The Power of Influence

Several years ago, I participated in a development program at work called Leadership, Influence, and Presence. As is often the case with training, I didn’t instantly become proficient in the skills we covered in the program, but it planted a seed for me that has germinated and grown over time. In my professional and leadership journey, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of influence when it comes to introducing your ideas, particularly those that could lead to significant change against the status quo or involve key decisions.

Some people dislike the politics that often seem to come with being in a more senior role or operating in certain environments. However, if you approach influence as building a relationship with someone, it doesn’t have to feel icky or like a power play.

What is influence?

Influence at its core is getting others to do what you ask, ideally not because they have to, but because they want to. It’s important to distinguish influence from manipulation, which involves forcing or coercion and often only benefits the manipulator without taking other parties’ best interests into account. Influence toward positive outcomes should not be unfair, controlling, deceptive, or otherwise harmful. It requires being authentic, sincere, and open to other perspectives.

Why is influence important?

Effective leaders create and communicate a vision that other people will get behind and follow. I’ve had lots of ideas that I think are great, including some that are innovative. However, unless I can bring them to fruition, they are just ideas. And for bigger ideas in particular, it usually requires effort that goes beyond what I can do alone based on my capacity or capability. So to succeed as a leader in a collaborative and cross-functional environment, you need to develop your influencing skills. 

How do I influence others?

Influence requires a combination of knowledge, authority, and relationships. You need to know what matters to the people or groups you are talking to: what they want, what they hope to avoid, and what is not important to them tells you about their values and priorities. With this knowledge, consider what benefits your idea has for them. It has to be something that they actually care about, so part of your job is painting a clear picture of how it will help them in some way or advance their agenda. 

You need to know your stuff to establish your authority and credibility. Think for a moment about social media influencers. They are able to gain followers and sway their audience because they have some knowledge, expertise, experience, or insight. Build your credibility when you make a commitment by consistently delivering what you say you will.

Finally, people are more likely to trust you when you have invested in fostering a relationship with them. Listen to what they have to say, ask questions to better understand what they have to say, and be willing to incorporate different perspectives in order to make your ideas even better.

Before you try to influence someone else, make sure you have a clear goal that you want to make happen and that you can articulate to others clearly. Start with the what - what is the problem you need to address, what is the desired state and proposed approach to get there, what decision or actions do you need from others? Perhaps even more important is the why - why do you need to solve this problem, why is this the right solution not just from your point of view but for your audience.

While you’re at it, consider adding a dash of inspiration to the mix. Inspire the feelings and emotions that prompt people to take action through your positive outlook, excitement, vision, and appreciation for others. Remember that influence is a process that happens over time. As with any developing skill, it helps to take a playful approach and try different tactics to see what feels the most authentic and yields the best results in each situation.

Related

• Simon Sinek - Start with Why - How Great Leaders Inspire Action Ted Talk

What are the Traits of a Leader?

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

--Maya Angelou

Last month, I wrote about what it means to be a leader, or the how of leadership. Today, I will explore the key attributes of leaders, or what it takes to be a good leader - someone that gets noticed and inspires others to follow them. We’ll look at it from three perspectives - key competencies of leaders, leadership presence, and signals of leadership potential.

Leadership competencies

Let’s start with a quick thought exercise. Think of a leader that you admire. It can be someone you know personally and have interacted with, or a public or historical figure. Now as you think of this leader, consider what traits you admire in this leader. If you want, you can write them down.

The following are some common competencies that people look for in a leader

• Takes initiative

• Practices self development

• Displays high integrity and honesty

• Drives for results

• Develops others

• Inspires and motivates others

• Stays calm & confident

• Is self-aware

• Builds relationships

• Collaborates

• Sets ambitious goals

• Champions change

• Solves problems and analyzes issues

• Makes tough decisions

• Has expertise

Keep in mind that this is not meant to be a checklist. You can be a good leader even if not all of these are your strengths. Think of this list as a reference to evaluate your leadership skills - where do you already excel and what skills might be good to focus on developing?

Leadership presence

Leadership presence, also sometimes referred to as executive presence, refers to the qualities that make people pay attention to you and want to hear what you have to say. It’s the difference between being competent in your field and getting noticed for it. It inspires others to follow you. According to Sylvia Ann Hewitt, author, economist, and founder of Center for Talent innovation (now called Coqual), leadership presence comes from the combination of how you act, how you speak, and how you look. 

Gravitas, or how you act, is conveyed through exuding confidence and grace under fire, being decisive and acting with integrity, demonstrating emotional intelligence, maintaining a good reputation, and projecting vision. This is the most important factor in leadership presence. Next is communication, or how you speak, as demonstrated through speaking skills, ability to command a room, and ability to read an audience. Last and least important is appearance, or how you look - good grooming and physical attractiveness. The point is not to make your appearance a distraction that overshadows your capabilities.

CTI/Coqual’s research indicates that while leadership presence alone is not enough to get you a leadership position or role, missing it may be an impediment. What it looks like in practice will vary depending on the culture you are part of, both corporate and societal. The study also found that women and people of color may find themselves held to a higher standard or struggle with conforming to corporate culture while maintaining authenticity. I will caveat that the study was done in 2012, so some aspects may be outdated in 2023. What I take away from the study is that you can influence how others see you through things like confident body language and communication (projecting competence and confidence), emotional intelligence (ability to read the room), staying calm in a crisis, and being decisive.

Leadership potential

If you aren’t currently in a leadership role, how can you get recognized for your potential? Here are some key signals to identify future leaders, according to research by Korn Ferry, an organizational consulting firm: 

• Learning agility, or growth mindset - the ability to learn from experience and apply the learnings to unfamiliar situations.

• Diverse leadership experiences, including developmental roles and stretch assignments that are challenging and help to develop perspective to be able to handle ambiguity, broad scope, and high visibility.

• Aspiration drivers - motivation to make a difference, gain greater responsibility, and work with others toward shared goals.

• Leadership trails - resilience and persistence in challenging situations, comfort with handling ambiguous/vague information, comfort in taking initiative, and inclusive style when working with others

• Managed Derailment Risks - awareness of and ability to manage undermining risks such as micro-managing, being highly reactive, or being rigid in approaches to work.

As you can see, there are several commonalities when you look across leadership competencies, components of executive presence, and signals of leadership potential. If you aspire to earn a leadership role, consider where you could further develop your skills and presence. If you are already a leader, how could you become even more effective in service of your team?