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In every organization, there are brilliant ideas that never get off the ground. Not because they’re bad ideas, but because no one knows how to get others to act on them.
You can have the smartest proposal, the clearest logic, and the best data, but if no one follows through, none of it matters. The biggest challenge leaders face today is influencing behavior in a way that creates sustainable, real-world change.
But most leaders go about it the wrong way. They lean on incentives, policies, or sheer willpower — tools that often backfire or only produce temporary results.
In our latest episode of Future-Ready Leadership, Joseph Grenny, an expert on human behavior and co-creator of the Six Sources of Influence framework, shares a proven framework for sustainable behavior change based on decades of research and real-world application.
His Six Sources of Influence model doesn’t just explain why people behave the way they do, it shows leaders how to shape those behaviors in a way that actually sticks.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
What We Get Wrong About Influence
At its core, leadership is about helping people behave in ways that produce different outcomes. But most leaders approach this challenge with a limited playbook: they rely on persuasion, incentives, or top-down authority. According to Joseph, that’s like trying to build a skyscraper with a hammer.
We think we can get buy-in just by being persuasive — making a strong case, showing the numbers, sharing a vision. As Joseph points out, those efforts might get you short-term compliance, but they rarely result in true commitment or lasting change. There’s a big distinction between persuasion and influence:
- Persuasion changes minds.
- Influence changes behavior.
If your goal is to create sustained shifts in culture, mindset, or performance, persuasion isn’t enough. You need a broader, more holistic strategy. One that addresses the full system around people’s choices.
That’s where the Six Sources of Influence come in.
The Six-Part Formula for Behavior Change
Rather than offering a checklist, Joseph encourages leaders to use a diagnostic lens. When people aren’t adopting a new behavior, whether it’s returning to the office, following through on a training program, or embracing a new strategy, the first step is asking: what’s actually preventing the change?
Joseph’s framework organizes influence into a 2×3 matrix, structured around Motivation and Ability, and examined across three levels: Personal, Social, and Structural. That gives you six total levers for change.
Most leaders only use one or two, usually structural motivation, like rewards, bonuses, or policies. That almost always leads to malicious compliance, when people technically do what you ask, but without any real engagement or ownership.
Joseph argues (and I agree) that if you want sustainable behavior change, you’ve got to go deeper:
- Are people personally motivated to change?
- Do they have the skills and confidence to do it?
- Are the people around them modeling and supporting the new behavior?
- Are there structural obstacles in the environment that make the right behavior harder than it should be?
This way of thinking changes everything. Instead of blaming people or pushing harder, you start diagnosing the real blockers and unlocking solutions that actually work.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Influence Begins With Empathy, Not Authority
This isn’t just theory. In the episode, Joseph shares an incredible story from The Other Side Academy, a peer-led program for former felons. Without using punishment, rewards, or external controls, the program has maintained a perfect drug-free record for over a decade. How? By building an environment that naturally supports the behaviors they want to see, through social norms, peer influence, and reframing.
That’s the kind of transformation leaders can apply at work. Whether it’s pitching an idea to a skeptical manager or getting an entire team aligned around a new initiative, influence starts with understanding. Before you push harder, pause to diagnose which source is blocking change.
Maybe the people you’re trying to influence don’t feel capable (personal ability).
Maybe no one else on the team is modeling the behavior (social motivation).
Or maybe the environment makes the behavior harder than it should be (structural ability).
Once you identify the source, your strategy becomes obvious, and often, surprisingly simple.
Joseph explains that even small tweaks, like getting the right opinion leaders on board early or reframing an undesirable task as a moral imperative, can lead to massive shifts in behavior.
Why This Matters Now
Influence isn’t about manipulation or power plays. It’s about stepping into someone else’s world and understanding what’s helping or hindering their behavior. It’s about recognizing that resistance isn’t usually personal, it’s contextual.
As organizations wrestle with hybrid work, AI adoption, employee engagement, and cultural change, understanding how to influence, not just manage, people is mission-critical. Leaders can no longer afford to rely solely on logic or job titles. Influence is the new leadership currency.
The best part? Once you see the six sources in action, you can’t unsee them. You’ll start diagnosing every behavior problem differently, and solving it faster and more effectively.
If you’ve ever struggled to get people to change, to care, or to follow through, this episode is for you.
Listen to the full episode now to learn how to turn good ideas into real behavior change, why incentives can backfire, and how to build cultures that support the right actions naturally and sustainably.