Be it for your business or for your department, never underestimate using the power of influence to become a good leader. To be a good leader, you must know how to be able to influence others. To achieve the goals of your business you need the help and support of your employees, and using influence tactics can help you inspire your team.
The best kind of leaders do not just order their people around. They encourage, persuade and inspire them towards the common goal of their businesses. If you want to become a better leader, there are 4 skills of influence that will have to master:
1. Organizational savvy skills
2. Building Trust
3. Team promotion + self promotion
4. Making use of networks
Let’s examine them in detail:
Organizational Savvy Skills
Within every organization, or business, there are some established ways to get things done. If you look at a regular organizational chart, it informs you of the formal lines of authority. But those that are organizational savvy know that that is only a small part of the big picture.
This skill is needed if you want to be a good leader. You should always have an idea of how to really get things done, of who you need and how to approach them. Without such skills, you are really going to struggle to achieve your business’ goals.
People tend to have their own unique agendas in such professional settings, even if it is not always the most useful attribution. You need to identify the main players, persuade them and the right people to get on board. You will need to navigate through the politics in order to achieve this.
Building Trust
Without trust, you cannot effectively influence people and lead the way. Trust is necessary to gain cooperation from your coworkers. And it is much more effective than barking orders at them. When people trust their leader, they will do whatever it takes to assist in the achievement of their leader’s objectives. Without that trust, they will only do the bare minimum to get by.
Building trust is about balance. If you want to achieve extraordinary results, you will have to push your coworkers beyond their comfort zone. You will also have to listen intently to whatever concerns or objections they might have, and do everything you can to help them.
Team Promotion + Self Promotion
If you believe that self promotion is a selfish act, you need to change your thinking on this.
Leaders who have a strong influence know for a fact that they promote themselves for genuine reasons. And if they succeed in doing so, they can cut through a lot of unnecessary paperwork.
Leaders of great influence are also aware of the fact that using self promotion the right way not only helps their career advance, but will also help the people who work for them as it provides them with greater visibility and opportunities. Leaders also promote their team so that their ideas and skills have more exposure.
To get the best benefits from self promotion, you need to use the right tactics. Connect with the right audience so that you and your team can shine. Form another special team to solve specific problems of your business.
Making use of Networks
Good influential leaders know they can’t do it all by themselves. So they get involved with existing networks, and use them to their advantage. The key is to not just get involved with any network, you need to evaluate every single one of them and think about how they can help you achieve your business goals first.
Now you know what it takes to become a good leader using the power of influence. Use these 4 tactics and watch your team flourish in no time!