Being brilliant doesn’t make us successful until and unless we can influence.
Influence is power!
12 Strategies For How To Influence Others In The Workplace
No matter who you are and where you work, influencing in the workplace is crucial for success.
If you get to influence a team, you can work more effectively with them. Yet, if you have a superior position, getting influence will make you more respected.
Having influence will make your voice more likely to get heard and acknowledged.
It takes time and effort to gain influence, so don’t hurry!
Relax! And read the following strategies to influence others in the workplace.
1. Develop Trust With Coworkers
Influence gets carried out where there is a strong sense of trust. People are open to your influence when they trust you.
While being in a higher position, it’s easier to convey a demand and get a task done. Because the employee will respect your authority.
If you demanded the same task without any authority, would it be the same? Here’s the role of influence visible.
Regardless of your position, if you want to influence others, develop trust in your coworkers.
Developing trust requires you to be honest and don’t keep secrets.
2. Acknowledge That You Aren’t Perfect To Influence Others
Positive people are never afraid to admit that they can be wrong sometimes. If you want to influence others, acknowledge that you can’t know the answer to everything.
Claiming yourself to be perfect isn’t an excellent approach to impact your team.
Instead, focus on bringing the best out of you. Learn new skills and information so that people know you are investing yourself in what you do.
People get influenced by those who are never afraid to ask questions. They’ll try to learn as much as possible from them.
3. How To Influence Others In The Workplace – Develop Reliability By Being Consistent
Inconsistency destroys your reputation. On the contrary, consistency is a slow but sure process.
If you’re consistent enough to do your tasks on time, effectively, people will get attracted to you.
Being a leader, when you leady by a consistent style and set consistent expectations. People will automatically come to rely on you.
It’s a vital building block of influence. If you are inconsistent, people will doubt your ideas.
However, if you are consistent, your ideas will get considered reliable and trustworthy.
4. Avoid Gossips If You Want To Influence
Some events give people the reason to talk behind someone’s back.
Discussing events is inevitable and harmless until they get distorted for entertainment.
Gossip brings down the morale of the workplace. If it’s not true, it can become bullying.
What you need to do is smile at the people gossiping and walk away. Don’t get drawn by the negative energy.
Avoid distorting your opinion on the subject of gossip; they deserve respect instead.
5. How To Influence Others In The Workplace – Cultivate Win-Win Relationships
Successful networking in workplaces bases upon positive relationships. Try to build such relationships that benefit everyone involved.
Good leaders never use their influence to force others to do what they want.
Instead, they try to build relationships that are win-win for all.
Such collaborative relationships can help everyone to succeed in their objectives.
6. Be Assertive To Influence Others
Working in a company, you’ll have to compete with other people for visibility.
If you want to influence others, be assertive and present your ideas with confidence.
However, keep in mind the difference between being assertive and being aggressive.
If you show confidence to a greater extent, it will get confused to be arrogant. And your ideas might get in danger.
Show assertion and be careful, especially when presenting to an unknown audience.
7. Do Your Best To Positively Influence Everyone
Your manager and coworkers will appreciate the efforts you put into your job. People can be at odds but come together to celebrate a milestone achieved due to a great effort.
Some people won’t like you, but everyone will respect you for doing your best.
Dedication and focus are the qualities the corporate world will cherish forever.
Being dependable gives you a positive sense of your purpose. If you continue to be at your best, you might get a factual basis for future growth.
8. How To Influence Others In The Workplace – Look At The Future
Although it’s essential to view things in the present, it’s also necessary to have an eye on what is coming up next.
It’s a trait of positive influencers to determine how things will be in the future.
That’s more important in today’s world. Because many of the companies today are losing optimism due to the current state of the business.
Positive influence is seeing what the team is capable of, defining goals, and motivating them to reach there.
It isn’t easy to keep the team’s morale high and look at the upcoming opportunities.
But with the right leader, the team can see the brightness of the future. They’ll get motivated to achieve more.
9. Show Some Flexibility
It might sound to be contradictory to being assertive, but flexibility is essential. It would not be easy to assert yourself while being open to suggestions.
Being too assertive will harm you. Because people will perceive you as stringent, who doesn’t believe others.
It will reduce your respect in other’s eyes, and you’ll have to compromise your influence.
So be sure about your beliefs but show some flexibility too. An excellent way to do so is getting into a negotiation.
Be strict on your beliefs when someone contradicts you, but work together to find mutual solutions.
10. Be Open To Criticism For Influencing Others
Positive influencers want to learn and better themselves with each passing day. So that’s why they are open to criticism from people surrounding them.
You can’t determine your performance until you ask others for input. It’s more necessary when your work is affecting them.
As a leader, you should accept constructive feedback and encourage this culture.
Being a positive influencer, always be ready to take this challenge.
11. How To Influence Others In The Workplace – Show Some Appreciation
You have to show some appreciation to others for being a positive influence. It’s quite encouraging when you congratulate a coworker for achieving a goal.
If the achievement is big enough, you can celebrate it too.
On the other side, if a coworker is going through a rough time, you must offer your sympathy.
Help them so they can re-establish their focus.
12. Focus On Actions And Not The Argument
Building influence only through words is not possible. Even the most outstanding leaders couldn’t win power through speeches or arguments
If you want to build influence in the workplace, you need to speak through your actions.
Consistency plays an important role here. If you work hard with consistency and get good results, it shows people that you influence.
You can also choose to show your ideas through real examples. Instead of arguing about how your concept will look, put it in reality. Show instead of telling.
4 Skills You Need To Influence Others In The Workplace
You ever wondered how your favorite leaders influence others? Well! They have these four influencing critical skills to mark their name in history.
1. How To Influence Others In The Workplace – Trust-Building
Good leadership needs to build and maintain trust in their team. Without faith, leaders will have to force people to comply with them.
This way, they won’t be able to get the commitment and capabilities of the team.
People admire leaders who can understand their vulnerability. And the ones who can stand with them, support them in their looming times.
It means that the leader should demonstrate a broad range of behaviors.
Some of these behaviors can be opposing but can bring change if applied rightly.
2. Practicing Organizational Intelligence
Organizations have two sides—the formal one pasted on the org. Chart and the informal one. The informal side defines how things get done in actuality.
Good political leaders are well-aware of both sides. Such leaders understand that politics are a necessary part of organizational success.
They use politics to build social capital and networking. Thinking before responding and deciding when to express themselves is their strength.
Good leaders can leave people with a good impression.
3. Self And Team Promotion
Self-promotion is often considered bragging. But great leaders know that self-promotion for the right reasons can influence the team.
Self-promotion isn’t just a tool to advance once in their career. It also serves the pride of the team and organization.
By making ideas more visible across the organization, self-promotion brings collaboration.
4. How To Influence Others In The Workplace – Leveraging Networks
Influencing leaders know that building networks are powerful. Organizations are increasingly dynamic in today’s world. They keep expanding in their shape and size over time.
Influential leaders are well-aware that their personal networks should also be dynamic. They strive to expand and grow their networks.
They know the strategy of tapping into these networks and when is the right time to do so.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Good Influencing Skills?
Influencing skills rely on good soft skills. It involves the ability to communicate and being stick to one's own beliefs. Also, engaging stakeholders by the art of story-telling is an excellent influencing skill.
Why Do We Need To Influence Others?
Influence causes a right shift in the mind of a person. You get to have internal commitment regardless of the external consequences. Influential people didn't change the behavior of others; they shifted their minds.
What Is A Good Influence?
Having a good impact on other people by pointing out their strengths is a good influence. It involves who you are, what you do, and how you motivate others to see the best in themselves.
How Does The Presence Of Others Influence Our Actions?
Overactivity from the presence of others draws away attention from the task. It becomes challenging to keep our focus on the task. And the task even becomes more complicated when our attention isn't focused.
Conclusion
It won’t be wrong to say that the best leaders are the ones who are also positive influences. Being able to influence is not a skill someone is born with; it’s a series of efforts brought in by the person.
Organizations need leaders that remain a positive influence even in the hardest times.
Being an influencer, you should know how to maintain a positive outlook on the future of business. Remember, you can’t give up on negative vibes.
Although it’s critical to maintain the team’s morale, that’s what influence is!
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Last Updated on 1 hour by Aleena
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