Who Do You Need To Influence?
To get influence, make it clear how you help others get their jobs done.
Do you have influence?
How do you know?
What’s ‘influence’ at work?
Having ‘influence’ means you have something that someone else values.
When you have influence (something someone else values), you have leverage (a way of encouraging someone else to take action).
At work, when you have leverage, it’s easier to get work done.
It’s easier, because other people know what they get, by working with you.
What level of influence do you have at work?
For example, do you have …
High influence: where other people respond swiftly, go to extra lengths to help you?
Medium influence: where colleagues are compliant?
Low influence: where it’s hard to get anyone to take action with your requests?
Think back to a time where you got an unreasonable level of service.
Maybe at a cafe? Restaurant? A shop? Looking back … why do you think they went to that length to help you?
Probably because your word of mouth influences how well their shop, bar or restaurant does.
Now consider that people are experiencing your ‘service’ at work.
Your knowledge. Your experience. Your relationship currency. Your social capital.
Would it be useful to you, if other people appreciated how you could be influential to their career, simply by knowing how you make their work easier?
By doing so, it could make getting results easier and less onerous, if you aren’t in a position of authority to leverage.
Having high or low influence doesn’t mean …
… you’re more or less important than anyone else.
It simply means the other person who works with you is either clear or unclear about the benefits of working with you in a constructive way.
✅ High influence = when they’re clear.
❌ Low influence = when they’re unclear.
If colleagues aren’t aware how helping you benefits them, getting them to collaborate with you effectively can be hard.
Are you getting ideas on what your level of influence might be and how this might show up in relation to how other people behave towards you at work?
You can’t control other people.
But, how they collaborate with you, sometimes, reflects how clear they are of the benefit of working with you.
So let’s have a tinker on what you could do, to make that more clear.
How do you ‘get’ more influence?
Outline 1-3 people who currently influence your career.
Examples:
Your immediate boss. What they think of you influences your success in the org.
Your colleague who you don’t report to, but need to collaborate with. Them being attentive and compliant influences getting your results.
Big Boss. Their perception of what your department does for them, influences how available they are to meet with you.
Have you got 1-3 in mind, reading this?
What stage is your relationship at with these three people?
You probably know vaguely what one person who influences your career values. But rarely do we stop to think, ‘what does this person value most’ and ‘could I help with that’?
If yes, you can start to increase your influence with them.
Three steps to increase your influence you can do today:
Think of 1-3 people who influence your career. i.e. boss, colleague, big boss.
Communicate with influence by clarifying their #1 priority in their job (e.g. help them ace this job or get ready for the next one).
Reflect: what status is your connection truly at? Low: I react to what they ask for as I’m not sure what they need in advance. Medium: I respond in a timely manner, it’s cordial. Advanced: I proactively present to them what they need.
Could any of these people who influence your career, get clearer on how you help them?
If so, what can you do, in the weeks ahead, to make it clearer by communicating a little differently - with influence?
To get influence with more people…
You need to get really specific about how each person gets benefit by working with you in some way. Not everyone values the same thing.
Could your employees benefit from communicating with influence?
Bring our practical strategies to influence workshops to your workplace.