Soft Skills
• If you then extend this principle to your L&D leads' internal stakeholders then your name will ruminate further and for longer - if done the right way, respecting the right channels.
So now we've clarified 'what', 'why' and 'who', how should you do this?
A recent Harvard Business Review article looked at How Experts Gain Influence and identified four competencies for growing influence in organisations and those people who can combine all four are 'best equipped to gain organisation-wide influence'.
Competency #1: Trailblazing
"Individuals and functions high in this competency cast a wide net in order to identify and frame issues that top management is not adequately addressing." So consider the issues that may be keeping your stakeholders and clients up at night.
Do your research on the industry and develop useful networks from which you can glean further insights. This will all help you to understand the context in which to employ your expertise. Influence will come from your attentiveness and relevance.
Competency #2: Toolmaking
"Developing tools that help corporate-level executives analyse and interpret issues" is a key step towards building credibility and influence.The value you can add by employing the right tools to the important issues can be the difference.
One of the worst approaches I ever received when I was inhouse was when a supplier tried to sell me a team activity based on Dysfunctions of a Team, without understanding my issues. However, the right tools will give you influence from demonstrable expertise applied to a relevant issue.
Competency #3: Teamwork
"Functions that engage heavily in toolmaking need to enroll supporters and users. One approach is to co-opt people into collaborating on the creation or improvement of the tools, seeking out their feedback and incorporating it into the design." Your influence will come from involving others. Remember, the first follower is often more important than the leader!
Competency #4: Translation
"To remain influential, experts need to help others use their tools and interpret the results." Your influence comes from your confidence in not creating a dependence and can manifest as generosity - as well as expertise and credibility.
Technical expertise will get you so far but if you have a career goal or a business to grow then you need to consider how you develop the requisite influence in order to further shape the impression others have of you - especially when they have a great deal of influence over whether you succeed or not.
David is former-Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company EMEA. David left Disney, to pursue a passion for positively impacting the learning profession by launching WeCommend.com.
The aim of WeCommend is to improve transparency and openness in the L&D provider market – making it easier for in-company L&D professionals to search and discover providers who are recommended by their clients in other companies.
http://www.wecommend.com