HBR Article Summary: How to Increase Your Influence at Work
* Develop business-critical expertise and knowhow and don’t keep your knowledge under wraps
* Build connections - that way, they won’t impute negative intentions or motives to you.
* Listen before you try to persuade - ask colleagues for their perspectives and advice and make it clear to your colleagues that you value their opinions.
* Give people what they want - Do your homework to find out what they need to hear and what will capture their attention. If your proposal is fundamentally self-interested, people won’t line up
* Mind your body language (and your tone) - people are constantly assessing whether to trust you or not
* Map a strategy - create a “power map” - an org chart of decision makers related to your issue. Then begin to think about how and when you will approach these various colleagues. “Who might be threatened by your plans, and how can you bring them over to your side?”
Related topic - How to Influence Without Authority in the Workplace
Sources of authority you can leverage to inspire others to follow your lead -
1. Your Expertise - become so qualified that other people want to listen to you, even if they don’t have to. Make sure others know what you know.
2. Your Relationships - When you have real, meaningful relationships with colleagues, it’s possible to build trust and understand their personal and professional motivations. Develop your emotional intelligence - the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize the emotions of those around you.
3. Your Corporate and Organizational Understanding - Take every opportunity you can to learn about your company by sitting in on meetings—whether or not they're related to your department or role—developing relationships with important people from other departments, reading corporate strategy documentation, or finding a mentor. Knowing how your organization operates, the processes in place to accomplish tasks and how to get things done will provide another source of authority to leverage.
If these tactics are not enough to convince others to follow your lead, ask your supervisor to step in or to adjust your title.
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