Establish Shared Commitment

When you need to build stronger relationships with others who impact your success, ask questions that help you understand their needs in order to establish shared commitment. Listen! And ask more questions if you still need clarification.

Situations Involving Influence

Situations involving influence are most successful when everyone understands, participates, and agrees on the required actions, the timeline, and key indicators of success.

Successful Negotiators Present and Clarify

Successful negotiators present their own position and clarify that of the other party. Asking good questions produces responses but the most useful information may be understood by listening for underlying needs.

Effective Influence Skills

People are often hired for their technical skills and fired for their lack of effective interpersonal skills. Effective influence skills help you get cooperation and commitment from others to accomplish individual and organizational goals.

Being The “Engagement Expert”

The “Engagement Expert” manager knows the key retention drivers for each person on the team and knows how to make the department a great place to work – paying attention to work climate as well as work output.

Gain Willing Commitment

Using effective influence skills to gain the willing commitment of others – instead of using your positional power – will give you the edge to accomplish your results and build more productive business relationships.

Coaching for Performance

When coaching for performance, ask about any barriers that may be getting in the way of the desired performance. This simple question may be the key to finding buried treasure!

Persuading Others to Help

If you need help completing a task, use your network to find an expert. Figure out how that person would benefit by helping you or think about what is important to them. Use that information along with your influence skills to persuade them to help!

Preferred Learning Style

Good development conversations address opportunities for bridging the knowledge gaps. Understanding the individual’s preferred learning style is key to crafting the most productive development experiences.

Prepare for Your Influence Opportunity

Prior to your influence opportunity, think about the key issues: what is the mindset of others involved, what is important to them, and what is happening in the organization. Preparing to respond to those needs will advance your probability of success.

Take a Break

Don’t be afraid to take a break during an influence situation or conversation. Sometimes a short break gives everyone a chance to think or cool off. A longer break or even postponing to a later date may be needed to gather more data or other opinions.

Validate Common Ground

Taking time to highlight similar goals, values, and positions can help validate the common ground and move your influence situation forward. Many times the differences are minimized after you realize how much you already agree.

Mentee's Learning Style

Understanding the preferred learning style of your mentee partner will improve the success of your mentoring relationship. Even though you may prefer to read the manual first, let your “people learners” talk or interview others before handing them the instruction guide!

Facing Resistance

When you have explained your position in a logical way with data to back up your position, and the other person is still resisting, ask open-ended questions to learn more about their needs or objections. Then ask focused questions to help the other person focus on possible alternatives (“If we wanted to move forward with this project, what could you do to help?”).

How Are We Similar

The way we view ourselves and others has a direct relationship on how well we work together. Instead of categorizing people or dwelling on your differences, ask yourself “how are we similar”?

History of Problems

You may be working on a project or situation that has a long history of problems in your organization. Prepare for your influence opportunity by using your network – talk to other people, research what happened in the past, and learn from those that have been involved or were key stakeholders. You will increase your probability of success if you have an understanding of the history and others’ perspective.

Got influence?

Leaders grasp the powerful punch played by the
art of persuasion in today’s corporate environment.

It seems author Dale Carnegie had it right all along – influencing and winning people to your way of thinking remains one of the most powerful skills in business today.

Of course, when Carnegie first penned his best-selling thoughts on persuasion and winning friends some 72 years ago, he likely never envisioned the business world of today: pressure-packed boardrooms where decisions are scrutinized, analyzed and criticized by an increasingly fickle Wall Street; employees focused more on surviving the latest corporate layoff than marching toward the proverbial gold watch at retirement; and stressed middle managers searching for ways to influence their teams and their supervisors in an effort to produce results for the company.

Although the business climate certainly has changed, the importance of persuading people and gaining their commitment has not. The ability to influence others to accomplish your objectives – no matter your position, title or even lack of authority – is a must-have talent for success.

But understanding the incredible power of influence is one thing. Putting it into practice, especially when dealing with those over whom you have no direct control, is where the rubber meets the road. And companies know it. That’s why they’re investing time and resources to help their employees gain the necessary skills to truly work with others to generate results.

So what are these all-important influencing skills? Do you have them? If not, how do you get them?

First, it’s important to know what the art of influencing isn’t. Quite simply, it’s not manipulation, which is a commonly made mistake when people and relationships are viewed simply as a means to the end. Employees see right through insincerity. So trying to bluff your way – or power your way – to get others to see your way of thinking seldom, if ever, works for the long haul. Research suggests that people are hired for their technical skills and fired for their lack of effective interpersonal skills. So, even if you believe everyone in your organization is going after the same thing, you may never get there if you don’t work together to do it.

That’s where true influencing skills come in. Remember, influence is not something you exert. Rather, it’s something that’s granted by others. So to be successful, you must make your work or your way of thinking relevant to what others are trying to accomplish. People often will need to discover the potential of what you’re bringing to the table, and you need to drive their discovery process.

To successfully influence, consider the following:

• Be genuinely interested in other people and their agendas, concerns and desires.
  
• Involve others to get “skin in the game.”
  
• Be opportunistic and creative – and show up to help in practical ways.
  
• Avoid using mandates to position yourself or your ideas. Focus on engagement and not just information-sharing.
  
• Listen and exhibit humility. See others’ points of view and appeal to noble motives.
  
• Test your ideas, ask for candid feedback, then show your willingness to adjust based on that feedback.

Obviously, that’s just the beginning. The ability to influence others is a learned skill that requires practice, education and effort. It’s not the latest “flavor of the month” to try out on an unsuspecting audience. It is a real way of interacting with others that will give you the edge to accomplish your results and build more productive relationships – both in and outside the walls of your company.

Not What, But How You Present Information

Savvy influencers realize that how they present information is as important as what they present. Learning to be flexible with your influence approach and tailoring your communication to the style of the other party is an important factor in becoming an effective, successful influencer.

Avoiding Positional Power

Achieving your goals requires working with other people who may not be willing to share information or who do not agree with your priorities. Using effective influence skills helps you gain the willing commitment of others and build the relationship without using positional power to enforce compliance. What influence skills help you in your organization?