Quite often, potential clients arrive knowing that they need to improve their influencing skills. When I ask them to elaborate, they soon begin to struggle to explain with any degree of clarity. Quite understandably, they do not know enough about the subject of influence to be able to explain their need or what they would like to be better at. Influencing skill is a very broad term.
With experience, you will quickly learn to ask the right questions to get to the bottom of exactly what needs to happen. Common questions that I use during this stage include:
- What are you not able to do that you would like to be able to do?
- Can you give me some examples of when you found influencing difficult?
- Is this about one individual, or is there a general theme here?
- What about an example of when you were at your influential best?
- What would your line manager say about what you need to change?
- And your peers, team?
When you are asking these questions, it might be useful to refer to The Seven Dimensions of Influence. These were developed during a research project I conducted in 2005. They represent a high-level summary of 42 different skills which I found to be important for those wishing to be successful influencers. You can find out more about this research here: Criticality of Political Skill.
By referring to these, you will quickly find new questions that you can ask in order to probe deeper into the actual performance (or lack of it) of your client.
Alternatively, and this may be a good thing to do in any case, you can make use of the Influencing Skills 360°. This provides a self-assessment against the 42 skills of influence, and also the facility to collect feedback from their colleagues as they explore their influencing skills. This can be an excellent way to gain some clarity on the influencing skills they need to work on with you. As part of the product, they can complete a new survey every 3 months, so you can even do a before and after as part of your coaching programme if you wish.
If you’d like to get going with this, all you have to do is purchase more than one survey on The Gautrey Group website. The process establishes you with an account that allows you to grant access to your client, and also, keep track of their progress and see their reports.
As a member of this programme, I am happy to consider giving you a nice discount on the published price, especially if you are intending to buy in volume. Just send me an email and let’s talk.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
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