Knightsbridge Blog

Leaders with real influence will have clout in their organizations.

Business Insider ran an article last week about some recent changes to Klout, the social network service that ranks people based on their influence. For one thing, Klout is changing its website. But more importantly, it’s revamping the way it ranks people.

The Klout Score is a number from 1-100 that reflects your social network activity.  Up until now, Klout has relied on a person’s level of activity on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. As a result, celebrities like Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian have had consistently high Klout scores because they have had so many followers that have been driving lots of activity. 

Now Klout is changing where and how it gathers data to determine a person’s influence. Klout CEO Joe Fernandez says the Klout score will come to represent a person’s “real-world influence” (and he hopes this will make people take his business more seriously). That means people like Barack Obama or Bill Gates will be ranked by the real influence they have and not just their level of activity on Twitter or Facebook.

Ever since Klout started I’ve been thinking about its parallels to leadership. I believe every leader in every organization has something like an internal Klout score -- a perceived ranking of their influence on the organization.

I’ve worked with leaders who appear influential, but it's shortlived because it's based largely on hype. There’s a lot of talk about what they’re doing, but when you actually look at what they’ve delivered there are also a lot of question marks. 

There are other leaders who have little or no clout. I see them struggling, trying desperately to move forward, they find it hard to make progress.

Then there are those leaders with real influence. You know the ones. They have real credibility. They have built their reputations on long track record of success which makes people want to follow them. When you see them in action, you notice how people listen when they speak. Their words have impact. Their actions get results.

Which one of these leaders are you? What do you think your internal Klout score would be in your organization?  And would it be based on hype or real world results?