Have you ever wondered if you’re as influential as you could be? Many leaders are one-trick ponies when it comes to influence; they use a single approach for every situation. This works perfectly sometimes, the same way a broken clock is on time twice a day. However, by developing greater flexibility and range, you can be even more effective.
Influence helps solve many problems for executives, business owners and managers alike. Areas in which influence can be especially impactful include high-stakes conversations that can ill-afford to go sideways, developing more business, retaining top talent, raising more money for a start up, inspiring people to believe in an organizations vision or building a coalition for a major change initiative, and the list goes on.
Before we continue, it is important to note that we are talking about influence as a method to create long lasting behaviour changes to achieve important results. We are not talking about the less impressive and suspicious tool called persuasion or, even worse, manipulation. This is not about applying the right combination of verbal tricks to solve problems or hit new targets at any expense. Influence is much more profound.
Learning how to influence in order to motivate and enable others to change their actions may be the most important skill a leader will ever acquire.
Six benefits when you improve your influence and impact:
- You will influence others more powerfully in one-on-one conversations
- Your relationships will become stronger, increasing productivity
- Your network will expand = more knowledge and opportunities
- You will be perceived more positively by others, with a stronger personal brand
- Your time will be used more effectively and productively as a strategic leader and influencer
- You will get buy-in for your ideas resulting in lasting and positive impact
The important thing to keep in mind about influence is that it happens one conversation at a time and is situationally based as opposed to style based, which is a common misconception. I‘ve seen this first-hand, just because an individual is very logical and facts-based, does not necessarily mean that using that particular approach will be the most effective. By having the ability to switch conversational approaches, the likelihood of influence success increases exponentially.
By associating different parts of the body with different influence styles, you can quickly assess whether you have the full toolkit of conversations that a leader needs to influence people in almost every situation.
Left Brain: Facts, logic, analysis, information and data reside in the left brain. When you are an authority, or when you kno
w facts that matter to the other person, relying on the left brain can help you convince someone that an idea makes sense. Examples of this include lawyers, doctors, or other specialists with proprietary information. However, too many leaders overuse the left brain, especially here in Western society. There are limits to facts and logic, for example, you are not going to win over someone’s heart with a PowerPoint presentation.
Right Brain: This is whe
re we process images, stories, metaphors and pictures. It is the gateway to the subconscious. Good examples are writers and keynote speakers. By incorporating stories and images, leaders can reach people at a different, and possibly deeper, level than with the left brain alone.
Gut: The gut, or “hara” as the Japanese call it, is our center. It is where we go when we take a stand, negotiate, 
assert appropriately, create a contract, or set boundaries. When we influence from the gut, we tell someone what we like and don’t like about their performance, tell them what we expect, and offer incentives to encourage them to comply. It’s very much like a combined negotiation and performance review. Good examples of this type of influence are real estate moguls and three year olds!
Heart: In situations where we want authentic commitment and not just compliance, it’s obviously not enough to simply tell or assert. This is where vulnerability is crucial; where the conversation shifts to asking for advice and help, listening to the other person’s aspirations and goals to craft a solution and being flexible about how things get done. This is more of a give and take. The leader doesn’t have to be fuzzy, especially on the final goal, but should be open to new ideas about how he or she can be better and how to reach said goal. A great example of this is the servant leader.
Spirit: The spirit is our shared values and experiences. Here, we appeal to our common ground, history and the
bonds that hold us together. This approach is very effective to form a team and create a feeling of alignment. An example of this is friends that go back a long way or closely knit teammates.
Vision: Vision is about the future. Here, the leader paints a compelling, inspiring picture about where we can go together, and then invites others to join in and build on that vision. Use this approach for a team that is kicking off, or when a push is required to inspire people to move forward despite challenges. If you combine the right brain, spirit and vision together, you can make a compelling case that gets a team aligned in a powerful and truly authentic way.
Legs: The legs are used when conversations start to go south, for example when your strategy isn’t working or another person gets emotional. This doesn’t mean that you give up and retreat, it just means that you take some time to excuse yourself, let both parties rethink their positions and then regroup. The Harvard Negotiation Project calls this “Going to the Balcony”, it prevents a meeting from spiraling downwards.
Would you like to learn more about these approaches, and how to use them to achieve your goals and influence others almost effortlessly? Contact us anytime.
Also, we invite you to download our FREE influence planning tool by clicking here.
Influence helps solve many problems for executives, business owners, managers and high potentials alike. These include such ……