Verily, we are living in a social age. To become a person of influence you must rightly connect with others. Your connection determines your elevation. Do not just connect with people as a group; learn to connect with them on an individual basis because individuals are what constitute a group.

Connection is relationship. The stronger the connection between you and your people, the greater their loyalty, followership and support for you. We see evidence of a leader’s strong connection with his or her people in the way the organization functions. If it is positive, employees or team members show uncommon loyalty and incredible work ethic. The impact of this relationship is fabulous.

The essence of connection and its impact on leadership cannot be overemphasized. Do you truly desire to become a great influencer whose leadership is topnotch? These four steps below will help you:

• Go beyond Yourself

Everybody communicates but few connect. If you want to amplify the effectiveness of your leadership, you must learn to connect with the heart of people. The Middle Easterners have a saying that “When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced, may you live your life so that when you die, the world will cry, and you will rejoice.” Nelson Mandela is a good example of a leader who went beyond self to connect with his people; today his footprints are indelible on the sands of time.

To go beyond yourself in order to connect with others, you must die to self by forgetting your ego and self-centeredness. Become people-oriented, live for a purpose and show some love.

• Grow Beyond Yourself

The major factor that limits many people in leadership is not being humble and teachable. To become an influential leader, you must connect and learn from others – be it juniors or seniors. I must tell you that mentorship is a great avenue one needs to excel in any endeavor in life. Dear friend, you need to leverage and learn from other people's experiences because it saves you the cost of making the mistakes yourself and rightly positions you for success. Invest time and money in stuff that will make you a better person. When you stop learning, you stop growing and start dying.

• Give beyond Yourself

Connecting requires giving, move from an enterprising person, to a go-giver. People with low self-esteem are chiefly focused on themselves. They belittle others and hoard information because they do not want others to shine. A study has shown that people who truly give or volunteer their resources to help others are happier and increase their life expectancy. Whatever you give comes back to you in double fold. We are not blessed just for our self; but that we may be a blessing to others. Today, be a river and not a reservoir.

• Get beyond Yourself

Selfishness will cause you to earn contempt instead of respect from others. To connect rightly with people focus less on self and more on others. Never forget that leadership is a privilege to serve others. Selfishness and insecurity are the two things at the heart of those who fail to get beyond themselves. Gratitude and the heart to help others are two keys that will help you get beyond yourself and build a strong connect with people.

Connecting with people is not rocket science but it takes effort. First, touch a heart before you ask for a hand. When you rightly connect with individuals, you get the attention of crowd in return.