our members choose to use their influence, whether it’s a conscious decision or not, every time they share a best practice or attend an education session.

Scott Adams, who created the comic strip Dilbert, once said, “You don’t have to be a ‘person of influence’ to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.”

How amazing is it to stop and think how much our participation – no matter how big or small – in all things NetVU has such an influence on others? I’m so proud of all the things our members do to help each other, and so appreciative for the time each of you puts into NetVU and your fellow members.

I appreciate your influence and your leadership, and I am so excited to be able to work alongside each of you.

I am also excited about the opportunity that we have this summer to have an even greater influence by attending the free sessions NetVU is offering as part of our Summer School of Accelerate!

It’s amazing to have access to hundreds of other people who are just like you – whose companies face the same problems and opportunities as you, and who are passionate about improving the industry like you. 

Through NetVU, we all have a network of people supporting us, willing to offer suggestions and ideas to ease any challenge.

Which brings me to this – I have issued a couple of simple challenges for our membership:
The first is this: sign up for some of the sessions we’re offering during Summer of Accelerate. Take a notebook full of notes! Build your passion and excitement about things that could be.
My second challenge is to pick three things – not a million things – but three things that you feel would have the best impact at work.

Narrowing your focus to the most impactful items, the Key Three, can help take something that can be overwhelming (a notebook full of notes) and turn it into actionable takeaways.

Once you identify your Key Three, NetVU would love to hear what those items are. You can take this survey to let us know your Key Three; then throughout the next year, we will remind you of them from time to time and try to reinvigorate your goals with some of the energy that attending a session or discussion with your fellow NetVU members can create. We’ll also share educational resources to help you more easily implement your Key Three, and cheerlead you as you tackle them.