Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Felloledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode three twenty seven. Replace your ORG chart with
Speaker 2: a heat map of influence? Could you imagine that? So today?
Speaker 2: I want you to just imagine this in your mind
Speaker 2: for a minute. What if we threw out your company's
Speaker 2: ORG chart, not literally, but mentally, and replaced it with
Speaker 2: a heat map of influence. Think about it. The org
Speaker 2: chart is clean, hierarchical, and it's in order. It tells
Speaker 2: you who reports to who, who signs off on time sheets,
Speaker 2: who sits, where they are in the food chain. It's
Speaker 2: about position. But what it doesn't show and never will show,
Speaker 2: is influence and trust. You know, the human undercurrent that
Speaker 2: actually moves your organization forward or backward. Because here's the truth.
Speaker 2: Leadership isn't always tied to titles. Influence isn't printed on
Speaker 2: business cards, and respect isn't built through job descriptions. Your
Speaker 2: real power map, the one you should be paying attention to,
Speaker 2: lives in relationships, in formal authority, emotional intelligence, and trust networks.
Speaker 2: That's why I believe every leader should think in terms
Speaker 2: of influence, not just hierarchy. And it starts by mentally
Speaker 2: replacing your org chart with a heat map. So what
Speaker 2: is a heat map of influence? Picture this your team
Speaker 2: or depart visualized on a grid, where each person's level
Speaker 2: of influence burns hotter or cooler depending on their informal power.
Speaker 2: The higher the trust, the stronger their voice and meetings,
Speaker 2: the more people turn to them when something goes sideways,
Speaker 2: the hotter they glow on this imaginary heat map. Now
Speaker 2: compare that with your traditional org chart. Just because someone
Speaker 2: is three levels up doesn't mean they have more influence
Speaker 2: than the senior employee everyone confides in. Just because someone
Speaker 2: is a supervisor doesn't mean they're one of the people
Speaker 2: are looking to when the building's on fire, literally or figuratively.
Speaker 2: This heat map forces you to ask different questions. Who
Speaker 2: do people really listen to, who changes the temperature in
Speaker 2: the room when they speak, and who do people turn
Speaker 2: to for support, advice, or clarity not because they have to,
Speaker 2: but because they want to. And here's what you might discover.
Speaker 2: That quiet emt who's been around for six years. They
Speaker 2: might carry more influence in your base than your new
Speaker 2: shift commander or the admin assistant who seems to know
Speaker 2: what's happening before it happens. They might be the emotional
Speaker 2: anchor of your entire team, and that middle manager who
Speaker 2: constantly says, that's not my job. They might have the title,
Speaker 2: but they're ice cold. On the heat map, you begin
Speaker 2: to understand the invisible currents that drive your culture, and
Speaker 2: this is where your leadership focus should shift towards the
Speaker 2: hotspots of trust, morale, and momentum. So how do you
Speaker 2: build your own heat map of influence. You don't need software,
Speaker 2: you don't need a budget line item. You just need
Speaker 2: to start observing differently. Start by asking three questions. Who
Speaker 2: do people go to when they're unsure, not for policy,
Speaker 2: but for clarity. That person likely has high emotional intelligence
Speaker 2: and carries weight in the organization. And ask whose opinion
Speaker 2: moves the needle. There are voices in every organization that
Speaker 2: tilt the room. They may not hold a title, but
Speaker 2: when they talk, others listen, find them. And who do
Speaker 2: people follow in a crisis. In moments of stress, people
Speaker 2: reveal who they trust. That's your heat check. So what
Speaker 2: do you do with that info? It's simple. You build
Speaker 2: around your heat sources, You empower them, you include them
Speaker 2: in key conversations, and you give them access because influence
Speaker 2: without access is a wasted opportunity. And here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Sometimes those influencers are undervalued. Maybe they're not in the
Speaker 2: formal leadership pipeline. Maybe they're not even aware of the
Speaker 2: power they hold. Your job is to recognize it and
Speaker 2: help them use it intentionally, because when you harness informal
Speaker 2: influence and align it with formal leadership, you create something
Speaker 2: powerful called momentum. And here's a story from my own world.
Speaker 2: At one point in our EMS organization, we had a
Speaker 2: medic who didn't want a title, didn't want to raise,
Speaker 2: didn't want meetings, but he was the person everyone trusted.
Speaker 2: People followed his lead without hesitation, especially in chaotic moments.
Speaker 2: So instead of trying to push him into a leadership
Speaker 2: role he didn't want, I asked for his input constantly.
Speaker 2: I gave him behind the scenes access and I listened
Speaker 2: because he was a human barometer for the industry. He
Speaker 2: made our team better without ever sitting in a boardroom.
Speaker 2: That's heat map in action. So the org chart tells
Speaker 2: you what's official. The heat map tells you what's real.
Speaker 2: One show's authority, the other reveals influence and its influence
Speaker 2: that wins battles, earns trust, and holds teams together in
Speaker 2: the storm. So here's your challenge forget the org chart
Speaker 2: for a minute and mentally sketch your team's heat map.
Speaker 2: Who's hot, who's dim, who's carrying invisible weight in how
Speaker 2: can you make their influence work for the team. The
Speaker 2: best leaders don't just manage titles. They manage trust and
Speaker 2: that means knowing where the heat is. This has been
Speaker 2: the seven minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more, Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com