Category: Influencing Skills

On “5 Ways to Project Confidence in Front of an Audience”

What makes a great presentation? According to Carmine Gallo, author of the recent HBR article, “5 Ways to Project Confidence in Front of an Audience,” you need to deliver your message with confidence and competence to tap into your full leadership potential.

Whether you are speaking to a large audience or in a team meeting, you still need to look and sound as strong as your content. Check out Carmine’s top five tips to present like a leader with influence.

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May 31st, 2018|Categories: Articles We Like, Influencing Skills|Tags: confidence, Harvard Business Review, influence|

April 28, 2018 / Articles We Like / Influencing Skills

On “Let This Former Googler Help You Tap The Science Of Persuasion”

To successfully lead you need to master the art of influence. According to long-time product leader for Chrome at Google, Tyler Odean has found that what most people think of as vision is actually persuasion.

In the Fast Company article, “Let This Former Googler Help You Tap The Science Of Persuasion,” Odean presents the science that has informed his approach and the persuasive tactics you can use that will make you more convincing.

When you are preparing a persuasive presentation or message, what steps do you to take to ensure that your argument is more appealing? Consider using his five guiding principles as a checklist before that next big meeting.

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April 28th, 2018|Categories: Articles We Like, Influencing Skills|Tags: Fast Company, influence, persuasion|

March 31, 2018 / Articles We Like / Influencing Skills

On “Is the Confidence Gap Between Men and Women a Myth?”

When it comes to achieving power and influence in the workplace, is confidence the differentiating factor?

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, “Is the Confidence Gap Between Men and Women a Myth?,” Laura Gillen’s research has shown that while self-confidence is gender neutral, the consequences of appearing self-confident are not. According to Gillen, appearing self-confident does not translate into influence the same for men and women. She argues that organizations need to take action and adopt processes and systems that change how women are rewarded equally.

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March 31st, 2018|Categories: Articles We Like, Influencing Skills|Tags: confidence gap, Harvard Business Review, influence, power, self-confidence|

February 28, 2018 / Articles We Like / Influencing Skills

On “How to Increase Your Influence at Work”

Knowing how to influence teams, clients and stakeholders is a crucial aspect of today’s business environment. There is a real value to be recognized as someone with influence – it can help you get important projects done, get noticed, and even promoted.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article “How to Increase Your Influence at Work,” Rebecca Knight outlines some principle do’s and don’ts to be the leader you want to be, regardless of your role or title.

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February 28th, 2018|Categories: Articles We Like, Influencing Skills|Tags: business leadership, Harvard Business Review, influence, influencing teams|

January 30, 2018 / Articles We Like / Influencing Skills

On “3 Ways #MeToo Will Influence the Business World in 2018”

In the wake of recent scandals and controversy sparking the #MeToo movement, there is growing pressure on organizations to reveal more about their cultures and workplace practices. What does this mean for leadership in 2018?

In a recent Inc. article “3 Ways #MeToo Will Influence the Business World in 2018,” Spencer Rascoff, Zillow Group CEO, argues why organizations must first embrace unprecedented transparency and how leaders must shift their focus to HR and company culture.

We each play a role in creating a strong company culture, and the key is combining transparency with trust and respect for all employees.

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January 30th, 2018|Categories: Articles We Like, Influencing Skills|Tags: #metoo, company culture, executive leadership coaching, hr development, HR Leadership, influence|

September 12, 2014 / Coaching Skills / Influencing Skills

“Can you help him have executive presence?”

As coaches, we receive this request frequently. And most often, when we ask our clients to describe what they mean, it’s clear that executive presence is one of the least defined leadership qualities. We know what it looks like in action, but it can be hard to describe and the definition of executive presence can shift a bit from company to company, depending on the culture. Yet, executive presence is a critical quality for successful leadership in any company.

In a previous post, we mentioned the importance of observing other leaders who are advancing and attempting to define what sets them apart from their accomplishments. As a place to start, this helps put your company’s leader profile into focus, and from there you can begin to deduce the intangible leadership traits and behaviors that will make you more effective and fast track your success. Likely, your observations will fall into one of these categories:

Confidence: Confidence can be communicated via body language or the way you talk. But it’s also about sharing your point of view, regardless of the audience.
Courage: Leaders who have courage stand up for what they believe in, and take a well-measured risk to initiate and drive change.
Credibility: Credibility is living up to commitments and walking the talk. It’s also about appearance and “looking the part.” (see leader profile comment above).
Connection: Effective leaders achieve results through the strength of their relationships up, down and across the organization. By actively listening to their colleagues, they let them know they care and are supportive of their peers and direct reports. Emotional intelligence plays a role in establishing connection with others, as does empathy.
Clarity/Crispness: The ability to communicate complex information so it is easily understood by others is an important leadership quality. Crispness is also about getting to the point quickly and avoiding unnecessary details unless asked.
Calmness: During a crisis, who would you likely follow: an even-keeled leader or one who emits panic and stress? Calmness when in the midst of a storm communicates trust.

Try defining your company’s leader profile and then on a scale of 1 (low competence) – 7 (high competence) assess yourself in each category. Then, create a plan.

What actions do you need to take to increase your Executive Presence?

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September 12th, 2014|Categories: Coaching Skills, Influencing Skills|Tags: effective leadership, executive leadership, executive presence, Mariposa Leadership|

May 10, 2013 / Blog / Coaching Skills / Influencing Skills

The Power of Matching

In his book To Sell Is Human, Dan Pink writes about the importance of attunement as part of selling, whether the selling is formal (actual sales) or less formal (influence and persuasion). One approach to attunement is matching. By subtly matching body language, tone of voice and choice of words, you can create greater attunement and more trust with people you talk to. Dan points out—and there is research behind this—that people’s mannerisms automatically attune when they feel connected to each other.

If you watch friends talking over coffee, you’ll see similar movements happening at the same time. Similarly, studies have shown that if one person at a table reaches for a glass of water, it’s more likely that someone else will also reach for a glass of water—if not at the same moment, then soon after. We match each other because we are social animals, and it’s one of the ways that we stay in sync, that we feel safe and connected.

I often talk to clients about matching to build trust and communicate more effectively with diverse stakeholders. You can match in three main ways:

1. Body language.

2. Vocal inflection.

3. Word choice.

Read More on Eric’s Blog

Matching is also a powerful part of Mariposa’s In-The-Moment Coaching model. For more on this model, visit our ITM Workshop and read our article on ITM Coaching in Action.

About the author:

Eric Nitzberg, is the Principal of Sierra Leadership and an Executive Leadership Coach for Mariposa Leadership, Inc.

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May 10th, 2013|Categories: Blog, Coaching Skills, Influencing Skills|Tags: attunement, communication, connection, Dan Pink, Eric Nitzberg, ITM Coaching, Mariposa Leadership, Matching, persuasion, rapport, selling, trust|

Ask Mariposa: Top 4 Executive Coaching Focus Areas

Daniel asked: Can you share the most frequent areas that you help clients improve on with coaching?

Regan Bach, Executive Leadership Coach, responds:

Great question Daniel and you are not alone in wondering what actually occurs during a coaching engagement. There is a great deal of customizing that occurs with each client’s needs, but here are the Top 4 most frequent areas of coaching focus:

1) Vision/Strategy/Execution

Whether it be for CEOs or new managers, setting a clear vision for yourself and your team is mission critical. From there it’s all about articulating that vision to others, identifying an “actionable” strategy to execute on the vision, mitigating roadblocks, and tweaking the roadmap/trajectory given inputs over time. A good coach helps leaders to a) get very clear on strengths and areas of opportunity to improve, b) articulate personal/team/company vision, and c) helps identify action steps to begin executing on a trajectory for success.

2) Going Slow to Go Fast

In today’s fast paced work environments, leaders jump from task to task, project to project, and initiative to initiative. Rarely do they take time to slow down, unplug, assess the Big Picture, and reflect on what’s working, what’s not working, and what they want to do DIFFERENT moving forward. Coaches act as a forcing function to help support leaders in unplugging, assessing themselves and their environments, and then identifying areas that need their attention. What’s critical is helping today’s leaders not only identify where to show up, but also how to show up.

3) Influencing

This is an area where almost everyone can improve. I have found that individuals, regardless of title, greatly underestimate (and thus under-utilize), their ability to influence others. I spend a great deal of time working with clients to help identify effective and efficient ways to influence both vertically and horizontally throughout an organization.

4) Feedback, Communication and Relationship-Building

Organizations exist because humans create them. Thus, many leaders continually struggle and are challenged by behavioral and/or human-centric issues. At the core, business is all about communication and relationships. Coaches help leaders create clear lines of communication, implement durable feedback loops into their work, and get clear on how and when they message things to others.

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April 23rd, 2013|Categories: Ask Mariposa, Coaching Skills, HR / Talent Management, Influencing Skills, Strategy|Tags: answer, ask mariposa, coaching, coaching engagement, communication, effective leadership, executive coaching, feedback, HR Leade, influence, influencing skills, initiative, leaders, leadership, Mariposa Leadership, questions, Regan Bach, relationship-building|

Ask Mariposa: Balancing Team Dynamics

Maggie asked:

My company isn’t lacking for talent, but we have a difficult time with team dynamics – how can we balance the strong personalities on our team?

Sue Bethanis, CEO responded:

Wow, big question, and lots of answers. Here’s one way to look at it: Everyone has strengths, and the best leaders are able to leverage each person’s strengths (both their emotional intelligence and content knowledge/skills). Check out the StrengthFinder 2.0 and take the assessment, and see what you think. Then you can share this with your colleagues.

You may also want to check out one of our hands-on workshops that produce heightened awareness, appreciation, and new ideas to improve the way a team works: Leveraging Your Team’s Strengths.

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April 10th, 2013|Categories: Ask Mariposa, Coaching Skills, HR / Talent Management, Influencing Skills|Tags: ask mariposa, HR Leade, Mariposa Leadership|

April 4, 2013 / Ask Mariposa / HR / Talent Management / Influencing Skills

Ask Mariposa: 3 Tips for Developing Leadership Influence

Andrea asks: I am not in a formal position of power but lead several cross-functional projects and collaboration is critical to our goals. How can I develop more leadership influence?

Susan Bethanis, CEO of Mariposa responded:

You are smart to be thinking about developing leadership influence skills, even as an informal leader. Cross-functional initiatives, flatter management structures and virtual teams which sometimes include third parties have become the norm in business today. Understanding how to influence others is a skill that when honed, serves company goals and your career.

Here are 3 tips:

Consult and Pre-Sell. Meet with stakeholders to share your ideas on achieving a desired outcome. Solicit their reactions and ideas as well. By inviting input and balancing it with advocacy, resistance can be minimized while gaining buy-in.
Know Your Audience, Tailor the Message. Develop clear and compelling messages rooted in short and long-term requirements. Research your stakeholders’ needs and tailor the message based on their interests.
Establish Behavioral Rapport. Match the pace and volume of your speech with that of your stakeholder. Avoid matching negative emotional states. Be conscious of your body language, including posture and facial expressions, as unintended non-verbal cues can undermine effective communication of your message.

Want more?

Read: Smart Work: The Syntax Guide to Mutual Understanding in the Workplace, by L. Marshall and L. Freedman
Inquire about our workshop: Master the Skills of Influence

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April 4th, 2013|Categories: Ask Mariposa, HR / Talent Management, Influencing Skills|Tags: advocacy, ask mariposa, business, effective communication, effective leadership, HR Leade, HR Leadership, influence, influencing skills, leadership, Mariposa Leadership, rapport, sue bethanis|