WHAT IS INFLUENCING SKILLS IN
MANAGEMENT?
As organizational hierarchies and layers
diminish, developing personal effectiveness and influencing skills is essential
in today’s workplace. Success and outcomes can only be achieved through, with
and from others. Being able to influence
without formal authority is an essential skill, and we cannot do this without
confidence, clarity of purpose and the communication skills to fully express
ourselves. And as leaders our roles require that we draw on who we are, as well
as what we do to inspire and engage our people.
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| source : Google |
But influencing skills is not just about
getting others always to agree to our point of view – we may be able to
influence them to cooperate with us AND they may not always agree with us. It is not about winning at all costs and
having to get our own way all of the time.
It is not about forcing or getting others to change – we cannot change
others.
Influencing skills IS about behaving in
ways that offers others the invitation to change (their behavior, attitudes,
thoughts, and ways) and/or accommodate your own wishes whilst accepting that
they may be unable to or unwilling to, or are unprepared to meet our request to
be influenced.
DEFINITION
Susan Jeffers,
author of Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, defines influencing as:
“not the ability to get someone to do what you want them to do, it’s the
ability to get yourself to do what you want to do”
At Roffey Park
one of the definitions we use on our programmes is:
“Everything we say or don’t say, do or don’t do, are or are not, that
modifies, affects, or changes someone else’s behaviour, thoughts, or actions,
consciously or unconsciously, for good or for ill”
Whether we like it or not, the fact is
we are using influencing skills all the time and not just by our actions. Our
very presence at a meeting may influence people positively or negatively. The
style or nature of our presence, what we say or how we say it and the attitude
we (unconsciously or otherwise) project speaks volumes.
The smarter we can get at knowing what
we do, or what it is about us, that impacts on others, the more personally
effective and powerful we can become.
TEN KEYS INFLUENCING SKILLS
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| Source : Google |
1. Observation – paying attention to
non-verbal behavior – what is not said, how a person may be feeling, paying
attention to your own thoughts, feelings, hunches and intuitions
2. Interpretation – to understand and
respond to non-verbal behavior – what do particular body signs, changes in skin
color, breathing, demeanor, etc.
3. Active Listening – to hear what is said
and to hear what is implied or not said as well as being able to communicate in
your own words what the other person has said and reflect their feelings as
well as summarizing checks for clarity and agreement.
4. Feedback – offer feedback to the other
person about what you see, interpret, hear as well as what you feel and
intuit. Elicit feedback from others to
develop your own self-knowledge and your impact on others.
5. Awareness – be aware of yourself, moment
by moment, particularly of behavior patterns which are counter-productive, your
limiting thoughts, beliefs and reactions.
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| Source : Google |
6. Choices – recognize at any moment that,
if how you are behaving is unproductive, you can change your own thoughts,
feelings and behaviors.
7. Self-confidence – to feel confident
about yourself in the face of resistance or conflict. This confidence should be
based on acceptance of self and not on felt superiority to the other person.
8. Timing – be able to get the timing right
such as when to give feedback and when not to, when to use choice ‘A’ or ‘B’,
when to retreat or be persistent and when to let go completely.
9. Intuition – trust your own feelings or
hunches about the likely patterns of the other person’s behavior, to listen to
your positive, inner voice.
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| Source : Google |
Today’s working environment depends very
much on relationships and influencing skills – both working with and through
other people. It is rare that you can be
personally effective and influence others positively without the reciprocal
giving to and taking from others that creates opportunities for your growth and
your effectiveness – and you can only achieve this if you have the support and
challenge that only other people can give you.
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| Source : Google
Influence Skill
Difficulty and Potential Impact
The table below lists the
twenty-eight influencing skills, the difficulty each skill is to master, and
the potential impact each skill can have on leading and influencing
others. The skills are ranked according
to potential impact and then by difficulty. Bargaining or negotiating, for instance, has
very high potential impact but is also a difficult skill to master. Conversely, persisting has low potential
impact and is easy to master. In
developing your leadership and influencing skills, you will have more leverage
with the skills having the greatest potential impact, even though many of them
are difficult to master. These rankings
are based on twenty years of research on power and influence that I conducted
at Lore International Institute, which is now part of Korn/Ferry International.
Source :
2. http://www.theelementsofpower.com/the-influence-skills/
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