9 Keys to Cultivating Influence for Professional Success
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You don’t have to be a boss to be an influential person within your company or profession. Whether or not other people see you as an individual has a lot with how you conduct yourself in the workplace. Knowledgeable individuals who focus on building positive workplace relationships built on respect and credibility are the ones most likely to have the ability to influence others.

9 Important Keys to Cultivating Influence

Want to improve your ability to influence others? Start by focusing on these nine important keys to becoming influential.

1.Establish Credibility – People have to see you as a credible individual before they will allow you to influence them. Make sure that you know what you are talking about by building your expertise specific to your profession and your company.

2.Lead by Example – Set a positive example for others by conducting yourself in an ethical manner, behaving professionally and appropriately at all times and adhering to your company’s policies and procedures. If people see you as a negative example, they will not allow you to influence them.

3.Network/Build Relationships – Who you associate with can have a significant impact on how influential you can be. Establish genuine and appropriate relationships with people that you might need to influence. It’s also important to build relationships with others who already have influence over people you might need to influence and with people who are viewed as leaders in your organization and/or industry.

4.Build a Coalition of Support – Leverage your relationships to build a coalition of support so that others within your organization become champions for your ideas and initiatives. When other people say positive things about you and what you are trying to accomplish, this builds your credibility and interests other people in finding out more about what you have to say/want to accomplish.

5.Express Appreciation to Others – Investing time in providing positive feedback and expressing appreciation to other people can go a long way toward establishing positive relationships and putting you in a position to be a person that others see as influential.

6.Genuinely Care About Others – To have influence over people, they must see that you genuinely care about them. It’s important to get to know the people you may need to influence and to consistently show respect and empathy for them, as well as concern for their needs.

7.Communicate Effectively – When presenting information for the purpose of trying to influence other people, be sure that what you are saying (and how you are saying it!) stays focused on what you need to accomplish and that you are presenting information in a persuasive manner.

8.Listen Effectively – Listening is part of communicating effectively, but it’s important enough to warrant a separate mention. You must take the time to really listen to what other people are saying if you want to come across as caring and if you want to learn what matters to other people – key information to leverage when trying to be influential.

9.Consensus Building – Be willing to work proactively toward building a consensus when your goal is to influence change or introduce something new in your organization. Note that not everyone will be influenced by the same factors. You’ll need to use different approaches with different people or groups.

Influence Matters at Every Level

No matter where you are in your career, chances are that you sometimes need to influence the behavior, attitude and/or decisions of people over whom you have no formal authority. Influence is an important aspect of leadership – both formal and informal – at every level. Even in situations where you do have formal authority, it can often be better to rely on influence rather than power to get the results you need. After all, relying on influence rather than formal authority can lead to greater commitment and buy-in – and that’s how you get meaningful results that make a difference.