How Effectively Do You Influence?Written by Manya Arond-Thomas
Are you aware of your influence effectiveness? Do you know if you are using most appropriate influence strategies for your role, for your audience, and for situation? Are you able to use appropriate influence strategies effectively? These are questions that every leader should address and answer.We communicate to influence others. We are either on giving or receiving end of an endless stream of influencing, persuading, requesting, demanding, cajoling, exhorting, inveigling and manipulating each other to further our ends. Think about how many times a day you request others to do things, seek buy-in to a strategy, encourage greater productivity, suggest how people should think about things, or offer thoughts on attitudes or behaviors others need to change. While there are a number of relationship management abilities critical for people who want to be outstanding leaders, influence is core competency in domain of relationship management according to Hay Group, creators of Emotional Competence Inventory. Influence effectiveness depends on a combination of factors including: choice of influence tactic, your skill at using tactic, your organizational power base, and your personal power base. There are ten common influence tactics that people can use ethically: *Legitimizing – referring to or using recognized authority *Logical Persuading – using logic to persuade influencee. *Appealing to Friendship –asking friends for favors or assistance *Socializing – establishing rapport to find commonalities and to build a connection *Consulting – presenting a problem and asking for influencee’s input *Stating – boldly and directly stating what you want, believe, or need *Appealing to Values – inspiring cooperation by appealing to values, emotions, or feelings *Modeling – setting an example for others to follow *Exchanging – giving something of value to influencee in return for something you want *Alliance Building – building an alliance of supporters who can help you influence others
| | Know the Building Blocks of Dialogue that Lead to New Learning, Innovation and SynergyWritten by Manya Arond-Thomas
With complexity and continuous change leaders and managers face today, continuous learning, responsiveness, adaptation and innovation are essential survival skills. Yet, one constant that human beings seem to want and need more than anything when they are in relationship to another human is to be heard. So often in conversation, we spend a lot more time advocating for our position rather than seeking to hear and understand another.Listening may be single most powerful skill of communication for it is an act of respect and of valuing. It seems counterintuitive, yet when we listen and seek to understand first, we also create more receptivity in other to hear us. When we create such an environment of safety, people are willing to take risks and new learning can occur. There are four building blocks of conversation that help people move out of defensive, routinized, or reactive communication patterns that inhibit movement towards clear action and successful achievement of desired goals. 1. Developing Your Listening Skills — This includes eye contact, listening without thinking of one’s rebuttals or preparing for what to say next, listening for emotional content as well as information, and asking questions to clarify meaning 2. Seeking to Suspend Judgment — To be human is to be a judgment manufacturer. We are always in process of making judgments, both positive and negative. Whether we are judging ourselves or others, judgment shuts down creativity, imagination and learning.. Whether you agree or disagree with other person, your judgments will limit your ability to listen and learn something new. Be aware that negative judgments are particularly damaging to your ability to listen. Strive to first be aware of your judgments. In so doing, you can become clear that this is a reaction and you can then more objectively bring it into conversation as an interpretation.
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