Learn How to Influence

Picture a super-car in front of you. And, imagine you have been told that if you want, you can take the car out for a spin! What will you do? Let us say you decide to take the car out for a spin. And, just as you are about to get in, you are told that the car is in perfect shape but, the tires haven’t been inflated as yet! How would you feel? What are the thoughts that would run through your head. Wouldn’t you wonder …

• How will the car gain traction if the tires are not inflated?
• What is the point of building a super-car and not inflating the tires? It costs nothing at all to inflate the tires!

There is a lesson in this fictional story for aspiring managers and leaders. What is that which costs nothing, but helps you to gain traction with and influence your team, enabling all your thoughts and ideas to flow to them?

And, what do you call conversations that help a manager / leader influence i.e. gain traction? They are known as Influential Conversations!

You can make your everyday conversations “Influential” with just two deliberate steps.

STEP 1: How well you listen – with your ears, eyes, heart and 100% of your mind.

STEP 2: How you reassure the other person that he / she has been respectfully heard, by incorporating their view-point and factoring it into your response.

Do build in these two steps into your everyday conversations. It is as simple and as impactful as inflating a car’s tires. You will surprise yourself with the influence you generate!

By : Ravi Santhanam, for ZEUS

Next : EXECUTIVE PRESENCE – What is it? How can you get it?