Influencing: How to develop your influencing skills

In organisational life, influence is a key skill. It helps earn co-operation from colleagues, ensures your voice is heard and makes you a better leader. We all influence at minor levels every day without even knowing it, but step your influencing powers up a notch, and you’ll begin to realise their career-building potential very quickly.

Remember that the real skill is learning how to influence through commitment, loyalty and trust, rather than through mere compliance or, at worst, coercion.

“At most organisational levels, ‘making things happen’ depends as much on influencing sideways and upwards as it does on managing through the hierarchy,” says Ceri Roderick, assessment and development specialist at occupational psychologist Pearn Kandola. “Change processes in particular are best achieved through influence rather than imposition.”

Where do I start?

Be clear in your mind about the end result you want to steer towards. Then identify the key stakeholders who you need to influence. Try to discover as much as you can about them and where they are coming from by asking open-ended questions that will encourage them to talk.

Understanding the motivation, priorities and concerns of the individuals involved will help you connect with them and build influential relationships.

Learn more about yourself

A heightened sense of self-awareness and the effect you have on other people is vital. Ask yourself some frank questions: are you viewed as ‘head-led’ and analytical, or more of a sensitive, creative type? Do you have a reputation for taking risks, or are you a safe-bet decision-maker?Are you a strategic visionary or a down-to-earth pragmatist?

If you find such self-assessment difficult, ask close colleagues what they think, or take an emotional intelligence test.

What qualities do I need?

The more well-rounded your skill set is and the more respected you are for your abilities, the more people will listen to you. Roderick stresses the importance of ‘content’ skills, such as expertise or eminence building and becoming the ‘go to person’ for a particular topic. Process skills including researching, planning and facilitation are fundamental to constructing a well-timed and systematic approach.

Get volunteering

Voluntary work provides an excellent opportunity to advance people skills such as influencing, as well as building confidence. You can become a school governor, get involved with your organisation’s community-based projects, or sit on the board of a charity. Joining a professional body or volunteering for tasks that take you into new areas will also give you a chance to practise getting people on side.

Work on your leadership skills

The success of any influencing strategy ultimately rests on leadership talent, so use every opportunity to practise, test and improve your skills. A carefully selected mentor can help you reach higher levels of self-awareness, and give insight on how you might become more influential.

Act out scenarios

Role-playing with colleagues can be highly beneficial when it comes to learning how different management styles and approaches can work under challenging circumstances. Feedback from these sessions can highlight whether you’re using the right tone, as well as any weaknesses in your body language or listening skills.

Build relationships

Raising your profile and maintaining a high visibility is critical to gaining support and co-operation for your ideas from subordinates and peers. Spending more time socialising with the individuals you are trying to influence will also help cultivate trust and get people on side.

Drum up additional behind-the-scenes support by forming alliances with other key influencers outside the department.

Where can I get more info?

Books

- Agreed! Improve Your Powers of Influence, Terry Gillen, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, £17.99
ISBN 0852928017

- The Influencing Pocketbook, Richard Storey, Management Pocketbooks, £6.99
ISBN 1870471792

- How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie, Hutchinson
£7.99, ISBN 0749307846

- The Trusted Advisor, David Maister, Rob Galford, Charles Green, Free Press, £10.99, ISBN 0743207769

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If you only do five things

1 Be clear about what you are seeking to achieve

2 Find out what makes key stakeholders tick

3 Understand your impact on others

4 Look for common ground

5 Be flexible and adapt your strategy for different audiences

Expert's view: Ceri Roderick on improving your influencing skills

Ceri Roderick is assessment and development specialist at occupational psychologist, Pearn Kandola.

How should you best manage the influencing process?

Assuming that influencing is more than 'selling' an idea, and that it implies a strategic intent and a sustained campaign, then the important stages are:

- Surveying the organisational landscape - is the time right for your concept?

- Preparing the ground - are there dependencies in getting your concept accepted?

- Implementing your campaign - bringing your argument to bear on the right individuals or groups

- Monitoring progress - where are you winning commitment or meeting resistance?

What tactics would you personally use when influencing?

Identify an influential person who is a stakeholder in the issue you are seeking to influence. Research this individual to understand their values, motives and personality. For example, what kind of arguments do they respond to? What are their current priorities? Who do they listen to, and why? Build a targeted campaign and a relationship based on the answers to all these questions.

What should you refrain from?

People don't like to feel manipulated, brow beaten or rail-roaded. Avoiding these perceptions depends on how your influencing approach interacts with strong personality features of the individual, such as their degree of openness and their degree of suspicion. People will always be assessing your motives, so be open and clear about your goals. If they are seen as worthy, then people will value your commitment and are more likely to forgive any clumsiness.

What is the latest thinking on the subject?

Individual differences are critical. There is strong evidence that a small number of underlying personality factors are a major influence on how we send and receive messages. Deep understanding of your own impact on others and the interpersonal sensitivity to read others well are the precursors to developing strong relationships. It is within such relationships that the most powerful influence occurs.