Are You USING
BY TONY PALLADINO
A learning & development professional's career can be severely limited without developing the requisite influence alongside their technical expertise. The skill of employing the appropriate level of influence needs to be honed throughout one's career in order to exude credibility and gain and retain the respect of bosses, clients and other important stakeholders.
Developing and employing the myriad skills and expertise of a learning and development professional can be a life's work. However, without 'influence' the L&D professional's career can plateau or even decline - regardless of how much they continue to invest in their technical ability.
So what do we mean by influence in this context?
The definition that most closely relates to our topic is: 'The power to cause changes without directly forcing them to happen'
So much of what we want to achieve is outside of our immediate control but so much more is within our power of influence. For example, we may know that a mentoring programme will help us to embed learning, assist with career transitions and aid in retaining knowledge in our organisation but we can't make anybody take part.
Our influence, at a very basic level, can be demonstrated as we take a learner or group of learners with us on a development programme. It's our bread-and-butter and without this influence, any L&D professional will struggle. But there is a world outside of any learning environment that requires our heightened attention if we are to achieve our career goals.
Whether you operate inside or outside of a company, the requisite influence is critical. Let's
look at both contexts.
If you operate as an incompany L&D professional:
• You need to influence your immediate boss in order to gain or retain autonomy in your role and continue to grow your remit.
• You need to influence your peers in order to gain or retain their trust and turn them into champions of you and your function.
• And you need to influence your business stakeholders so that you are recognised as a valuable expert who knows how to get the right things done.
By influencing these people, you can craft new opportunities for yourself inside your organisation, well beyond your current position.
Your ability to influence these stakeholder groups is your ticket to a bigger and more rewarding role. The absence of the requisite influence could mean role limitations or worse - an impression of irrelevance.
If you supply services or products to organisations:
• It goes without saying that you need to influence your client - often this will be the L&D lead but may be somebody else in the organisation. However, never neglect the L&D lead in order to maintain and grow your influence in an organisation. Often, neglecting this person can be the difference between a short-term assignment and a long-term relationship.
• If you can also help make your L&D lead look good in your interactions with their boss by appearing to be a credible and reliable extension of the team, then your name will be mentioned more often, potentially leading to more opportunities.
•
So now we've clarified 'what', 'why' and 'who', how should you do this?
Soft Skills
14 | TRAINING MAGAZINE EUROPE APRIL 2015
INFLUENCE TO SUCCEED?
BY David James