Influence is in direct proportion to distance. When I ask people who in their life has influenced them most, it’s usually one of their parents or a friend or mentor that they actually know. It’s almost never a Tony Robbins.
The lesson for us is, if you want to have influence, you have to do it in person. That’s why, in the age of easy and amazing electronic communication, politicians still fly across the country to shake hands with real people. And that’s why you need to hop on a plane to meet a client or prospect.
And that’s why you have to sit in person with staff and have hard talks (or encouraging ones) and not just put it in an email.
Email is one dimensional, phone/skype is two dimensional, face-to-face is three dimensional. And communication in three dimensions at once is by far the most effective. That’s why you impress from a distance, but you only influence up close.
