Becoming more influential is not difficult, but it does take
time, energy and a determined effort. And a well thought out strategy.
People don't just arrive at influential; they have to create it for
themselves - hopefully with some help along the way. These four steps
are critical to starting to become more of what you want, for yourself
and for others.
- Decide you really want to be influential. It puzzles me that so many people seem to want to be more influential, yet are unwilling, or are unable, to take responsibility for doing something about it. From where I come from, this is usually because they fear the consequences - albeit often at a subconscious level. To be more influential means doing something different, and doing something different risks the unknown. How will people regard you as you step up into a more powerful space? Could they attack you and try to put you back in your familiar place. Becoming more influential starts with making a careful, deliberate and determined decision to act differently, and be seen as different from what you once were. Unless you can do this, you're far better of just staying like everyone else down there.
- Get some focus. Hmmm. Okay, here's the problem. Just about everyone wants to be more influential (or at least wants to be able to achieve more of what they want in life - which requires influence in some way). Yet when you start to ask a few questions, they quickly realise they don't know what they want. In our work, we define influence along the lines of getting people to think, feel or act differently. So, if you want to be more influential, you have to get really good at working out what you what change you want to effect. If you succeed, what will people be doing differently? How will you know that they are thinking they way you want them to think? Or even, what evidence will tell you that they feel the way you want them to feel? Unless you know what you are shooting for, hitting the target is most likely to be sheer luck.
- Start learning. In reality, often the hardest work is in the previous step - getting the definition and setting the target is hard work but can go a long way to achieving the influence you desire. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you have arrived at middle years and at middle management, you probably already have enough influencing skill - it just needs to be focused. That said, and given your focus, what do you need to learn to be able to influence your goal. Getting curious, asking questions and looking at what is working for others is all vital here. There are no easy answers, or quick wins, but you have got to learn to become an active student of what works, and what does not work. Many times the answers are just in front of you, or at least, within the knowledge and experience of friends within your network.
- Do Something. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be profound, but it does have to be some form of action. Unless you step out of the normal range of activity it is almost impossible to conceive that influence will occur. On the Influence Blog we always direct people to the simple and practical steps they can take to become more influential. But whatever action you do take, you need to stay alert to the outcomes. Every time you act something will happen, and you need to be able to stay aware and then think intelligently about the consequences.