Effective influencing skills are essential in today’s cross functional, collaborative business environment, whether to;
- Achieve business strategy, goals or plans
- Affect change
- Create buy-in
- Implement key decisions
At some point we will all need the ability to influence others
Try the following Tack TMI tips to positively influence key stakeholders and achieve your goals:
- Build rapport. Get in sync, mirror ideas, beliefs, values and experiences, as well as words and behaviour but be careful not to mimic
- Behaviour breeds behaviour. Be aware of the verbal and non-verbal signals you are giving. People interpret behaviour in order to decide how to respond.
- Adapt communication styles. Adapt your approach based on the communication preferences of different personality styles and generations
- Know what makes them tick. Aim to uncover and understand the other person’s needs, wants, views, opinions, motivations, issues and concerns
- Choose your words. Adapt language to relay a message effectively. Avoid using ‘I’ too much, instead talk about how ‘we’ can find value.
- Reach a win-win outcome. What’s in it for them? Clearly define and communicate the benefits for the other party
