There can’t be leadership without workplace influence. Positive influence creates an environment of trust and teamwork and is crucial when creating a high-performing team. Furthermore, building workplace influence helps your opinions get heard and acknowledged and helps you earn respect. Having workplace influence establishes you as a leader. The advantages of having influence are endless, so it is important that you build and use your influence wisely.
The Foundation of Workplace Influence
Establish Trust – Trust is the foundation upon which workplace influence is built. To build trust, have honest, respectful, and results-oriented conversations.
Establish Reliability and Consistency – When you do what is agreed upon when it is agreed to be done, you will be viewed as reliable. Your co-workers need to know they can rely on your behaviors and actions. Consistency in your work and behaviors demonstrates your level of dedication. Consistency and reliability are critical to building influence and establishing trust.
Use Actions, Not Your Voice – Influence isn’t built on words it is built on actions. While words, through speeches and debates, are powerful, they alone won’t build workplace influence. Consistently demonstrating action in your outputs by working hard and delivering results shows people that you do what you say. It also demonstrates alignment with your values and vision for what you are trying to accomplish.
Building Upon the Foundation of Workplace Influence
Build Connections – This isn’t about being popular but getting people to support your ideas and sway opinions they have to like you. Building connections requires you have a good rapport with your co-workers. While this doesn’t directly translate to influence, it will make people more likely to hear you out. So, cultivate personal connections with your co-workers and allow them to get to know you. Doing so will prevent people from attributing your intentions and motives as negative.
Listen, Then Persuade – The best way to prepare co-workers to support you is to make them feel heard. To do this, give them your undivided attention. We walk around with to-do lists running wild in our heads and struggle not to allow that to show. This is often demonstrated by being fidgety, preoccupied, or distracted by your mobile device or laptop. Practice being focused, turn toward the other person, freeze in place and listen. Workplace conflict occurs when people feel disrespected and unheard. So, ask for their advice and perspectives.
Establish Expertise – Increase your workplace influence by being seen or recognized as an expert in your industry or organization. This takes time to build and requires immersing yourself in your topic area. Doing so will develop business-critical expertise and know-how. Regularly attend conferences, and take classes or certification programs. Additionally, you can take on leadership roles within relevant professional organizations. These are visible and public signs that you are staying updated and informed in your topic area.
Leveraging Your Workplace Influence
Plan the Strategy – When you are ready to leverage the influence you’ve built to promote your initiative or idea, identify who the decision-makers are. Look at who you can directly influence. For those you cannot directly influence, look at who you can influence that can influence them. From there, you can develop a strategy for approaching those various co-workers. Finally, understand who may be threatened by your plans and think about how you can bring them over to your side. This isn’t being underhanded, it is taking a strategic approach to promote your initiative and ideas.
Use “We” Not “I” – Talk about how the initiative will benefit the organization and how “we” will gain from acting. Using “I” too much will give people the impression you are self-serving, whereas using “we” demonstrates a mutually beneficial outcome.
Connect to Their Needs – Be genuine in positioning your initiative or idea as a benefit to the people you need on your side. Consider their needs, perspectives, and temperament. Find out what people need to hear that will capture their attention. Address the “what’s in it for me” question running through their head. Talk about how the initiative or idea will benefit the organization and its area of responsibility.
Workplace influence is extraordinarily important in building mutual trust, respect, and teamwork. Implementing an idea or initiative requires influence, and influence establishes yourself as a leader. The goal is to become more respected within the organization and to have your ideas heard, not to get others to do your bidding.
Like trust, your influence is precious. Use it for good and use it cautiously. Don’t maliciously use your influence. When you have workplace influence, lend it to others developing theirs.
Last updated on August 27th, 2022 at 07:03 am
