Jean-Pierre Lauzier, advisor and sales consultant, regularly gives tips on personal and professional growth. This week, he revisits some easy ways to develop your influence range.
Do your actions drive people to take action?
When getting in contact with your clients, your colleagues, your suppliers or even your friends and your family, your message might have a great influence on your interlocutor.
You can inspire them to take action, but you might feel like you’re « talking in a vacuum », not understood properly, or like what you’re saying has no or little impact on that person.
How many people are there in each of your professional and personal groups?
People who experience a lot of success and obtain what they desire have developed an influence ability on a lot of people.
In general, these people haven’t inherited special genes that give them a stronger influence range ; they became aware that everybody is different and that we should adapt our personalities according to our interlocutor.
Developing complicities
We all have the ability to develop this aspect of our personality and to improve our influence on others.
How? By efficiently communicating with others, there has to be a chemistry, a complicity felt between your interlocutor and you.
One way to develop this complicity is by sharing common personality traits.
If share strengths and weaknesses with your interlocutor, you will see events through a similar lens, you’ll connect more easily to that person.
Then, influencing that person is easier as your interlocutor understands your messages more and as his interest in you grows. He feels understood.
It is quite another story for people who have a personality opposed to yours. With them, it is more than likely that you will feel indifferent, that you two simply don’t get on so well.
Staying in that position will make it harder to influence this person, or to sell them your products and/or services.
Put certain aspects of your personality forward
You need to establish that chemistry with as many people as possible, even if some of them are very different to you, to be a great influencer.
Changing some of your personality traits, strengthening your weakest ones for instance, will help you connect better with an interlocutor presenting a different profile.
Suppose you’re more of a serious, analytical type in the way you approach a potential client. They, on the other hand, seem more drawn to social relationships, often making jokes.
In such a situation, chemistry will take more time to settle, as your personalities are opposite. To interact and find an opportunity to influence that client, you can :
- either not say anything and smile
- or decide to develop your social and humorous self to tone your energy level on your client’s
The best solution is obviously the second one. It is also the hardest to realize, as you need to completely get out of your comfort zone.
For instance, as an analytical and serious person, you can force yourself to take more space during social activities you participate in, being with your family, your friends, or at work.
The more you develop this in your daily life, the more you will see new connexions coming to life, especially with more outgoing people.
You will know how to enter their « world » to influence them.
The same concept applies if you’re an outgoing person yourself. If you want to communicate with introverted people, you need to learn how to act differently, by talking less, taking time to listen to others or asking more questions, for instance.
At first, these actions will demand important efforts from you, but you will become a better communicator in time.
Are you introverted or out-going, cautious or daring, orderly or artistic, thinking hard before acting or acting impulsively…?
Different tests are available to help you identify your strengths and your weaknesses.
Use existing tools to understand what you should improve in your personality in order to adapt better to your surroundings. You will see your influence range grow.
We can remain a slave to our personality, or use it to blossom and influence people around us.
By changing your weaknesses into strengths, you will become a much more flexible person, more open to others, you will understand others’ reactions better and will enjoy a more harmonious and rich personal and professional life.
Good luck with your new improved influence range!
