3 reasons why influencing skills improves your workplace
29 Jan 2020
In today’s business world, culture is talked about more and more. A positive workplace culture can enable an extraordinary workforce.
“Poor performance, high turnover, problem employees, tension between teams, burnout, political infighting and lack of commitment — they are all symptoms of a broken culture.”
– Liz Ryan, Forbes
Here are 3 reasons why influencing skills can improve your workplace:
1. Creating rapport and building trust
“Trust in the workplace is defined as the ability to rely upon others to be truthful, to do as they say and to follow established rules, procedures and custom and practice.”
– Elliot Jaques, organisational psychologist
Trust in the workplace is a hot topic these days. With so many hot button issues outside of the office making their way inside and influencing productivity and effectiveness. If an employee trusts a manager, that manager may be more likely to influence that employee. As a result, those employees looking to perform for a leader they trust gain additional commitment to want to achieve higher and higher results.
According to HR management and leadership expert Peter Mills in order to lead in a trustworthy manner, managers must continually demonstrate honesty, integrity and respect. These are the building blocks of trust and without them trust cannot exist in a workplace setting.
2. Listening
Perhaps the most straightforward skill to master that can also enable the highest level of “Boosting your active listening skills at work can help you be more present in the conversations you’re having, prevent incidents of conflict, deepen your relationships with colleagues and ultimately improve your job performance.” – MetLife.com.au
Influence, listening enables leaders to not only learn more about those they lead but also gives those they listen to the feeling of fulfillment from a leader who knows when to speak and when to simply hear. A great term for this kind of skill is called: active listening. Active listening encompasses a few different elements including: eliminating distractions while someone is talking to you, fostering an environment that supports focus on the communication, asking pertinent questions and utilising non-verbal cues to demonstrate understanding.
3. Inspire and motivate
“To motivate your staff, boost morale and increase productivity, leaders must recognise, reward and respect the excellence of their team. It is your job as a leader to set the bar, inspire and motivate your team to reach greatness, because ultimately, you are only as good as your team.” – Australian Institute of Business
This skill can be a lifelong pursuit for some as it requires something of an x-factor as well as tried and true practices. According to the Australian Institute of Business, there are several ways to motivate a workforce. Starting with communication: keeping employees in the loop is a great way to engage the team. One way to do that is to interact more outside of your office, being present can help jump start employees as well. Reviewing work and positively engaging employees over that productivity can also help excite people. Focusing on the external clients and customers can bring a team together as well as remembering to thank staff for their efforts. Lastly, a leader who is willing to jump into the action with their staff as well as one who is willing and able to celebrate achievements is one that can help inspire and motivate those who look up to them. A true influencer is able to do this and thus creates a more effective workplace, enabling results from happy employees.
For more on how ICML can enable you to inspire your workforce, check out the influencing skills course here.