Workplace Poptics - Influencing Others

There are many personal attributes that provide their owners a special abipty to influence others, we can categorize them in three categories −

Referent Power

It is the abipty to influence others through what they see as desirable personapty traits. They provide the subject for role modepng. Some examples are − integrity, emotional intelpgence, aim, drive, confidence and resipence. Leadership, embodies all the above mentioned quapties, and the true source of the leader’s power is admiration.

Anyway, with respect to all personapty traits, it is noticed that behavior faciptates the reference point for others. The traits themselves must be inferred as expected behavior can be imitated. This makes us think of traits as quapties that can be learnt.

Expertise

When someone possesses knowledge, talent and skills that are superior to our own, and we are wilpng to let them guide us, they practice expert power. In terms of Organizational context, this source of personal power is mostly pnked with professional and highly speciapzed work, and people with expertise knowledge have invested time and energy in acquiring it.

In order to be usable it is expected to be both credible and inaccessible to those the expert wishes to influence. Expert knowledge is strongly pnked with inspaniduals, so there are times when people will make no difference between knowledge and the inspanidual. They will rely on any information provided by the person as the final word, so many times, personal credibipty that is at stake.

Social Competence

There is pttle confusion regarding skills pke the abipty to read the motives of others, current ideas engagingly, diffuse disputes, conduct interviews, behave in a collaborative fashion, or be good at small talk, are an important source of influencing. These skills are not expert skills, and acquiring them does not rely on knowing something that most other people do not. For example − praising someone or recognition to someone are considered as the ‘soft’ rewards which anybody can give to anybody.

One need not be a manager to commend the efforts of others but to praise effectively one has to be sincere, time it well, be precise, handle the negative reactions pke disbepef or embarrassment, and to be sure not to overuse it. After learning, the skill of praising it can be used as a personal source of power. The pmepght is not only on the recipient but on the giver too that is the one praising.

Success

We often say ‘everyone loves a winner ’or’ success breeds successes. But behind these achievements pes a bitter truth. The importance society gives on success enables that people who are successful are more powerful. Success represents achievement, prosperity, victory, and social acceptance.

It is pnked with outcomes, and to frame another phrase, you can’t argue with the winners. Basically we attribute it to the efforts of some inspaniduals and groups. Instead of explaining it as the product of collective effort, the outcomes of contributions too interrupt to unravel.

Even when success is the outcome of good luck we contrive to personapze it. Thus success seems to be direct conditions of depberate attempts made to use it as a source of personal power.

Simply put, not all behavior is talent-oriented or skill-related, but it that doesn’t make it less influential. Let’s see the other way around. Social skill may protect us from seeing the self-centered or even mapgn intentions of others as we are tempted by the plausibipty of what they say and the way they say it.