Effective Communication: Discover the Influencing Strengths Domain

Getting your message across: Every business needs skilled influencers to take charge, speak up, ensure everyone is heard and use the power of persuasion to get buy-in and support

Master communicators who persuade and motivate others into action. People with skills in the influencing strengths domain are vital for making sure your company’s message reaches a broader audience. And that those who listen are convinced to buy in, take action, join the cause.

Imagine the days when Steve Jobs still announced the latest iPhone to a completely captivated audience, and you’re imaging the influencer in action. But today we know that there are people with influencing strengths all around is, in our own companies.

And, fortunately, there’s a simple and effective way to identify the influencers among us and to develop them so you can deploy them for maximum effect in your business. And it’s called strengths.

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Building on Clifton Strengths (formerly StrengthsFinder), strengths helps us understand what people have to offer – see what are strengths. It features 34 strengths (themes), divided into four strengths domains. And Influencing is one of those domains. See all four and their individual strengths in our complete list of strengths.

Here, we introduce the Influencing strengths domain, see what influencers bring to the table, discover the 8 specific strengths inside the domain and find out what kind of job types are best suited to people with influencing skills. Plus: We show you how to find the influencers in your company.

THE INFLUENCING STRENGTHS DOMAIN

Your company needs to communicate, both internally and externally. You need to captivate and spur on your teams, but also need to sell your big ideas, persuade customers or investors to rally behind you and take action right now. That’s what influencers do.

People with influencing skills are constantly selling “your message” both inside and outside of your teams. They’re remarkably able to get the word out, but also – and very importantly – able to make sure that everyone is heard.

WHAT PEOPLE WITH STRENGTHS IN INFLUENCING BRING TO THE TABLE

Purpose, energy, passion – your influencers have the power to motivate and inspire people to change. Think about the tech CEO introducing the latest world-changing product, or the person who’s TED Talk drives everyone to start looking for a better tomorrow. That’s your influencer.

People with influencing skills are driven by a purpose or a cause, so if you give them one they will fearlessly storm into the unknown and go and rally others to your cause. They have the power to persuade and drive action. They’re motivated to get to the top and, what’s more, they’ll usually take your whole team with them.

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THE 8 STRENGTHS IN THE INFLUENCINGING STRENGTHS DOMAIN

1 Activator

This one’s about people who thrive on action. Activators spur your teams into action – they motivate others to take take the first step, they drive performance.

2 Command

Natural leaders, people with this skill have a presence and natural authority, they can take control of a situation and are happy to make decisions on the spot.

3 Communication

People who find it very easy to express themselves verbally – great conversationalists, presenters and writers. They can explain complicated concepts very simply and people tend to listen to them.

4 Competition

People with this skill constantly compare their performance with others’ – and that’s what drives them forward to achieve even more. They are driven to win, outperform and thrive on measuring performance.

5 Maximizer

This skill speaks of the ability and drive to take things and people who are performing well, and then make them superb. It’s all about excellence and developing people to achieve it. Maximizer focuses on growing people that are good to excel – and its sister skill is the “Developer” talent under relationship building strengths.

6 Self-Assurance

People with the self-assurance talent believe in their own ability to make the right decisions and run their lives. This gives them the ability to move faster and take more risks because they have an unshakable belief that their internal compass will guide them in the right direction.

7 Significance

This skill talks to a natural desire and drive to stand out, to be recognised and to do the exceptional. What’s more, you drive others to do the same.

8 Woo

People with this skill thrive on meeting new people and winning them over to their cause – WOO stands for Winning Others Over. They relish the challenge of meeting new people, breaking the ice and then forging a strong connection.

WHAT KIND OF JOBS DO YOU NEED INFLUENCERS IN?

According to Study.com, influencers are great in any job where performance hinges on winning others over. Jobs like attorneys, managers, team leaders, sales staff and even pastors.

CNBC.com ran an article in 2017 where they said influencers make excellent company leaders, like the Chief Executive, but also almost any job in marketing and sales. And UK recruitment site TargetJobs splits influencer jobs into two categories: business process and decision-making skills, like from a manager, project manager or HR, and then on the marketing side where you have social media execs, PR and brand ambassadors.

In South Africa particularly, jobs portal Pnet.co.za lists specific jobs under the category of “influencing others”: Industrial relations, IT change, team leader, sales executive, trainer, recruiter, HR and a whole host of management and marketing positions.

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE INFLUENCERS IN YOUR COMPANY

We at LifeXchange live and breathe to help businesses achieve sustainable positive change for all stakeholders. And taking a strengths-based approach in your business is proven to benefit both your company and your people immensely. Studies show that focusing on strengths improves your employee engagement, lowering staff turnover by up to 72% and boosting customer engagement by 7% and profits by up to 29%.

So, we at LifeXchange help you implement strengths in your company. We come in and help you identify all your staff’s individual strengths, and then we help you make it part of your company’s systems and processes, so you can get the maximum benefit.

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Read more about LifeXchange’s strengths-based development, or speak directly to us by phoning 071 918 3217 or contacting us here.

Discover all 4 domains of strengths.

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Also discover the strategic thinking, the executing strengths and relationship building strengths domain.

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BTW: there’s definitely a reason why you keep having bad meetings.

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See the effects of poor communication in the workplace.

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See strengths in action at one of our recent strengths sessions.

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One of the big benefits of strengths-based development is that it boosts your employee engagement. Which is important, because the latest research shows that only 16% of employees are fully engaged in their work. And it’s costing you money.

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Also explore: What is company culture really?

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