Last week, on our evening walk, my husband, dog, and I passed our neighbors’ houses and noticed one lawn freshly mowed, with the one next to it definitely needing mowing. Each one made us notice the other one more. The long grass on the right-side lawn made the left-side lawn look that much neater, shorter, and more well-kept. Conversely, the neat, short, freshly-mowed lawn made the other one look that much scragglier and unkept.

What if the first neighbor just told the other, “Why don’t you mow your lawn? It looks terrible! You’re a disgrace to the neighborhood!”, it wouldn’t work. The other neighbor would only resent him and think, “I’ll get to it when I have time. He/she doesn’t understand everything going on in my life and all I have to get done!” They could even get defensive and purposely not mow their lawn just to get back at their “proud and pushy” neighbor.

Needless to say, it would be even worse if the first neighbor hadn’t even mowed their lawn yet! That’s called hypocrisy. Don’t even try influencing someone to do anything positive if we’re not first demonstrating it well ourselves!

That’s why Jesus admonished people, “^’How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’” Mat. 7:4-5

Plus, the first neighbor has no authority over the second to make them do anything. He/she can yell, “bug”, threaten, cajole, beg, and try all manner of methods to goad that second neighbor into mowing his grass. But until that neighbor decides they want a better-looking lawn, they’re not going to do anything about it.

Thankfully there’s a way that does work: The neighbor with the scraggly lawn has to look at that nice, neat, beautifully mowed lawn next door every day. After a while they start to think, “Wow, I’d like my lawn to look like that!” They’d think of all the advantages too—no danger of snakes, more respect from neighbors and visitors, less allergens, easier on the eye, happier family, can play lawn games, etc.

By this time they’re motivated to do something about it. They’re ready to change. They’ve been influenced. If they know what they need to do to get their lawn looking so good, they’ll find time and mow it. If they honestly don’t know, they’ll ask their neighbor, “What did you do to get your lawn looking so good?” And that neighbor will tell them, “I mowed it.”

As soon as the second neighbor mows their lawn, the first neighbor’s influence has expanded from thought-leadership to driving action. Without authority!

Let’s take this to the corporate world, the civic organization, the church, the friend-group, the extended family, etc. and apply the same principle. We may not have authority to change people’s counterproductive thinking that leads to harmful behavior, wrong communication methods, etc. And just telling them they’re wrong, especially in public, will only make them defensive and possibly sabotage outcomes even more.

But we can demonstrate and model the right way, the best way, and show how well it works. We can whet their appetite as they see the advantages so they’re highly motivated to do the same. In other words, we can use our excellence to influence. For example:

• If the place is a mess after a meeting or event, and people are ignoring the need for clean-up—Start cleaning up. Begin picking up leftovers and dishes from the table(s) and either discarding or packaging them. Someone else will notice and start helping, then others will see that and join in, and soon the clean-up will become lighter and more quickly done for everyone.
• You see that someone deserves recognition and public appreciation—start applauding and cheering for them. Others around will pick up on that and join in until the circle widens to the whole room. This also works for standing ovations..
• You notice that a newcomer or shy person is being left out in social situations—Include them in a gentle and affirming manner. That will signal to others that this person belongs in the group, and they’ll pick up on the cue and include them as well.

I know these examples above work because I’ve either been the influencer or one influenced or both in each case and appreciated the results.

We can also find examples in Scripture, such as in 2 Chron. 30:13-15, where we see many people  coming together to celebrate the Passover feast for the first time in many generations. This meant doing a lot of work to clean out the Temple as well as consecrating their own hearts and lives to the Lord.

“They set to work and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for burning incense they took away and threw into the brook Kidron.  And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month…”

Notice what follows—“…And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, so that they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.”

In other words, we don’t have to be top leaders or anyone special to influence people in those positions with our excellence! In fact, we may even be more of an influence, as those with those realize see us and realize, “Hey, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing!”

The influence of excellence doesn’t just apply to fixing something or changing bad to good. It can also facilitate making the good even better.

For example: At our church I’m one of four worship leaders, each of whom has our own, God-given style. At the same time, we’ve picked up enhancers along the way from each other. One guy often connects two songs together to make a smooth flow from one to the next. Now I do that too sometimes, as the Lord leads and I’m able. Or, I’ll often put a short congregational Scripture passage reading between two songs to reinforce a truth in our worship time. Recently another leader did that as well.

Hopefully you can think of other possibilities as well to let your excellence be your influence. All it takes is initiative.

As Jesus exhorted and encouraged us to do, “…let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Mat. 5:16