Influence Your Way To Success

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

—Ken Blanchard

If your work requires you to interact with other people, you need some measure of influence in order to be successful at it. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a CEO, a department manager, an independent contractor, an entrepreneur, a client, a rank-and-file worker, or in any other role in the business world. The fact is that in the long term, influence is what you need to keep your career and interests moving forward.

Unfortunately, too often people conflate influence with authority. They definitely aren’t the same thing, and if you want to cultivate your influence you need to understand the difference between the two.

In the business world, authority is connected to a role within an organizational structure. Someone who occupies a particular role or title automatically gets the authority—the power—associated with it. A manager gets to assign projects to their employees, for example, and those employees, because of the roles they occupy, have to follow their manager’s instructions. Managers who rely solely on the naked exercise of power, though, will soon see resentment and disengagement on the rise among their staff. After all, no one enjoys being bossed around!

Influence, on the other hand, exists independently of structural authority. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines influence as “the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command.” Influence involves persuasion and connection with another person—not dictates from on high. 

People who have influence can become great leaders, but being in a leadership role doesn’t necessarily mean that someone has influence. Consider the many tales of new CEOs who were ousted after a year because they could not influence employees to follow their vision. Because influence isn’t connected to a particular role, anyone can have—and use—it. Believe it or not, it’s quite possible for a mailroom clerk to exert more influence than a department manager in the same organization!

The nature of leadership has changed tremendously in recent years. For example, the old trope of the boss who barks orders and demands action has been replaced by the notion of leaders as consensus builders who communicate the why, how, what, and where of a project before expecting employees to start to tackle it. At the same time, the coronavirus pandemic has forced a restructuring of workspaces, with many employees shifting to working from home (many permanently). Because we can no longer rely on face-to-face interactions, if we wish to influence (and inspire) employees, clients and others, we need to be more intentional in communicating with them. Here are some strategies that can help you develop your own ability to influence and lead.

Demonstrate your expertise.

Success is really about expertise. 

-Steve Young

Before people will adopt your ideas, they need to believe that you are credible. Share your knowledge and show them that you know what you’re talking about!

• Contribute posts and article to relevant blogs and websites. (Or, if you are confident in your ability to maintain a regular publishing schedule, start your own blog. But don’t do this unless you are 100 percent certain you won’t let it slide, because abandoning your blog after just a few posts or posting too infrequently can actually undermine your credibility.) 
• Be an active and visible commenter on LinkedIn. 
• Seek and seize opportunities to demonstrate your expertise in a public and professional setting. (For example, if you work in a corporate setting, ask to lead or work on a project that showcases your abilities or enables you to improve your skills.) 
• Do guest appearances on podcasts (or start your own podcast but—as with a blog—only if you are able to maintain it regularly).
• Forward relevant articles to your clients, to your boss, or to other senior leaders within your company. (Including a note that explains why you sending this to them can emphasize your “I know what I’m talking about” credentials.)
• Produce white papers. (Because of the time and effort involved in researching and publishing these documents, I consider them a “premium” offering and provide them only to my current clients.) 
• Volunteer to help members of your team improve in areas where you are proficient. (Let others do the talking about your skills!)

Providing others (your current and prospective clients, your boss, your coworkers, etc.) with information that can help them succeed in their day-to-day work (and look good to their bosses) can help you in turn. Using this strategy can expand your own networks, as people share links to your content and help you connect with more people. At the same time, it also helps you stay top of mind with people who already know you—which increases the likelihood that you’ll be their go-to person when they need what you offer (e.g., a keynote address, a training session, a particular product or service, a skilled leader for a new project team).

Focus first on building relationships.

At the end of the day, it really just comes down to building a genuine relationship. I think that’s a very important factor in business. 

—Ski Mask the Slump God

People are more likely to be positively influenced by people they already know and like. So take the time to build a relationship with someone before you ask them to do something. 

• Leverage profile data on LinkedIn to find commonalities that can serve as conversation starters. A shared friend and business contact is an ideal connection point, but it’s also useful to look for alumni from schools you’ve attended or to review the “interests” section at the bottom of someone’s profile to see if you have any similar interests. 
• Set up Google alerts for key company and client names so you can stay up to date on their news and, depending on the updates you see in the headlines, reach out to offer your congratulations or assistance at the appropriate times.
• Build more connections within your organization. Just because we’re all working from home doesn’t mean that networking stops. In fact, because in-office face-to-face interactions aren’t possible right now, it’s more important than ever to make the extra effort to meet people in your company and build relationships with them. Set a goal for yourself to meet two new people within your company each month (that’s only one person every two weeks!). You may be amazed by how those relationships can help you expand your influence.

Share your successes.

You’re always in a blessed position if you have a great success story, especially to be in a position to be able to tell it so people can even understand.

—Tionne Watkins

Too many of us don’t toot our own horns and instead expect our bosses and our clients to just see how good we are. In today’s hypercompetitive environment, though, taking that approach means you won’t get the recognition you deserve—and you’ll miss out on opportunities to increase your influence.

• Ask your fellow employees or clients to write testimonials (such as a letter to your boss or a recommendation on LinkedIn, for example) about you. They don’t need to mention every amazing thing you do (that would take up an entire book, right?), but ask them to highlight where they feel you went above and beyond so that information can be shared with people who matter in your world.
• Keep your boss apprised of any challenges you encounter and how you solve them. For example, when I worked in corporate America, each Friday I sent my boss a brief status report that highlighted the top two projects I completed that week along with the two biggest challenges I’d knocked down. This kept my boss updated on my work and (perhaps more importantly) illustrated my problem-solving skills. 

Solve their problem.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

-Epictetus

In a way, influencing people is persuading them to “buy in” to your ideas or proposals. If you want to sell something, you can’t just tell people what you think: you must first listen to them. You’ll be most successful if you adapt your sales pitch to address their concerns and solve their problems.

• Prioritize active listening. Pay attention to what people are saying. That means you need to stop multitasking during meetings and calls and focus on others. (If you’re on a video call, keep your camera on, because being onscreen can help you concentrate better.)
• Before a proposal announcement, whenever possible conduct one-on-one meetings with anyone you think might not be fully on board. These interactions give you time to hear their concerns and take them into consideration as you fine-tune your pitch.
• Remember, influence is rarely a “one and done” proposition. Changing someone’s mind may require you to take multiple kicks at the can, so be prepared to gather information about their concerns and modify your proposal until you can convince them to give it a thumbs up.

Meet your audience where they are.

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.

—Tony Robbins

                   Before you can influence other people, not only do you need to listen to them, but they must also hear what you have to say. 

• To achieve the best connection with people, use the communication styles that align best with their personalities and expectations. For example, if your boss likes to hear the bottom line before the details, lead with your headline and follow with information about how and why you reached that recommendation. 
• Focus on the positives and stress the benefits of your proposal. Why is your option the best one? How does it meet customer expectations better than other options? How does your idea benefit the company or link to a key company strategy? 
• That said, don’t obscure the less-than-stellar aspects of your proposal. Highlighting any potential issues and explaining how you’ll mitigate them shows that you’re not hiding anything and that you’re focused on long-term planning and execution–which includes resolving concerns before they become problems.
• Unless someone specifically asks for or expects details, keep it simple. Simplify and summarize complex data into bullet points, graphs, and pictures, which can be more “digestible” to many in this era of shrinking attention spans (and lengthy e-mails that often go unread).

Up Your Zoom Game.

I hate Zoom. Mainly because I hate staring at my own face.

—Natasia Demetriou

Now that everyone is working remotely, video conferencing has become one of the main methods for communicating with bosses, colleagues, employees, clients, and prospects. Zoom, FaceTime, Google Meet, Skype, and other video-call platforms are here to stay, so like it or not, you need to get comfortable (and adept) and working in those environments. 

Your ability to convey confidence and competence in your video calls can have a strong impact on how people perceive you—which in turn affects the likelihood that you’ll be able to influence them. After all, if you don’t seem to know what you’re talking about, why should anyone believe what you’re selling and say yes to your proposal?

As someone who spends six to seven hours on Zoom every day, I can offer some tips for navigating video calls successfully:

• To simulate “looking someone in the eye,” focus on your camera, not on your screen or on your colleagues.
• Speak in a clear and strong voice. Make sure that people can hear and understand your words.
• The distance and separation imposed by video screens can make it more difficult to convey enthusiasm. You can mitigate this by expressing even more enthusiasm and energy than you would if you were in an in-person meeting.
• Frame yourself wisely (e.g., pay attention to your background), don’t step away from your camera, and don’t slouch.

Final Thoughts

Leadership is influence.

—John C. Maxwell

Just as the best negotiators often spend ten hours in preparation for one hour of negotiation, the best influencers do advance work to ensure the success of their efforts to persuade and inspire. If you want to influence someone, you first need to do your homework: explore, understand, and address that person’s concerns. Show that you actually care about what’s important to that person. Demonstrations of care and respect bolster your standing and improve your ability to influence others.

Whether you’re working remotely or working in the office, whether you’re just starting as an entrepreneur or already have many years of experience under your belt, and whatever your role is in an organization, influence is the secret weapon that can help you achieve success at any point in your career. Anyone can hone their ability to influence people and get results that benefit everyone involved. So what are you waiting for?