Capacity for Influence: How Leaders Shape Behaviour and Build Momentum

Written by Alan Rees

If Momentum is a relationship system, then influence is the way you touch those relationships.

In the first three newsletters, we named three self-evident truths:

  • Momentum is built in relationships, not in tactics.

  • Connection must come before content.

  • Your reactions either build or destroy trust.

Now we go deeper. Your capacity for influence is the story people tell themselves after they’ve been around you.

The Momentum Framework calls influence the ability to understand how people think, feel and interpret the world.

Underneath the jargon is something simple and confronting, which is that people are constantly recalibrating who they will become around you.

If you show up reactive, defensive, or ego‑driven, they become smaller. If you show up grounded, curious and possibility‑oriented, they become braver.

That’s why leadership capacity for influence starts with you first.

Influence is what you make possible in people.

When you choose Response Mode over reactivity, you’re quietly telling everyone in the room: “It’s safe to bring your full self here.” That safety creates the place where Momentum grows, ideas surface, truth is spoken, challenge is welcomed and commitment deepens.

Influence, at its core, is the courage to be the kind of person around whom others become more of who they’re capable of being.

Call to Action

This week, ask someone close to you: “Who do you become around me?”

Listen—really listen—and let their answer shape the leader you choose to be next.

For guidance on where to begin, reach out to Alan Rees: Vistage Chair.

Mobile: 0407 053 901

Email: alan.rees@vistage.com.au

Website: https://www.vistage.com.au/

Jenni Anderson