Influencer

As a people we were not created to live this life alone, we were fashioned in such a way to work in communities and build support systems. Now this is not to say that one can only be successful in the group environment, but to be part of a healthy supportive group, sure does make it that much easier to succeed. The book Influencer talks about Social ability and Social motivation. There are many details that make up both, and I would like to make comparisons, along with talk on how they contrast one another. Lets start with a good definition for each of these terms.
What is Social ability? According to the authors it is having the ability to know how to utilize the social capital that surrounds you i.e. friends, family, co-workers. Grenny, Patterson, Maxfield, McMillan, and Switzler (2013) “These friends provide us with access to their brains, give us the strength of their hands, and even allow us to make use of their many other personal resources.” Now lets take a look at Social motivation, or other times known as influence? Grenny et al. (2013) “ The ridicule and praise, acceptance and rejection, approval and disapproval of our fellow beings can do more to assist or destroy our change efforts then almost any other source.” Now that we have more of a working definition behind these terms, lets compare and contrast these ideas.

If we were to begin with the most obvious comparison of these two terms, it would be that they both have people as their nuclei.

In order for these concepts to be effective they must be centered on the group/team mentality, there is no way for these to be applied as a one-man show. In order to be a leader you must have one vital ingredient, and that is people who would be willing to follow and allow you to have influence over their live, thoughts, emotions and resources. One can only draw so much motivation out of self, but when placed in the right environment and surrounded by highly motivated people, the sky is the

limit.
As for how these terms are contrasting, the best way to look at it would be that social motivation or influence is centered on emotions, while social ability is centered on resources or capital of those around you. While talking about social ability and enlisting the power of social capital, it appears to be much more of a business transaction, opposed to the social motivation, that seems to be more relationship based. When dealing with others emotions via social motivation the authors tell us that everyone has a very strong desire to be accepted, respected and to be able to form connections and feel included with others so much that it pulls on their heartstrings. However, social ability or “capital” if you will is described as, Grenny et al. (2013) “the profound enabling power of an essential network of relationships.”
Now while the title of this paper was social ability vs social motivation, after examining the definitions and developing a better understanding of the terms by doing a compare and contrast, we would agree that replacing the vs with and & would be much more suitable. To say that these terms would be one vs the other is incorrect in my opinion, but brought together, understood, and put into practice could be the difference between a good and a great leader.