 When you enter the management ranks, a big part of your future success will depend on you learning how to influence others at work, how to influence your manager, and potentially how to influence the leadership team. And of course the closer you get to the leadership team, the more important it becomes to work out how to influence the leadership team, especially relating to those projects and activities that you're responsible for delivering. So today I'll be covering three communication factors that you must consider, and seven key influencing tactics to employ, and then at the end I'll explain a practical approach to increasing your influence within groups, such as leadership teams. Being able to influence is a set of skills that anyone can learn, practice and get good at. My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25 year management career in Innocent Drinks, clusters, EY, peer consulting and many others. My roles required me to know how to influence others at work to be successful. Influencing was a critical part of the job, influencing team members, peers, managers and leaders all the way through to the leadership team itself. And if you're new to this channel, Enhance.Training provides online business courses to help you improve personal performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. So let's talk through three important factors when communicating with managers and leaders within your business. The first communication factor to consider when thinking about how to influence your manager or how to influence the leadership team is that their time is precious. Managers are pulled in many directions and have many demands on their time. As those managers get more senior and progress into leadership roles, the competing demands on their time only increases. Therefore, when communicating to managers and leaders, you must be concise. You need to get your message across quickly and clearly. You know, don't go into loads of detail or send lengthy emails or give lengthy presentations. Put the key messages, insights or requirements at the beginning and then justify or provide more detail after delivering the key messages. Managers want to know that you have gone into the detail and know your stuff. They don't often want to go into the detail themselves. Therefore, you must know the detail and be able to demonstrate you know it without necessarily going through it. Less is often more in how you communicate with senior people. The second communication factor to consider when thinking about how to influence leaders and managers is flexing your communication style. To choose the right communication style, you need to get to know the person that you're influencing. You know, how do they like being communicated with? Do they want you to get straight to the point, provide your analysis and then wait their decision? Or would they prefer to ask you how the week has been, you know, catch up on mutual interests and then talk about business? Or do they want to know what actions you're recommending and why? We all respond to certain communication styles better than others and the situation can change which style we prefer to receive as well. So work out which communication style you're going to use for which person and in which situation. The third communication factor to consider when thinking about how to influence your manager and others is which communication method to use in person, via phone or via email. Given a choice, I would always choose the in person first, follow by the phone and then lastly email or messaging. It is much easier to influence a person when you're face to face with them. You know, you can pick up all the non-verbal clues, see how your message lands and adjust it if needed. With phone calls, you only have the tone and pace of voice to get feedback and then with emails you have next to no feedback at all. You know, plus building relationships is much easier face to face, a bit harder on the phone and very hard via email. So try to influence others in person as much as you can. It's a lot easier. Now I'm going to talk you through seven key influencing tactics that marketers, salespeople and business managers and leaders use day in, day out because they work. The first tactic to use when thinking about how to influence your manager is to put yourself in their shoes. You know, what are their goals, ambitions, interests and work objectives? What do they need to achieve to look good, get promoted and get their annual bonus? Think about what you want to achieve and how you can position your project, activity or request with your manager or the leadership team so that you are helping them achieve their goals and objectives. Explaining how you're going to be helping them achieve their goals is going to make your proposal more interesting to them. And because you're highlighting the personal incentives they have, it's going to make getting their help or sign off that much easier as a result. So put yourself in the other person's shoes and work out what they want. How to influence others at work means talking in their terms, not yours. The second tactic to use when thinking about how to influence your manager is to build rapport. Building relationships is equally important when thinking about how to influence the leadership team. We all like to help and support people we like on a personal level. It's hardwired into human social history and skills. So build personal connections. Find out what they like to do, what hobbies they have, what sports team or charity they support, and get the other person talking about themselves and listen. You also need to deliver in your day job. Performing above average, being a contributor, a team player, a problem solver, etc. All help to establish your credibility and increase your influence of others. Likeability and professional competence go a long way to building trust in the workplace. When someone trusts you, you are able to significantly increase your influence with that person. The third tactic to use when thinking about how to influence others is to give before you take. This is often referred to as reciprocity. Again, all cultures are predisposed to help those that have helped us first. So look out for opportunities where you can help others. When other staff members, managers and leaders ask for help, go out of your way to ensure that you deliver what they need quickly. And do this consistently and you become a go-to person with a reputation for helping and delivering. And when you need to influence, ask for favours or get support. You are a lot more likely to get what you want. The fourth tactic to use when thinking about how to influence your manager or how to influence the leadership team is to use data to influence decisions, back up your argument or suggested course of action. Everyone has an opinion. So unfortunately, opinions don't count for a lot, unless you have supporting evidence to back up why you have the opinion you do. This evidence can take several forms and a key one is data. A simple example would be, I think advert A is better than advert B and the higher view rates, higher click-through rates and higher conversion rates all confirm this. This statement is so much more persuasive than, I know advert A is better, trust me, or words of that effect. So take the time to gather the data, analyse it, provide insights and use the data to influence and persuade others to take a particular course of action aligned to what the data is showing. The fifth tactic to use when thinking about how to influence your manager or how to influence others at work is to use third-party authority. Your articles from well-known publications such as Forbes or the Harvard Business Review or YouTube videos from well-known and respected public speakers are great ways to build greater influence for what you want to achieve. Use the third-party information as the centerpiece of, rather than an addition to, your argument. For instance, if an HBR article is explaining why moving away from owned warehouses to using third-party logistics is more cost-effective and provides greater flexibility, then use, refer and show this article and explain why the benefits in the article are relevant to your business and then present your proposal. Respected third-party authorities are seen as experts. They carry weight and will increase your influence when used correctly. A great example of how to influence the leadership team, for example. The sixth tactic to use when thinking about how to influence your manager or how to influence others at work is to use social proof. And using social proof is effectively saying that we should be following the crowd. It is a powerful influencer when used in the right way and in the right circumstances. An example would be to find out what your competitors are doing and if, say, 50% plus of them have already made a specific change that you would like to get signed off for, document your findings and evidence and then use this to influence your manager and the leadership team. Your message might effectively be, we need to do this or we'll be left behind by our competitors. So use what others are doing to increase your influence. The seventh tactic to use when thinking about how to influence your manager or how to influence the leadership team is to use urgency or scarcity. Both tap into the fear of missing out. There are usually time constraints to take advantage of business opportunities or to avoid or reduce risks. Use these constraints to influence getting signed off and taking action sooner rather than later. And resource constraints are also another form of scarcity that every business has to deal with. Resources include people, skills, suppliers, capacity, raw materials, cash, funding, etc. So how can you use these constraints to influence the course of action that you're proposing? So there you have seven key tactics to increase your influence with your manager, the leadership team and anywhere else that you work with. And like all skills, you get better at using all of these with practice. Growing your influence within a business should make it easier for you to be more effective, deliver more and speed up your promotions. Influencing skills are vital for any management or leadership position. And finally, as mentioned at the start, an effective tactic to influence groups is to speak to each person in the group individually first before meeting with a combined group. By meeting each person first, you get to firstly, influence their thinking. Second, answer the questions they have in private. Third, incorporate any feedback or suggestions that they have into your proposals. Fourth, give them a level of data or information that they need to fully understand the benefits of your proposal. Fifth, understand and counter any objections that they might have. And of course, lastly, win support for your proposal. So when you go into the meeting to get a decision, to get sign off, to get resource allocations or whatever you need, you've gone through dry runs with each attendee and hopefully have already won them over before the meeting starts. This approach takes more time up front, but I promise you that you will save that investment many times over by avoiding group arguments and decision delays, refusals, requests for more information, et cetera. So for those important decisions and proposals, approach each individual from the group before approaching the group as a whole. So in summary, they have three communication factors, seven influencing tactics and a way to build an influence support within groups. Developing influencing skills are a key skill group for leadership positions and extremely useful for management positions as well. Keep trying to improve your influencing skills. Your career will thank you for it. And do visit us at enhance.training and take a look at the business courses and resources available to you to help improve your performance. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.