Category Archives: Influence

Three steps to selling anything

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We recently had a fascinating team discussion about business development. Experts say that the vast majority of successful sales conversations involve the buyer talking more than the seller. (No wonder we are turned off by the fast-talking used car salesperson!)

Whether you’re selling a product, service or idea, the most important job of the seller is to listen. You will gain valuable insight about the buyer, but only if you are fully listening (not planning your next comment).

The next priority is asking powerful questions in order to understand the reality of the potential customer.“How is production affected when this machine breaks down?”

Finally, summarize your understanding to make sure that what you heard is really what the other person said. Do not assume that you get it. Periodically sum it up in your own words. “What I heard was you have a problem with the amount of resources this solution will require.”

One potential pitfall is asking questions in order to persuade, not to understand. Questions with an ulterior motive feel manipulative to the listener and can be a barrier in any conversation. When seeking to influence, whether you’re selling a service or an idea, ask honest and sincere questions.

Excellent tips for asking questions (stay in a state of curiosity to sort out where people are coming from) and listening (eliminate judgmental self-conversation, such as “They’re just not getting it!”) are found in Kevin Cashman’s blog on Fast Company.

You have listened, asked questions and ensured that you have mutual understanding. Now is the time to offer your solution. “The wise man puts himself last and finds himself first” (Lao Tsu).

 

Want to be a whiz at selling your big idea? Contact Humanergy.

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Use influence to reel in success

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Influence allows you to impact results through your interactions with other people. Although you can’t control the outcome completely, you can increase the probability of achieving the impact you desire by how you network, communicate and find common ground with other people.

A powerful metaphor for influence is sport fishing. How is it that you can use a 50-pound line to land a 250 pound fish?

Be patient. Know where you want to end up, but manage your expectations along the way.

Be aware. Influence and manage the other people on the boat – the other people who can affect the situation.

Control yourself. Check your ego and your need to win.

Be purposeful. Be intense, but don’t make rash choices; consider the impact of your actions.

Know your fish. What are the characteristics of others involved? What choices are they making right now?

Be the fish. Don’t focus on you and your needs; get in the heads of the others involved.

Adjust as you learn. Your desired outcomes and your actions may need to change to create the right results for everyone.

Work within the parameters of the line. What are your limits and abilities? What do others want? What can they contribute?

Reel it in. Don’t ease up just because things seem to be going well. Follow through with 100% of the discipline you had when you started.

Use your influence to reel in the big fish and contribute to the greater good. Remember the words of Jackie Robinson: “A life isn’t significant except for its influence on other lives.”

 


Strategic persistence: Don’t give up if the cause is right

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You have a position on an issue or a new idea that you believe is right for the organization. In spite of significant effort, the innovation isn’t gaining traction. In fact, there appears to be significant opposition. It can be tempting to throw in the towel, even when you have the facts to support your position. How do you persist when you know you’re right and others aren’t on board?

Persuasion involves more than charisma and charm. Patience, time and a disciplined set of strategies are required.

Shape the discussion. You need to be the one driving the conversation.  provide the facts, give the context and connect the dots for others who need to get on board.  By all means, include others’ perspectives.  Just don’t let them be the spokesperson for the topic.

Infect others. Think of your idea as an epidemic that needs to be spread. Your enthusiasm and ability to articulate your argument can be persuasive tools. Figure out who the key players are in this situation.  They may or may not be people in positions of authority. Some people may be “connectors” -  individuals with broad social networks who are able to influence others (see Malcom Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point).

Be nice. Forget taking off the gloves; you won’t advance your position by getting into a sparring contest with your opponents. You will score points by punctuating your argument with self-effacing humor and an open mind.

Know your opponents’ position. Play devil’s advocate and come up with every conceivable reason why your idea is terrible. You can then anticipate the opposition’s arguments and be prepared to derail them before they are mentioned. Your adversaries will come up with some unexpected roadblocks, so be ready to think on your feet.

Adjust to new realities. External factors may change the equation. Be prepared to adjust your plan and your persuasive tactics based on new information. This will show a fluid grasp of the situation at hand, and you won’t be caught using last year’s data for this year’s problem.

Outlast them.  Be calmly persistent and keep the issue front-of-mind for key people. Sometimes the victor is simply the person who is willing to continue playing the game.

Persistence involves resilience over time and the ability to maintain serenity in the midst of turmoil. Don’t underestimate the power of simply maintaining a forward momentum. As Calvin Coolidge said, “The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Want to be more persistent when the time is right?  Or could your team learn some new strategies for “pressing on”?  Contact Humanergy.

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Are you part of a culture of intimidation?

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You may be thinking, “Me? I’d never be a leader in an organization whose culture was intimidating! I’m a nice person!” Unfortunately, organizational culture and habits have a tendency to creep, if we’re not careful. There may be some ways in which you and other leaders contribute to people feeling constrained and bullied. You’ve just been too busy or narrow in your focus to recognize it. What are the symptoms of subtle intimidation?

Fuzzy accountability, blame and consequences that don’t fit. People aren’t exactly sure what they should be doing or what boundaries exist for their work. Expectations are unclear or inconsistent from one day to the next or one leader to the next. When things go wrong, the finger gets pointed, and the consequences don’t seem appropriate given the mistakes that were made.

Intense focus on what’s going wrong. Time, energy and emotion are invested in communicating about the problems and errors, and little is said about what’s working. Employees keep their heads down and hope for the best (or at least that they’re not the ones in the wrong this time). Sometimes negative feedback is delivered indirectly, such as jabs disguised as jokes.

Intermittent, inconsistent communication. Employees hear different messages from leaders, if they hear much at all. There is no context to what is communicated, so people don’t understand the importance and priority of the message. Confusion is common, and solutions are imperfect, since people don’t have access to necessary information.

Delegation is usually “swoop and poop” or micromanaging. Lacking the time (really, it’s commitment) to delegate appropriately, leaders plop projects in people’s inboxes, give direction via short, curt email or only half-delegate and then hover to make sure the work is getting done right.

Leaders don’t want feedback. Leaders may say they want critical feedback, but employees understand that this would come with grave consequences. “Remember Joe? Well, he criticized the boss and got canned.”

Leaders give feedback indirectly or vaguely. Often the person who needs the feedback is the last to know, as people discuss Sue’s problem with everyone but Sue. When leaders give feedback to their direct reports, they beat around the bush and don’t connect the dots between the direct report’s behavior and its impact. This leaves employees wondering what they did in the first place and uncertain about where they stand with their boss.

People create silos for support. To protect themselves or to gain power, people develop a group of allies within the organization. “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” Invisible silos of alliances exist and everyone knows who is in whose camp, even if it is not openly acknowledged.

If even one of these statements ring true, it’s time to take a stand and promote change. Start by modeling effective listening and openness yourself. Like everyone, you are not fully aware of the impact of your own behavior. Seek information to decrease your own self-deception. Then find like-minded people within the organization and ask, “Is this culture one that enables us to meet tomorrow’s challenges and achieve necessary results?”

Work together to build a safe, healthy and productive culture that allows people to fully engage in the organization’s mission and make a difference. Good intentions won’t change anything. As Mae West said, “An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”

Have a question about this topic or want some input from Humanergy? Contact us!

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Winning hearts and minds

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Although typically thought of as a military strategy, leaders in other organizations must also win the hearts and minds of their people. The reality is that if you lose your people’s hearts and minds, then you will have lost their passionate engagement in the organization. They may still show up, but they will not devote their full emotional and physical energy to the job at hand. How do you win hearts and minds?

Speak directly. Like Voice of America, the U.S. government-funded radio broadcasts during the Cold War, you need a direct way of communicating with the organization’s people. Not all messages need to come directly from the top leaders, however mission-critical communications must. Use email or telecommunication to make it more feasible.

Make your message clear. Think about the one or two take-aways you want people to remember. Then plan carefully to ensure that your message is unmistakable. Use plain language, and keep it brief. If people need to take action, make the next steps unambiguous.

Challenge disinformation. You may not encounter an active counterinsurgency, but rumors and misinformation are probably inevitable. Don’t wait for rumors to die out on their own. Address  inaccuracies and falsehoods that surface, so that people don’t get distracted or confused.

No platitudes. In the end, hearts and minds are won by what you do, not what you say.  Listen. Provide a balance of challenge and support. Share decision-making. Encourage innovation. All of these efforts make a real difference in people’s work lives and build loyalty, engagement and satisfaction.

Don’t rely on charisma. Personal charm is important, but not sufficient. Humility, integrity and honesty are the foundational keys to keeping people on board for the long haul.

You may not be waging a war, but you do need to attend to the hearts and minds of the organization’s people. The payoff? Folks who not only are dedicated to their work, they also have enthusiasm and zeal for the work that is unmatched by your competition. That’s a battle well worth winning.

Have a question or want some input from Humanergy about this topic? Contact us and we’ll get right back to you!


Three laws of influence

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network-of-peopleInfluence is at the heart of leadership. To be even a modestly successful leader, you must be able to “sell” your ideas and be open to even better ideas that people  bring to the table.

The quantity and quality of your relationships matter. You need to have a sufficiently large web of connections to get the job done. And the relationships with those people need to be rock solid. How do you make sure that you have positive bonds with the people you need to connect with? Start with the three laws of influence.

The Law of Big Things: Take on what you can handle and deliver 100% of the time. Failure is not an option, or at least it should be a rarity. Otherwise, you impact your integrity and the degree of trust people can have in you to follow through. The Law of Big Things requires an honest assessment of your capabilities, the time required and your competing priorities.

The Law of Little Things: Fulfill the social contract. “Little things” include everyday courtesies, manners, helpfulness, hospitality and a friendly demeanor. Don’t take for granted that you already abide by The Law of Little Things. It’s all too easy to get caught up in your “busy-ness” and lose sight of common civilities.

The Law of Reciprocity: Seek first to be influenced, listen, trust and value others. You build your ability to influence by practicing The Law of Reciprocity, which is much like the good old Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you want to influence, allow yourself to be influenced. If you want others to listen, do so yourself. You really do reap what you sow.

Influence depends upon the quality of the relationships you build over time and the degree of trust you inspire. Influence depends less upon what you say and more upon what you do.  As Zig Zigler noted, “The most important persuasion tool in your entire arsenal is integrity.”

Have a question or want some input from Humanergy about this topic? Contact us and we’ll get right back to you!


Want to influence others? Use the right methods.

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paintingWhen we successfully influence, we build solutions that everyone can live with. These solutions don’t always come easily, and often people involved must change their thinking and behavior. How much change is required? It will depend upon the person. That’s why it’s important to assess the degree and difficulty of the changes up front, and change your methods of communicating accordingly.

Small or easy changes? Based on your relationship and expertise, people will likely respond to your telling them what they need to do. If the change is  harder to do, you can reduce resistance by using a fact-based story to illustrate the situation and potential consequences. For more difficult or substantial change, you may need to do something that gets the person involved in the situation or simulate what is going on.

Visualization is a valuable simulation tool to help people clearly understand the state of affairs. Visualization is creating a story picture that is a clear and compelling summary of the current conditions.

Influence requires that you paint a picture for people – one that they can not only understand, but one that compels them to action. Some necessary components of your story picture include:

  • Show cause and effect. Rather than overwhelming people with numbers, charts and graphs, tell the story. Share only what is needed to illustrate that A causes B and B causes C.
  • Provide context for comparison. Answer the compelling question, “Compared to what?” For example, “Our sales are 23% lower than last year, and 27% lower than our biggest competitor.”
  • Define assumptions and limitations of the data. Don’t try to hide contrary indicators. Openly explore the indicators that your “facts” may be wrong.
  • Address alternative explanations and contrary cases. What other stories fit the data? What data does not fit the story you want to tell? For example, “The recent surge in sales may be due to our competitor’s supply chain problems, not our recent marketing campaign.”

Influence requires that we break complex ideas into simpler, bite-sized chunks, without losing the full weight of the message. Or, as Albert Einstein said, “My aim is to make things as simple as possible, but not simpler than that.” Luckily, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to influence others. You do need to communicate clearly and concisely,  paint an accurate picture and tell the whole story.

Have a question or want some input from Humanergy about this topic? Contact us and we’ll get right back to you!


How and who do you influence?

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There’s been a lot of buzz about influence as an essential component of leadership. It’s true that with the exception of tyrants and dictators, leaders make most of their impact through influencing others. Clearly, the ability to get things done indirectly -  not just telling people what to do – is a fundamental necessity of leadership.

Influence is powerful and can be an instrument for good or evil. What core competencies are required to have a positive influence on those around you – and thus propel your organization toward its goals?

Authenticity required. People who influence others are genuine and don’t try to be something they are not. We can spot a fake a mile away. Influential people aren’t perfect; they just don’t try to hide their flaws or make excuses for their mistakes.

Focus on the greater good. They’re not totally selfless, but influential people  seek positive outcomes for others. They seek solutions that work for all individuals and groups involved, and they do what they can to foster other people’s development.

Act with courage and judgment. Influential people know when to speak up, change direction and push forward. They also know their limits (in skills, experience and influence) and when they can and cannot take risks.

Be humble. Quiet humility trumps ego-driven boastfulness every time. Influential people are confident, and also allow themselves to be vulnerable and less-than-all-knowing. They’re eager to learn from others.

Who influences you? By examining the character and actions of people who have impacted you positively, you’ll gain an understanding of what it takes to influence others. You’ll also realize that some of the most influential people don’t hold positions of formal authority. Even if you aren’t the boss, you may be influencing others.

Core competencies for influential leadership aren’t enough. There are some strategies that you can employ to increase the effectiveness of your influence. Stay tuned for a future post.

Have a question or want some input from Humanergy about this topic? Contact us and we’ll get right back to you!