How Do You Influence Others?

One of the central themes of my book, Becoming Deliberate:  Changing the Game of Leadership from the Inside Out, is influence. That is because I believe that influence is the currency of leadership. Having more influence enables you to have a bigger impact and make a greater difference in your work and in the world.

If increasing your influence, having more impact, and making a difference are important to you, learning about your style of influence and other styles that you can cultivate, will be helpful.

Based on research conducted by Discovery Learning International, there are five distinct styles of influence: Rationalizing, Asserting, Negotiating, Inspiring and Bridging. Understanding your own preferences, and which styles work best in different situations, is essential to developing your leadership effectiveness.  Let’s take a quick look:

Rationalizing. You push your ideas, beliefs, and perspectives, using relevant facts, logical arguments, and rational reasoning.

Asserting.  You push your ideas, beliefs, and perspectives by insisting that your ideas are heard, and you challenge ideas of others.

Negotiating. You seek compromise and are willing to make tradeoffs and exchange favors to achieve the ultimate goal.

Inspiring.  You pull people together toward your point of view. You advocate for your position and encourage others with a shared sense of purpose and possibility.

Bridging.  You pull people toward your point of view by asking questions of, listening to, and connecting to others. You build relationships, coalitions, and communities of interest.

Each of these styles has specific value, especially in specific situations. Each can be used effectively and ineffectively. And, even though we all have a preferred style or maybe two, we can develop underutilized styles to become more effective in different types of situations.

As you read the brief descriptions, can you identify your own style? Can you identify the styles of others you interact with on a regular basis? Can you see some of the advantages and disadvantages of these styles in different situations? And can you see the value of developing other styles besides your own?

The instrument that measures these influence styles is called the Influence Style Indicatorâ and is used widely by individual leaders and their teams to better understand and develop leadership effectiveness. If you feel a better understanding of how you influence can be helpful to you and your team, click here to schedule a quick chat.