Influence Change

It’s easy to get bogged down in our jobs and forget that we have the power to make changes. You may not have the authority to make changes yourself, but you always have the power to influence other people. Part of working at a company is working with others and that often means that you’ll have ideas that you’ll need other people’s help to execute. I’ve worked at a lot of places where people are reluctant to change, but there have been very few places that completely refused to change.

In order to get people to change, you have to educate them on how the change will make their jobs better. Nobody will want to change if they think it will cause them more work. Listen and get to know other people and find out about their work. Find out what things are important to them. How will your ideas help them? Persuade people by showing real value.

Convincing people often takes more than one conversation. Sometimes it takes years! Some folks are more influential than others, but we all possess the ability. You won’t always be successful in influencing people to come around to your way of thinking, but you’ll probably be more successful than you think if you’re mindful of it. Think about how you are influenced and use that as a tool to influence others.