How influential are you within your workplace or community? Do others respect your views? Do they seek you out on issues, asking for your advice and eager to hear your thoughts? Perhaps people come and metaphorically “sit at your feet” and listen with deep absorption.
In ancient times the common people would gather to hear orators give forth their views and hold their audiences spellbound with their brilliance. These philosophers and religious figures had no political or positional power yet they were influencers whose names we still know today. Names such as Plato and Aristotle.
Influencing skills are as critical in the 21st Century as they ever have been and perhaps even more so because the stakes are so much higher. We need to be effective influencers in all kinds of situations, organisations and countries. So let’s take a look at what personal influence actually is.
It is defined in the Concise Oxford dictionary as “the capacity to have an effect on the character or behaviour of someone or something….” So we can see that influence is active. You cannot sit in a meeting with other managers and executives, say nothing and be influential. To be influential, we have to move and say and take some decisive actions. Even when someone becomes influential without trying to be influential - quite possibly because they have been around for a long time and have “paid their dues” - it is their observable actions that have accumulated and been observed by others that cause them to be perceived as “influential.”
Another key element is that, if we are effective influencers, there are observable outcomes, i.e. “effects on the character or behaviours of someone or something.” So influence is a kind of personal power that produces changes. It is a subtle and controlled form of power that is writ with a small, discreet ‘p’ not an aggressive, commanding “P.”
The other major element of personal influence is that it is potentially in the hands of everyone and not just those at the head of a family, organisation or government. It is fascinating to think how women have used their influence. Not generally occupying the most powerful positions in society, women have adapted and used their high intuition and empathy to sense what others need and want. It turns out that empathy - literally the ability to put oneself into the other person’s head and heart - is a precursor to effective influencing.
Over time women have unconsciously - as well as intentionally - used their influence in extraordinary and highly effective ways. Just one example is Abigail Adams, the wife of the 2nd President of the United States. Abigail was greatly influential behind the scenes. She writes privately to her husband in March 1776:
"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.”
More information on Abigail's letters to her husband is at: www.thelizlibrary.org/suffrage/abigail.htm
Influence is a female strength that is now being openly acknowledged. It is a strength that women can bring to the table as they join men to play their parts in solving the complex social, political and business issues in this first century of the new millennium.
So, to summarise, influence is active, not passive. It produces real and observable outcomes. And influence is open to everyone regardless of their positional, economic or political power.
Do you want to become more influential at work or in your community? People Results offers a short course on practical influencing strategies and skills for the workplace: “Influential Practices.” A public workshop is being held in Brisbane on Wednesday 29th February 2012 and we invite you to register for it.
Please share this information with colleagues and others in your network. All details are on the People Results’ website at http://www.peopleresults.com.au
People Results’ Influential Practices workshop is also offered as an in-house program exclusively for your team members. To discuss this option or any other matter, you are invited to ring or telephone Lynne at People Results on +617 3910 1003 or 0421 998749.
Look out for our next article on The Influencing Mindset.
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