The Power to Influence

Over the years I have had a number of career moves although one main theme throughout has been my ability to “get on with” people. Today that would be classified as my being able to get into rapport with people.

Prior to setting up my own businesses I worked in Human Resources sector, in Golf Club Management and as a Police Officer in Londons Metropolitan Police Force. It was as a Police Officer working in Londons East End that I became aware of a skill that was vital to my success, and safety. When I realised that I had to become a master of influence no matter what it took!

This skill has transferred over into every aspect of my life and has been utilised in each career move and interaction. When I did my NLP Practitioner over 10 years ago I was able to indentify how I managed to influence and also to improve on those skills.

Some of you may now be thinking I knew NLP was manipulative.

Yet aren’t we trying to influence, manipulate, with each of our communications?

• When meeting people for the first time, your goal is to get them to like you isn’t it?

• When applying for a job don’t you want to get them to employ you over everyone else?

• As parents aren’t we teaching our children good values so that they won’t be encouraged by negative influences they may be exposed to?

• As Coaches and Practitioners isn’t the goal to help your client achieve their best?

The ability to influence is the key whether you are selling an idea to your friends or a project to one of your clients.

How do we improve our skills to influence?

I have noticed over the years that age old expression that we get what we focus on or in the words of Henry Ford “If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right”;is actually right.

So the first thing to do to improve your skills to influence is to believe that you can. Once you have this belief then you will find a way, and your actions will lead to your success.

You believed you could, then you planned how, you took action confident of the result that you would get. Maybe you didn’t get their straight away, but that was OK because you knew you would so you continued adjusting using the information you gleaned from those first mistakes until you succeeded.
The person who believes in themselves is most likely to take action, and is most likely to develop the skills needed to get the result that they want.