Written by: Stephanie Benjamin, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In a world full of possibilities and opportunities, with multiple ways to interact with others, from community building to social networking, and infinite resources, the power of influence is everywhere. Because those who succeed in life and business, are those who can think before anybody else and differently from anybody else, to then share their knowledge. One of the most impactful power to have nowadays is the power of influence.
What is the Power of Influence?
First, let’s define what is power?
Weber (German sociologist and political economist in early 1900) defined power as the ability for one actor, one person to carry out his own position to achieve his own goals, despite resistance to those.
Researchers (French & Raven, 1960) identified six sources of power:
Legitimate,
Reward,
Coercive,
Expert,
Information,
Referent
You can earn power from one source or all six.
Now let’s define the word Influence:
Influence, as a competency refers to the ability to have a significant impact on others, to persuade or convince them to gain their support. This points to the importance of the relationship itself for the ability to influence. Establishing trust, seems a precondition for the ease of influence.
Power of Influence as a Fundamental of Leadership
As a businesswoman and a woman in power, the power of influence remains one of the primary leading skills that motivate others and so supports you in the position of a Leader.
In Business, the power of influence is a lucrative and rapidly growing industry, projected to be worth up to US$15 billion by 2022. The ability to influence is essential to a successful sale. Building strong, ongoing relationship turns out to be more important than making a specific sale. So, what if you get a piece of it?
The ability to influence is an omnipresent skill. From the moment you interact with one or multiple individuals, your capacity to influence is useful.
The power of Influence can be useful in:
Sales
Marketing
Relationships (Any type: Friends, Family, Business, Couple)
Negotiations
Entrepreneurship
Communication
Just to mention a few.
Become an Influencer
The word “influencer” can mean anything from speaker to business owner, author, musician, or someone who has a large following on social media. Some influencers are established stars seeking an additional income stream (Cristiano Ronaldo for example, the famous footballer, charges up to US$1.6 million for an endorsement on Instagram).
And if you are an entrepreneur or business owner, it’s the best way to build authority, credibility, and the most valuable currency, which is… a strong community.
Ultimately, if you can lead, you can influence. That’s why you need to work on your leadership. Great leaders influence the behaviour of others ethically and intentionally to create value. They understand influence is the key to all the work they do.
As an Influencer, your success or failure depends on your ability to influence the behaviour of the people who are following you, supporting you or assisting you and shares your vision and strategy. So, it makes sense that you would want to influence them, so they are motivated and engaged in the pursuit of the realisation of your vision.
Power of Influence Top 3 Skills
1. Learn to connect with others
If you can connect with others through their emotions, you have already started to influence, and from there it can take you to the next level. Connecting with others requires to show respect and consideration, as well as being able to give before taking. Once you find that connection point with someone, it is important to cultivate it to make it a long-lasting connection.
2. Empower them
Empower them, money is in the transformation, not in the information. Have you ever heard this before: “people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel”? (Maya Angelou, multiple awards American poet and author). If you empower others then you are influencing them, which makes you a remarkable leader.
3. Be open-minded
Be respectful and adaptable. Don’t be a “bad teacher” be a “good leader”. Everybody is different, with different life experiences, different backgrounds, different mindsets. The goal is not to change them in something you want to be, this doesn’t work anymore nowadays, the goal to help them to empower themselves so don’t tell them when they are wrong, instead, choose the positive mindset and tell them in a positive way:
Ex: don’t say you are wrong! – say I got your point of view but my experience it’s different.
You can explain the why if they requested to but don’t forget to remain positive and avoid offending them. Be open-minded.
You can learn more about the power of influence training program in the following link: www.successlifegoal.com
Stephanie Benjamin, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Stephanie Benjamin is the Founder of SuccessLifeGoal Mastermind, as well as, a Celebrity Life Coach, an International Speaker and a Business Writer.
Stephanie is a certified international coach and dedicated herself to the Show Business industry. She mostly coached high-profile personalities, such as Athletes, Celebrities, Influencers and Creative Business owners.
She has participated in two books: "UNSTOPPABLE COURAGE" and " REJECTION TO REDIRECTION", bestseller books on Amazon. She is the author of the E-Book "ENTER TO THE BADASS INFLUENCER BUSINESS" and has an upcoming book coming out in November 2021 that focuses on Female Leadership.
So far, she has been featured in the UK market on WOTC magazine as well as in the USA market on FOX, NBC and CBS.
Stephanie inspires others to never giving up on their dreams or goals and build up a winning mindset through the power of Influencing, Leadership and Self-Awareness.
