DIRECTORS OF INFLUENCE!
Those of you who heard me speak at WEC in Miami this July , hopefully will remember that I suggested you call yourselves Directors of Influence in keeping with Christine Duffy’s excellent theme!
I still think it is a great title and creates a completely new frame around what you do, and will not only transform the way you think about yourselves but also the way others perceive your role.
So how can you educate your senior leaders about the REAL value that you bring to the bottom line of the organization.
Can you find a way to do that, for example, to quantify the value of merging two cultures through an exciting meeting that addresses the concerns of both sides and allays their fears? What about that story I told of Lou Gerstner in his attempts to turn around IBM when he first started? He found that it was only through meetings that he could do it, no other way worked. He influenced people by his sheer presence, vision and enthusiasm. I can’t tell you how to do it in your profession, but can you think of ways to evaluate what you do and put it in terms the makes bottom line sense to your leaders? Ask each other and use the brain pool to increase your creativity.
I did some research on influence and found some interesting definitions...
“Influence is a rapidly expanding field of psychological inquiry devoted to discovering the principles that determine beliefs, create attitudes, and move people to agreement and action. In other words, influence examines the process that causes humans to change.”
This comes from a company in the UK called Influence at Work and it is devoted to teaching how to influence.
What you are hoping to do is to influence senior executives in your organizations to change their opinion and beliefs about meeting planners, you are not JUST logisitics gurus! You are fundamental to communication within the organization; to solidifying teams; to introducing change with minimum discomfort; to eliminating culture clashes; to introducing new products; to motivation and enthusiasm;to creativity and innovation; to enhancing relationships with customers, and they are just a few things meeting planners or directors of influence affect.
Just changing your title to director of influence will influence others to think differently about you and what you do! When they ask you had better have some good explanation ready - because that builds on the title and educates them about what you really do!
Another organization suggests that Influence is the key to success and says ‘every hour of every day, at every level in every organization, influential people succeed and non influential people don’t’
Dr Robert Cialdini has written a book on it and says that there is a vast body of research that exists on how , when and why people say ‘yes’ and it claims the secret is the ability to influence. He identified in his own research the six principles of influence and these are consistency, reciprocation, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. Influence At Work: Principles of Persuasion is the title of his book as well for those wishing to pursue a career in influence and becoming influence professionals!
Think of the people who have influenced you or persuaded along your life journey so far....how did they do it? Were they people important to you? Did you respect them? Were they respected by others? Did they inspire you in some way? How specifically did they do that?
Did they seem to care about you..and really understand what was going on? Did they listen to you and grasp quickly what you wanted? Or better still , needed? I am convinced listening and asking the right questions are two of the most important components in influence.
Perhaps answering the questions above and below, and reframing in your own minds how you think about yourselves and your work might help you understand how to start communicating with others about what you do...and influencing how they perceive what you can offer
On another related note, there is an amazing man with whom you may wish to study, his name is Michael Grinder and he is a mentor of mine. I have studied with him for 15 years, he is a master of influence, group dynamics and non verbal communication. He runs courses that I would recommend any of you do to increase you skills of influence and connection and communication. In fact, one of my favorite quotes is from him, and I would like to leave you with this...
‘we are in love with the influence of power when we should really be in love with the power of influence.’
Wooooooo! How true is that! Go for it, his website is www.michaelgrinder.com! He has also released a new book called, Charisma- The Art of relationships and it’s all about influence.
After 20 years of speaking and living my life at meetings, I believe you truly are directors of influence through experiences.
You coordinate experiences that can change peoples lives, without you, that opportunity does not exist. You imagine, plan and create experiences that can change the ease with which change occurs or a merger progresses, or information is disseminated or clients are inspired or people are acknowledged or motivated, the list goes on and on of what influence you have!
Life is all about feelings and experiences which have a huge influence on people, good or bad. And you build the experiences which create the feelings.
See.....you ARE directors of influence!
