Exerting influence

The importance of exerting influence is the topic of our fourth and last article based on my interview with Joel A. Garfinkle, author of ‘Getting Ahead – Three Steps to take your career to the next level’.

The two pillars that support influence are perception and visibility. Without them, you can’t begin to influence. With influence comes impact, which is ultimately what makes influence so different from perception and visibility.

Your ability to have impact when working on the areas of perception and visibility is limited; however, you enjoy unrestricted impact when you begin to work on your influence.

Influence means gaining others’ support to move situations and projects forward. You are able to sway opinions and have people embrace your ideas and perspectives. They go along with what you want and are loyal to your ideas. You motivate and arouse interest in others to do what is deemed important.

Use your powers of persuasion

But what if I am limited by my role or don’t have the level of seniority or the platform to be heard? Many people would make the same effort and make the false assumption that you need authority or power to have influence. This isn’t true. Many people have managed to persuade others without any formal authority or title.

Power is not necessary. Authority is not necessary. A title is not necessary. What is necessary is influence and the desire to be influential. No matter where you sit within the organization or in your life, you can make an impact.

Here are three things you can do right now:

1. Get things done. People know they can count on you to accomplish even the toughest assignments.

2. Become a ‘go-to’ person. Others seek you out for advice to accomplish the most essential tasks and to make important decisions.

3. Gain buy-in for your ideas. Your established credibility and respect will prompt people to embrace your ideas and to want to be a part of what you are doing.

Successful influencers are better than others at building strong alliances and wider bases of support, leveraging allies to gain support for their ideas.

More people come to rely on them, they lead up, gain the respect and have their opinions sought out by their superiors. They gain results from others by inspiring others to impact bottom line results. 

Herein lies the power of influence.