How To Discover Your Clout

We chatted with Jenni Catron about her new book, Clout, and what it looks like to discover and unleash our God-given influence. 

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Obviously as leaders, influence is important to us yet sometimes it feels as if there are a thousand definitions of “influence.”  How do you define it?

I define your influence as your clout.  It’s what God has given to you and to no one else.  You are specifically designed to impact the world in a way that no one else can.  It’s the unique combination of gifts, talents, experiences and opportunities that make up who you are.

In that same vein, it sounds like discovering and unleashing our influence then becomes almost our responsibility, our duty. What makes this so vital?

We all have influence with others whether we realize it or not.  Discovering your clout is an essential part of unleashing your purpose.  You have a specific purpose, a calling, that only you are qualified to fulfill.  Your God-given influence defines your purpose.  Your purpose establishes your leadership.  Your leadership makes a mark on the world. 

In the book you also talk about the things that can prevent us from really taking hold of our influence, things we have all felt. So how do we move past those things to fulfill our actual potential?

Life throws us a lot of curveballs and we easily start to live with some false assumptions about who we are.  We give in to feelings of inadequacy.  We assume we don’t have what it takes.  We perceive we don’t measure up.  We believe we are not enough.  These are some enemies of our influence that can hold us back, trip us up, and keep us from fully unleashing our influence and living our purpose.  I call them the “clout killers."

Overcoming the clout killers comes with a willingness to excavate some parts of our heart that we may be trying to cover up or avoid.  It’s being willing to unearth the things that have impacted us along life’s journey and replace them with a truer picture of who God has designed us to be.  It’s exchanging fear for truth, comparison for focus, jealousy for affirmation, scarcity for generosity, insecurity for love, pride for humility, and control for trust and faith. 

We hear so much about leaders and influence, those who carried it well, and those who haven’t. Yet this idea about finding your specific clout before you just try to amass influence is challenging because it requires time outside of the spotlight. What is it that ultimately drives you to be passionate about this aspect of growing as a leader?

The word that comes to mind is “freedom."  There is a freedom when we quit striving to be all the things that we think we should be, or we long to be, and begin living out what God has designed us to be.

Seeing someone live out his or her gift always reminds me of the greatness of God.  Whether it’s a manager motivating a tired and defeated team, an athlete winning his first match, a vocalist wowing an audience, or a brilliant IT person making all the systems run behind the scenes, when someone is living out his clout, he shines.  I imagine that God must beam even more brightly and proudly than I do.  If I can find such joy in watching people live out their God-given influence, just imagine how significant it must be to Him, the God who created us in his own image, the God who begs us to make a careful exploration of who He has created us to be and the work that He has called us to do.  When we discover that, when we make sense of it, and then when we start living confidently from that place, nothing could bring Him greater joy.