What if you could unlock the secret to getting yes from anyone without being pushy or loud or sounding like a used car salesperson?
Welcome back to Speak Up, the podcast for high performing introverts, including you social introverts. where we reveal the charisma and communication secrets of A-listers so that you get the recognition and the opportunities you have earned.
I am your host, Laura Camacho, your magical communication and executive presence coach. godmother and strategist and by the end of today's short episode you will know Science-backed persuasion tactics inspired by research from the king of persuasion, Robert Cialdini.
Plus, proven tactics to help you influence stakeholders, inspire teams, and avoid being overlooked. without needing to be loud or aggressive.
And five ways How you're having influence helps your company get better results.
It's not just for you. So whether you're pitching to the board, negotiating a deal, leading a team, influence skills will put you in the driver's seat.
And that may be a tough pill to swallow because probably that's not what you studied.
As part of your profession, and maybe nobody has really talked to you about it, but you have observed influence and action.
So that's why I'm here. We want to think of work as a meritocracy, like school is more or less a meritocracy. but it's imperfect, right?
And one of the metrics that you will be eventually graded on is your ability to influence others.
Now some companies make it clear part of your KPIs or whatever your metrics are for being graded on.
And sometimes it's not on your official report card But it's definitely going to keep you out of senior leadership if you don't have it.
Influence is the currency of leadership.
Why? Because it helps the company when the leaders have influence.
So here are five benefits not to you but to the company number one They get faster execution of strategy.
Influential managers and leaders can motivate their teams and get alignment Faster, and that means things don't cost as much money.
It's basically... It makes your company more nimble.
You have fewer roadblocks and it can potentially be more profitable because it doesn't cost as much.
You have a healthier culture of trust and accountability.
Culture beats influence for breakfast or eats influence for breakfast.
Influence can foster great communication, respect, collaboration, and it can free up the C-suite If the leaders on the levels below them have influence so that we're not just waiting to hear from the CEO before we do something. stronger retention of talent.
Leaders who can influence tend to build better relationships with their team members, which leads to higher higher engagement, lower turnover and reduced hiring cost.
Number four, improved cross-departmental collaboration or cross-functional collaboration.
Again, that means faster innovation, smoother relationships, less toxicity improved innovation, problem solving, and even project outcomes.
And finally, More influence means more resilience, especially during change. but that's kind of redundant.
We're always changing, right? So whether it's a restructuring, it's AI, it's a market disruption, You're more resilient when the leaders can influence you.
And without influence, you cannot get your best ideas and solutions across the finish line.
I see this every single day in my coaching practice.
In fact, not having influences skills is a major reason why a lot of people who deliver operational excellence for years failed to be promoted to senior leadership.
That is the reality. And then for us introverts and those of us who tend to be on the overthinking side of the things that we don't want to... you know, sound cheesy.
We don't want to sound greasy. Influence is part of the work if you're going to be a senior leader.
So the good news is that introverts can be absolute masters of influence.
We can even be more influential than introverts Some extroverts, it's a skill, it's not a personality trait.
And research shows that small strategic changes in how you communicate can make you a magnet for trust and buy-in.
And I say this every day because while My executive presence mastery clients all choose to work with me.
Sometimes companies hire me to work with people and it's not their choice.
And I have to influence them when they're skeptical of why they should have to work with me.
So trust me, you need to be able to influence.
So number one is reciprocity. And where you have to give first, like you don't wait, you have to take the initiative.
And what are you going to give? Well, you're going to give some kind of value.
It can be a helpful tip, a resource. You could even share this podcast episode.
It could be an article from Harvard Business Review.
It could be an introduction. It could be a cookie.
The thing is to deliver value in some way.
It could even be acknowledging someone's good quality in a way that Not so obvious.
But you want to be a giver, right? So reciprocity is influence tactic number one.
And this is all backed by Cialdini's... extensive research.
Number two is scarcity. And we learned in a previous episode, I don't remember the number, but it was... to say that you are one of the best.
One of the best, that is a way of implying scarcity, but you want to highlight what is unique about or limited about your idea or your background or your proposal to create urgency.
And sometimes you have to be creative about this. but you want to, at least you can speak about lost opportunity that's not going to be available forever.
Because there can be this, well, that sounds good.
Let's talk about it next month. and just keep putting it off.
So one way to magnify or amplify your influence is to find the element of scarcity and to highlight that.
Number three, authority. That usually comes from your expertise.
Don't lead with your authority though. Don't try to impress people First, you want to establish credibility by subtly referencing your expertise or results. not being blatant about it, mentioning how it worked before or mentioning a relevant experience. how you had this great result.
Basically, you want to give evidence So that is what we mean by authority.
We don't mean being authoritarian. We mean... showing credibility for your ideas or for your expertise.
All right, number four, likability. I've mentioned this before.
People say yes to people they like. And the shortest way to be likable is to find and acknowledge common ground. what do you have in common with the people that you're trying to influence that's how you build rapport shared interests also genuine compliments noticing positive traits in other people.
So remember to always be looking out for commonality with people. that you want to influence and just mention it casually in conversation.
Number five, consensus. And that means that other people support your idea that reduces perceived risk.
And I've mentioned before you want Before you're pitching something new, you want to get buy in one on one.
Before presenting it to a group, even if the people that you talk to one on one are in the group.
Top leaders especially do not like surprises.
So get endorsement, get buy-in, get feedback one-on-one, and you can then use that as support for your idea.
Framing. We talk about this so often. You have to find like what is the frame? framing.
They say he or she who controls the frame controls the conversation.
How is the company going to be better? Even if I'm going to give you some painful feedback on your performance, I can frame it as This is something that you're not going to enjoy hearing, but it's going to help you grow as a professional.
That's an example of framing it. When you're selling your ideas, you need to frame them in terms of a benefit and the benefit has to connect to the priorities of your audience.
All right, framing. So number seven, clarity, keep it simple.
You know, a rule that is ironclad is that you want to make Your idea is easy to understand, easy to grasp, and it helps to put it in terms of one thing or three things.
Number eight, empathy. Show that you understand the audience's pain points.
Start your conversation even by asking the pain points if you're not sure.
You need to know what are the pain points. that you're addressing of your audience not you and finally number nine storytelling being able to craft a three-sentence story with problem obstacle to solution and resolution.
So our goal, problem, solution is another way to say that.
I learned that from Chris Fenning. GPS goal problem solution could be problem struggle resolution, or it could be context problem solution.
Three sentences makes a story. So you need to be able to get that story, especially with your data.
So all of these nine tactics, and he's got others, but those are the most relevant ones, I believe. come from his research on influence and related studies tapping into universal psychological triggers. research from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, for example. show that reciprocity can increase compliance by up to 20%.
Remember, with influence, you can start small.
You don't want to win over the most difficult person to start with.
So out of these nine, I suggest that you start with one and I recommend either reciprocity or empathy.
Those are pretty low effort, high impact.
Practice it in your next meetings, your next conversations. reciprocity is number one, scarcity is number two, authority is number three, likability, consensus, Number six is framing.
Number seven is clarity, otherwise known as simple to understand.
Number eight is empathy. And number nine is storytelling.
So. pick one and if you would like help with this to apply it in your situation and get faster results as far as building your influence and your career.
I have the Executive Presence Mastery System.
It's a 90-day intensive private coaching program designed to prepare people for senior leadership or if they're already in senior leadership to improve their influence and persuasion skills.
There's a link in the show notes. You can set up a call.
We can talk about it. In any case, have an incredible day and I will catch you on the next episode.
