Read online.
The Final Four Pillars of Influence
As you may remember, in our first influence newsletter
(June, 2008)
we explained that your influence-ability is like an eight-pillared
Greek temple, and the strength and balance of your whole temple
is determined by the strength and balance of each pillar.
In the second newsletter (July,
2008) we looked at the first four pillars influence: Personal,
Relational, Flexibility, and Visibility. We discussed ways to build
and strengthen those pillars.
The Final Four Pillars
For this month we are going to continue and discuss the remaining
four pillars to help you complete building and strengthening your
influence.
Expertise Pillar
The expertise pillar refers to the specific and valuable knowledge
you have and to the degrees and certificates you've accumulated.
It's the people with Dr., PHD, and MBA in front of
their names, its people who can write a book about a specific subject
with the information in their own heads.
Regardless of your degrees, anyone can have deep knowledge
in a subject for which they are passionate. The more specialized
your knowledge on one topic, the stronger your expertise.
Build the Expertise Pillar
Do you take classes and attend seminars to deepen your specific
knowledge? Have you enrolled in a graduate school or a professional
association lately? Do you publish articles in your local trade
magazine? Do you read your specific trade journal on a regular basis?
These are all ways to build your Expertise Pillar.
Strengthen the Expertise Pillar
Take few minutes today to survey your expertise. On a piece of paper
list two things:
- All the degrees and certificates you have
- All the specific and general knowledge you have (software,
hardware, theory, new developments in the field, etc.)
If your list is long, then look for gaps and places where you
can add more specificity.
If you list is short, identify an area in your business that you
want to become an expert in and go for it. Make this your development
goal for the year.
If it's a degree that you lack, start investigating programs in
universities near you. (If you need help exploring this pillar,
get a career coach to help you expand).
Resource Pillar
What extra resource do you bring to the table when you are called
upon? Resources can be financial, social or knowledge based. The
Resources Pillar is anything extra and unexpected to help things
move forward in your department and company.
I have a friend who knows almost everybody in town. Anytime, I
need anything done, he connects me with the right people. He is
a sales man and you bet, he uses his connections to help out his
clients and even his boss and in return reaps tremendous benefits
and influence in his company.
A resourceful person is an influential person because of the resources
available to him.
Building Your Resource Pillar
The easiest way to build your resource pillar is to identify and
connect with people who are resources themselves. The other easiest
way to build your resource pillar is to use the Internet; join social
networking groups like Linkedin
and Face Book or a discussion
forum in your industry.
I personally belong to a couple Internet discussion groups, and
I find it very beneficial when I need a recommendation on a professional
resource.
Strengthening Your Resource Pillar
Using the Internet to build your Resource Pillar is imperative in
this today's economy and I always recommend it to my clients; most
of the time I send in one of my associates to the clients office
to help them figure it out.
Let's face it, it doesn't come naturally for some of us and we
need all the help we can get to stay resourceful and therefore influential
in today's economy.
One thing you can do immediately is to go online and join a discussion
group in your specialty and spend 10 minutes browsing through it.
Tomorrow, do the same thing and maybe answer a question somebody
is asking.
If you think it's hard, give me a call and I'll have somebody guide
you through it.
Relevance Pillar
Your relevance pillar is if your work is significant to today's
market, economy and even your company. The best times to measure
the relevance are "tough times;" the jobs that disappear
first are the least relevant and the jobs that disappear last are
the most relevant.
Relevance translates directly into influence. If you are relevant
to the market, economy and your company you automatically have more
influence.
We all love to believe that our job is relevant. Unfortunately,
that's not always the case. You have to take matters into your own
hands and position yourself relevantly.
Building your Relevance Pillar
Do you know which departments in your company have the most relevance?
Do you know which industries are relevant to today's market? Finding
out the answers and positioning your self in a more relevant position
would give you a lot of influential power.
Strengthening your Relevance Pillar
Start now with a pencil and paper and rate the departments in your
company based on relevance. What is the most relevant department
at your company? What is the least relevant department in your company?
Don't make assumptions; ask the managers the following question:
"if the company is in trouble which department will be 're-evaluated'
first?
Once you know the answer make a decision on how you want to position
yourself in your current company or in a different company or industry
to make yourself more relevant.
Don't leave this to chance, or else you will be in for a surprise.
Make yourself more relevant and automatically become more influential.
Position Pillar
The Position Pillar comes from the title on your business card.
This is probably the most familiar pillar of influence to most people.
I hope we've shown you that "pulling rank" is not the
only way to influence people. Nevertheless it is a powerful way
to influence. And to achieve the maximum of your influence-ability
you need to have all of the eight pillars including this one.
Building Your Position Pillar
Do you have a career plan with a clear path to the top? Do you have
goals of becoming a manger, a director, a CFO or a CEO? Do you think
of the next step on your career ladder?
What is stopping you from getting a higher more influential position?
Is it your own beliefs and values? Is it the work environment you
are in? Or is it your skills?
Whatever held you back up to this point will change once you start
examining your own situation and set goals for the future.
Building your Position Pillar starts with examining the forces
holding you back and setting goals to overcome them.
Strengthening your Position Pillar
Spend some time today planning your career. Where do you want to
be next? What would be your ultimate position? And what would the
road map to get there be like?
Summary
We have seen over the past three months that your level of results
and success in your organization depend on your ability to influence
others.
When you can influence others to your ideas, thoughts, or actions,
you have the amazing powers to persuade, negotiate and get things
done with a win/win fashion.
If you want to influence your boss, your employees, or even your
whole organization, understanding and applying the Eight Pillars
of Influence presented to you will get you the results you want.
Stay Tuned
Next month we will talk about life balance. We will
give you a tool to measure the level of balance in your life right
now to figure out what areas need the most attention.
The next newsletter will allow you to know where to
concentrate your daily energies in order to boost your whole living
situation and have the time to work, play and spend your energy
on whatever you see as important.
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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