How To Use Your Influence to
Achieve Success
By: Hanif Hemani,
Managing Director, Express Employment
Professionals - Saskatoon
As the new year begins, many
people will reassess their goals for success. To do that, most will lean toward
using their influence to achieve success and realize their dreams and goals.
One powerful way to build success
in life, both professionally and personally, is through influence. Influence is
power, and gaining more influence in the workplace is critical in moving your career
forward.
But how can you achieve quantifiable
influence? Several strategies can be used to harness this skill and use influence
to create success.
Create Trust
Trust creates and carries
influence, and gaining the trust of co-workers is one of the fastest ways to
use that impact to help cultivate success. Regardless of your position in the
company or the position of your co-workers, being open and honest, no matter
what the situation, builds a sense of trust.
Leaders who share their concerns,
don’t keep secrets, give credit where credit is due, and admit mistakes build influence
by being regarded as trustworthy workers.
Learn to Be Assertive
Being assertive enough to speak
up during meetings or sharing ideas is another way to build influence and
achieve success. However, being assertive and being aggressive are two
different things.
To be assertive, present your
thoughts and ideas with conviction and confidence. When you go too far with confidence,
however, it can be taken as arrogance. When speaking with an unfamiliar group
or on areas outside your expertise, be careful to temper your assertiveness with
some humility.
Don’t be afraid to apply assertiveness
to all areas of life, not just work. As long as conviction and knowledge are
present, being assertive can create a reputation of authority, which builds
your influence with peers, employees, and customers.
Consistency is Key
Those with influence generally
also have the reputation of being consistent as well. Consistency translates to
being reliable, and inconsistency is a sure way to ruin a reputation. This means
you are known for executing tasks effectively and on time, every day,
developing a reputation of reliability.
Consistency is invaluable when it
comes to building influence. People flock to those who are known for a good
work ethic, while unpredictability can scare and worry those in decision-making
positions.
Stay Flexible
Although being assertive is vital
to using influence to achieve success, have an open mind to other people’s
ideas and be willing to change your opinion when presented with new or
different evidence.
Being too stringent or stubborn
can create a reputation of being immovable or hard to work with. Others want
their opinions and ideas heard as well, and those who are not flexible or open
to others’ thoughts lose their overall influence and the respect of co-workers.
Show flexibility while still
holding on to core beliefs through calm negotiation or compromise. Work with
others to find a mutually acceptable solution. This increases influence because
if others perceive someone as being open and flexible to new ideas, they, too,
become more open and flexible.
Get a Little Personal
For those in a leadership role,
being perceived as easy to get along with and personable goes a long way. Those
who isolate themselves or who do not share personal ideas can be perceived as
stand-offish or as unapproachable.
Influence, at its heart, is based
on others’ reactions and opinions. Influence based on fear or loathing creates
a toxic atmosphere, but influence based on likeability and trust is conducive
to a successful and collaborative environment.
Personal exchanges with employees
and coworkers will help them relate better and feel more comfortable when
discussing a new idea. This does not mean building lifelong friendships or
betraying secrets, but if other people see an influencer as an approachable
person on the team with a real personality, they are likely to be more
receptive to constructive criticism.
To be successful this year—whether
it’s raising capital, convincing others to support a cause or having more
responsibility—influence will be at the center to achieving success. Influence
based on trust, consistency, assertiveness, flexibility, and personality will positively
steer relationships, careers or resources in the right direction.
Gain influence, and people will
follow.