How To Increase Your Influence—Up, Down And Across

Whatever type of organization you’re leading, to be effective in your role requires being able to influence people. If your skills are more focused in other areas of leadership, here are some tips that can help you increase your influence in every direction—up, down and across.

Understand your organization. Great influencers have a solid sense of organizational intelligence. They understand every level of their organization, top to bottom. Building that understanding means spending time with people throughout the organization, being inquisitive and listening carefully. People who are tuned in to the big picture of their organization—who know how it operates and how to make things happen—carry great influence.

Develop a solid reputation. The best influencers understand the importance of building and maintaining an excellent personal reputation. They cultivate the kind of behavior that inspires trust and respect in the people around them. That means being present, being dependable, being personable, and communicating not only expectations but also a shared vision.  

Cultivate trust. Influence is central to leadership, and trust is central to influence. Especially when you’re guiding people through risk and change, they need to know they can count on you. Influential leaders make sure their character is grounded in integrity. They’re inclusive and transparent in communicating and hold themselves to consistently high standards to build their influence by fostering a sense of trust.

Promote others. The best influencers look for ways to bring value to others—to promote people’s potential and encourage them to think and act that bring out their best. They empower others to develop their talents and excel in everything they do, and then they reward that excellence. Promoting others goes far in influence.

Build networks. No leader is an island, and effective influencers give a high priority to making connections and engaging with others—whether it’s their employees, senior leadership, peers within their profession or anyone with interesting ideas. And they don’t stop there; they work to add value to their relationships and making their connections mutually beneficial. This ability to build relationships and alliances gives leaders the ability to influence up, down and across.

Create opportunity for growth. The best employees are in constant need of opportunities to grow and develop. Leaders who create or seek out those opportunities and make them available show a high level of caring, cultivating respect and manifesting influence. People know they can rely on you to help them keep moving forward.

An organization’s best leaders are those who leverage their influence to make things happen and cultivate change. But influence doesn’t come automatically, and it can’t be accomplished by relying on power, authority or a title; it takes hard work and dedication of time and talent.

Lead from within: The key to having the right kind of influence is helping people become who and what they want to be by supporting, guiding and lending your expertise to them.

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The Leadership Gap
What Gets Between You and Your Greatness

After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. But in time, every executive reaches a point when their performance suffers and failure persists. Very few understand why or how to prevent it.

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