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How to Influence Others: Key Strategies for Effective Leadership
Episode 816th July 2024 • Next-Gen Leaders • Bianca Cardenas, PhD
00:00:00 00:08:27

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Today, we're tackling a crucial yet often unspoken topic: influence. Building influence across an organization is vital for any manager and becomes even more essential as you climb the career ladder.

Influence is about changing the thoughts, behaviors, and actions of others through persuasion, inspiration, and relationship-building—not through authority or control.

In This Episode:

  • What is Influence?: Understand the true meaning of influence and its importance in leadership.
  • My First Attempt: Learn from my initial experience of pitching an idea to the executive team and the lessons I gained.
  • Effective Strategies: Discover practical tips for building influence, including asking the right questions, personalizing your approach, and showing genuine care.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Build Rapport: Start meetings by breaking the ice and making connections on a personal level.
  2. Ask Questions: Understand what truly matters to your colleagues.
  3. Tailor Your Message: Link your ideas to what is important to them.
  4. Show You Care: Demonstrate genuine concern for their well-being.

These steps will help you influence others effectively, making you a more impactful leader.

Subscribe for daily leadership tips and insights. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a review and share it with other emerging leaders.

For more leadership tips: visit my blog.

Until next time, keep striving, growing, and leading with purpose!

Transcripts

Speaker:

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Good morning.

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My name is Bianca Cardinez and

welcome to next gen leaders.

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Today, I'm going to be talking

about something that's unspoken,

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but important and that is influence.

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How do you build influence

across the organization?

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This is important as a manager, but

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once you start climbing up that ladder,

it's going to be even more important.

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You're going to want to learn how

to influence without trying way

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too hard . Today, I'll tell you

a story about my first attempt.

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Hopefully we can learn a thing

or two through my mistakes.

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But before we get into that, let's

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define what influence actually is

because we've all heard this word.

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But what does it need?

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Basically influences your

ability to change the thoughts,

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behaviors, and actions of others.

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It involves guiding people to change

their thinking or take certain actions.

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Influence it's not about having

authority or control over people and

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manipulating them towards a certain end.

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It's all about persuasion, inspiration

and building relationships.

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About six months ago, I noticed that we

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weren't having the impact that we wanted

to have after our coaching process.

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So I did a lot of research and figured

out an amazing idea that could help

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prove our value to our clients.

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took my idea to the CEO and she loved it.

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Krisp Microphone (Krisp Audio)-26: She

told me to prepare a very high level

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presentation so I can pitch it to the

executive team and the consultants.

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That next week.

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I meet with everyone

and I pitched my idea.

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Then towards the end, I hear crickets.

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I was so confused.

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I was thinking aren't they getting it?

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I presented the data and the

reasons why we should do this.

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But it wasn't clicking in their mind.

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Once that meeting ended, I felt.

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Crushed.

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spent so many hours researching this idea.

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I've built this very elaborate deck

along with actual demo of my idea.

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And it didn't land.

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anything, it made the executives even

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more skeptical about what I was offering.

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What I did after that was I took

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the time to schedule one-on-ones

with each executive And I asked

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them, okay, what are your thoughts?

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And each told me a different version

based on their unique needs at the moment.

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It wasn't until then that

it clicked in my brain.

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I should have scheduled time

with each one individually asked

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about what their needs were.

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And then found a way to fit

my idea into their needs.

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So that way they naturally bought into it.

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Because us humans are very

much focused on ourselves.

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We're focused on how do

we get our needs met?

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Why is this important to me?

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And.

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How does this benefit me?

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As long as you understand that, You can

take steps to make sure that your tying

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what's in it for them, with your goal.

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I'll tell you a story of a

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leader who did this beautifully.

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This happened during one of my

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role plays and in this simulation.

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The leader was supposed to

convince me to stay because I

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was unhappy with the company and

I wanted more professional growth.

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This leader came in and asked a lot of

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questions about what I really cared about.

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Where I saw myself in five

years and what I really wanted

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out of this role that I was in.

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With each of my answers, they

were building a business case

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of why I should buy into their

ideas, using my own answers.

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At the end of the meeting, He

actually influenced me to stay with

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the company because he highlighted.

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Why I should stay based on what I needed.

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I noticed four key things

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that he did to influence me.

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The first was, he took time to

build a rapport before diving

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into the meeting by asking about

what I like to do on my free time.

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I remember this other leader

asked me a great icebreaker

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question that I'll never forget.

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He asked me.

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What is one thing that no one knows about.

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He went first just to break dyes.

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He said that he liked to go ballroom

dancing with his wife on the weekends.

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When it was my turn to go.

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I told him that I really

like little mammals.

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I used to have chinchillas.

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Rats.

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Krisp Microphone (Krisp Audio)-18: And

right now I have the little bunny..

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That's why you can sometimes hear her,

something around in the background

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every now and then, sorry about that.

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The second thing that he did was he

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shifted the entire focus of the meeting

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Krisp Microphone (Krisp Audio)-19: Instead

of just driving his agenda, he took time

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to learn more about who I was as a person.

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He asked questions to figure out

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what I really cared about and what

I hope to see in his leadership.

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he also asked what I cared about in

terms of professional development.

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Like, did I need a mentor?

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Did I need training that

I need other resources?

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And he made sure to summarize

everything I was saying.

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So that I understood that he

was truly listening to me.

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The third thing he did was

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explain what was in it for me.

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He made everything he was saying

really relevant to my own progress

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and future with the company.

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This approach is all about

showing why people should care

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about what you're proposing.

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By linking it directly

to what they care about.

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In order to do this, you need to ask a lot

of questions upfront to really understand

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what the other person truly cares about.

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Once, you know, two or three

things that matter to them.

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Tailor your message around those points.

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That way your recommendation feels

personalized and important to them.

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Making it much more persuasive.

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The last thing that he did was he made

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sure to communicate how much he cared.

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Sometimes we forget to do this, even

with our own personal relationships.

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But people really want

to know that you care.

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Maya Angelou once said.

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People don't care how much, you know,

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until they know how much you care.

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This holds true in all aspects

of our lives, including

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our personal relationships.

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Being able to show the other

person how much you cares.

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Ties everything together

and enhance your influence.

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This applies at every single

level within an organization.

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Up down left, right.

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It really doesn't matter.

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By following these four steps,

you can influence others.

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Number one.

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Begin by building rapport before

diving into a meeting by asking what

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they like to do on their free time.

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How long they've been

with the organization.

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How are they liking their jobs so far?

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What this does is breaks down

those walls going into a meeting.

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And it makes everything feel more

personal, like, okay, this is

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just another person I can talk to.

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Too.

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Ask plenty of questions to understand

what truly matters to them and

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be sure to take note of each

nugget as you go along the way.

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Three.

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Tailor your message to

address what's in it for them.

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And for.

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Show that you care and that you're

concerned about their wellbeing.

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By putting your heart into

it, you can influence anyone.

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Speaker: Make sure to subscribe

and LinkedIn for daily tips.

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If you enjoyed today's episode,

leave us a review and share it

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:

with other emerging leaders.

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Until next time, keep striving,

growing, and leading with purpose.

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