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The First Four Pillars of Influence
In last month's newsletter, Eight
Simple Ways to Influence People and Get Results, we explained
that if your influence-ability is an eight-pillared Greek temple,
then the strength and balance of your whole temple is determined
by the strength and balance of each pillar.
We want to show you how to build and fortify your
temple of influence so you can get the results you want in your
career and life. Today, we will discuss four of the eight pillars
and show you what it would take to strengthen them. Next month we
will cover the remaining four.
This Month
Personal Pillar
The Personal Pillar refers to your ability to convey an influential
image. You know people like that, maybe it’s you; people who
can influence others just by their presence.
Building Your Personal Pillar
If you want to build your Personal Pillar you need to work on your
congruence. Congruence refers to your ability to be one with your
word.
For example, if a doctor acts unsure while diagnosing a patient,
would that patient believe the doctor’s message? I am sure
the answer is no. The doctor is not being congruent with his message.
If you don’t keep eye contact, if you are wishy-washy with
your commitments or if you don’t “walk your talk,”
your ability to influence would be greatly diminished.
The same goes with the language and words you choose. Concise, definite
and well-articulated language gives the impression of confidence,
knowledge and trust - therefore making you more influential.
Strengthening Your Personal Pillar
For today, pay attention to how you carry yourself while talking
about your ideas and opinions. Pay attention to the words and sentences
you use to convey your ideas. If you detect the slightest incongruence,
make sure you fix it.
Join a public speaking class or hire coach so you can get appropriate
feedback to correct your specific issue. You simply can’t
afford being viewed as somebody who is not congruent, especially
if it can be easily fixed.
 Free
public speaking workshop for SF Bay Area Residents
Relational Pillar
The relational pillar is represented by “who you know”
and “with whom you associate.” There is a reason why
big advertisers recruit high profile celebrities to represent their
products.
The reason is that big advertisers understand the power of the
Relational Pillar. Big advertisers influence us all the time by
associating their products with people we admire, respect and look
up too.
Building Your Relational Pillar
Do you spend time on consciously building your Relational Pillar?
In last month’s newsletter we talked about Oprah Winfrey and
how she keeps building her pillars.
When Oprah meets with successful actors and powerful personalities
she is always building and strengthening her Relational Pillar
as well as theirs.
Strengthening Your Relational Pillar
Identify important people in your industry, company and department
and arrange a time to call them or even meet them in person.
Prepare a list of genuine questions to ask them, discuss your ideas
with them and be friendly. Focus on building a long term relationships
with them.
The moment you say Mr. X thought of this as a good idea and people’s
ears perk up, is the moment you know you have a strong Relational
Pillar.
Flexibility Pillar
Your ability to facilitate win/win outcomes and to be flexible
with solutions is represented by your Flexibility Pillar.
Building Your Flexibility Pillar
Do you build flexibility into your proposals? Do you consciously
think of alternatives to your project before giving a proposal?
Do try and work things out and see the others’ point of view?
If you are known to be stubborn, and solid as a rock with your
positions then most people will avoid working with you. Influential
people are known to be good negotiators. They thrive on structuring
opportunities and solutions so that people feel as contributors.
Strengthening Your Flexibility Pillar
Take some time today to look into finding a good negotiation class.
Good negotiation classes help you see your own point of view along
with the other parties’ point of view. They help you structure
and package proposals in a way that fits everyone’s expectations
and desires.
What you learn from a good negotiation class automatically makes
you more influential.
 If you need help with structuring win/win outcomes in your next
negotiation download our negotiation
planner.
Visibility Pillar
The last but not least pillar for this month’s newsletter
is the Visibility Pillar. It basically iterates the long philosophical
question: if a tree falls in the forest and no body was there to
witness it, then did it really fall down? The answer is who cares.
If you’ve done great things in your career, yet no body knows
about them, then who cares. Maybe you do, and that’s important,
yet when we talk about influence we are implying other people are
involved too.
If the relational pillar stands for who you know then the Visibility
Pillar stands for “who knows of you and of your capabilities.”
If the Director of your department does not know of your past successes
in the job, you will have a harder time selling him on that new
proposal you’ve been cooking.
However, if he knows you and knows of your past work, all of the
sudden your influence-ability is skyrocketed. You don’t have
to say much, you don’t have to prove yourself; all you have
to do is present your ideas.
Building Your Visibility Pillar
Do you spend time in your company working on your visibility especially
for the higher ups? Do you make sure to get credit for your work
when it’s deserved? Does your name appear on internal reports
and external published papers? These are all ways to build your
visibility pillar.
Strengthening Your Visibility Pillar
One effective way to gain visibility is to give presentations at
company meeting. Make an update presentation on your projects,
a proposal presentation, an introduction presentation to a new
system, etc.
Another effective way is to discuss your ideas with the decision
makers of the company. This not only builds your visibility pillar,
it also helps your relational pillar too. I am always happy to
find leverage points like that.
Spend some time today to schedule a presentation for your department,
write an article for your internal newsletter, or look for a project
involving higher ups in your company to volunteer your expertise
and help. Or simply, be creative and get your name and abilities
out.
Stay Tuned
In about a month, stay tuned for details on how you can build and
strengthen your Expertise Pillar, Resources Pillar, Relevance Pillar,
and Position Pillar. We’d love to hear your thoughts, email
peter@ovson.com Start today at building and strengthening your structure
of influence in your life.
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