Great post Heather! The good thing about influence is that it does not necessarily have to be hierarchical in nature. The power distance is definitely a factor, but you can still be influential even if you are not in a higher up in the leadership chain.

In Organizational Behavior, there is a term which is closest to influence, and that I believe is "network centrality". You can see this in action in project teams ... the project lead is not necessarily the most central person in that team ... it's that one person who knows all the details about the project and is keeping the team from falling apart. That one person is generally internally motivated and loves his/her job!!