Develop These 7 Skills to Become a More Influential Person

Some people seem like they were born to excel. They’re gifted physically, intellectually or artistically, and it appears as if they just float to the top.

But don’t be fooled. However gifted someone may be, he or she still had to develop those talents to achieve a lofty professional position. And that’s good news for the rest of us. Each one of us has our own skills and talents, and we too can develop them and propel ourselves into positions of influence.

Here are seven ways to enhance those talents:

1. Develop your critical decision-making skills.

Decision-making is a top leadership competency because it pops up everywhere, from the simple choice of where to hold a staff meeting to the strategic options of where to spend marketing dollars. These decisions impact the people in the next cubicle, but they may also affect a subsidiary halfway across the globe or an entire country.

Decisiveness is not a trait we’re born with -- it’s a skill that can be learned. To master it, analyze your process of critical decision-making to spot weak links in your reasoning and to recognize unconscious biases for or against something or someone. While we can’t control outcomes, we can shape the process that sets them in motion.

2. Learn to make a solid argument.

You may never address the United Nations Security Council or testify before Congress, but everyone should be able to put together a coherent argument. That skill is critically and frequently useful -- in high-stakes conversations, in presentations, in question-and-answer sessions and in other discussions with decision-makers or anyone else who represents a certain viewpoint or asks you to explain yours.

To argue means to give reasons. It means defending and promoting your choices against the contrary arguments of equally adept influencers. Take what you’ve learned in school and build on that base with private instruction and directed reading on the relevant subject. You’ll find that your ability to think critically and analyze others’ arguments will dramatically increase your influence on their choices.

3. Become a storyteller.

Storytelling has been a premier tool in influencing people across cultures and eras. Influencers tell stories for strategic purposes. From motivating people to act, to teaching, to reducing resistance and changing minds, a well-told narrative is a formidable force, often far more powerful than the mere recitation of complex financial or technical facts.

Numbers and figures are important, but when it comes to showing their relationship to any issue, large or small, a strategic narrative wrapped around the digits will deliver the message better and more memorably than anything else.

After you master the data, ask yourself: Is there a way to put a human face on my message? Are there real-life examples that will help me make my point in a way others can relate to?

4. Hone your speaking skills.

When many of us think of influential people, we often think of those who were great speakers, such as John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Steve Jobs, as well as contemporaries such as Michelle Obama and Sheryl Sandberg. While many influencers operate effectively behind the scenes, those with the ability, the drive and the courage to speak persuasively have an additional source of powerful leverage.

Like decision-making skills, speaking skills are in high demand. Every day in myriad organizations, corporations and schools, vast numbers of presenters strive to capture the imaginations of workers and executives and students in order to drive an agenda forward. Yet many people fear speaking in public, giving in to a panic that closes a heavy door on a fast track to success and influence.

Do not shy away from speaking opportunities. Hone your message and delivery skill by repeatedly putting yourself in front of an audience, gather feedback, make adjustments, rinse and repeat. Summon the courage to speak and accept discomfort as a natural part of learning and growing. Start in smaller settings first, and then build up from there. There’s no limit to where your influence can grow with this skill.

5. Have a basic understanding of current events.

You can’t have an intelligent conversation with your peers and clients if you’re stumped when faced with everyday topics such as the election, taxes, budget deficits, interest rates, markets, unemployment, economic instability in China and the meaning of all these things to the average citizen. You don’t need to be an expert on these topics, but you do need a basic understanding of them.

Influence is about shaping opinion, and embarrassing holes in everyday knowledge -- the kind that force you to awkwardly steer conversations into friendlier waters -- can significantly dampen your 360-degree influencing efforts. To fill these gaps, set aside a particular time each day to learn what’s in the news. Make it a daily habit. It will require no more than 20 minutes.

Test your knowledge and wit by engaging friends and colleagues in the salient topics of the day and see how far you get and whether you’re able to make a well-informed point that you can back up. It’s a low-risk strategy that allows you to gather feedback in real time with the opportunity to fill gaps just as quickly, with hundreds of news sources just a few clicks away on your smartphone.

Build your knowledge incrementally and notice how others will start coming to you for information, which is, after all, a major source of influence.

6. Think like a leader.

Influence is most obvious when it happens at the front of the pack. While influence can arise from any position, it is also from a position of leadership that it can make the most impact.

The most successful companies develop their high-potential leaders from within. If you’re lucky enough to work for a leadership-development powerhouse such as GE, IBM or P&G, you’ve got it made, because everyone else is going to woo you to come on board with them and practice what you’ve learned.

If you don’t work for one of those great firms, if your company simply doesn’t have the resources or if you’re just out of school, volunteer to head up something such as a community project, a fundraiser or anything where you can test your mettle for making difficult decisions, setting strategy and motivating people toward a goal while keeping an eye on available resources.

Volunteering is an excellent start for leadership training, as is mentoring others and helping them achieve their goals. The number-one leadership rule to keep in mind: help others become successful! Your altruistic efforts are sure to influence decision-makers around you to pencil you in for a bigger job when the opportunity comes along.

7. Understand communication technology.

It’s the 21st century, and even 5 year olds know about Twitter, Facebook and the latest multimedia platforms. Social media have secured a big foothold and they’re here to stay. If you don’t have an ongoing online dialogue with your customers or if you need a 19 year old to show you the ropes every time you log on to your website’s forum, you’re behind.

Business is online, and customers and recruiters are looking for you to be present. Google yourself right now, and if the search produces 25 other people with your name -- but not you -- it’s time to dive in headfirst. For the majority of people with whom you’ll come in contact, your reputation and perceived influence start with what they can find about you on the Internet.

Each individual, even those gifted people who seem to float easily to corporate heights, need to work on the skills that enable and enhance influence. If you develop these competencies, you will watch your influence soar.

Harrison Monarth

How Your Friends Influence Your Success

You can tell a lot about a person by the company that they keep. There’s a saying that goes something like: You become the average of the six people that you spend the most time with.

If you look at your professional company -- the other co-workers, colleagues, business owners and industry professionals that you most often interact with -- who are they, what do they stand for and what do they say about you?

How is your circle influencing you?

Where do you stand among your professional peers? Are you always the leader of the pack or are you making sure to surround yourself with people who will push you to be your best?

When you play tennis, the best way to improve your own game is to play with someone superior to you. This allows you to rise to the challenge of bringing your play up to the other player’s level, rather than holding back. Even if you are evenly matched with a competitor, it can be hard for you to improve.

When I learn a new skill or enter a new arena, I seek out the people at the highest level. Sometimes, this means paying for that privilege. When I trained with The Second City (the famed comedy and improvisational school that is known as the breeding ground for SNL, etc.), I had a few options. I could have started with the beginner class, but that would have made me work at the pace of the slowest learner, as the group can only go that quickly. Instead, I opted for a more efficient, albeit effective, option. I chose a custom program where I was the only student and my counterparts were the professional troupe members. This meant that I was the slowest one in the room and I had to jump in the deep end and swim with all of my might to keep up with them.

Getting to the next level

Can the people around you provide you with the opportunities you are looking for and get you to the next level? If you are only networking, masterminding and interacting with those at your level who have the same types of contacts, they may not be able to push you to step up to the next level, and they will unlikely be able to refer you to those next level opportunities that you seek.

I see it as a challenge, particularly for women who stick to women’s-only networking groups. While these groups have value, sometimes the women are missing the opportunity to connect with those individuals (which include men in higher positions) who can help recommend them for new opportunities.

Paying it forward

You can’t always be the student, so when you can, remember that there are others than can benefit from your guidance. As you improve your tennis skills, let a novice play with you from time to time to get exposure. Pay it forward, as there will always be more to learn and more to give.

Carol Roth

11 Things Every 'Type A' Person Wants You To Know

Ambitious. High strung. Perfectionist.

Type A individuals are known for rather uptight behavior, but just like any other personality trait, there's more to us than what you see on the surface. To know a Type A person is to love them -- flaws and all. Below are just a few things Type A people want you to know about the personality.

1. We're not impatient, just efficient.
Long lines? Traffic? Type A individuals loathe them all. This is because we feel as though they're slowing our progress of a certain goal, according to John Schaubroeck, a professor of psychology and management at Michigan State University -- even if that goal is just to deposit a check at the bank.

2. Arriving late to anything is agonizing.
If you tell us to be somewhere at 6:30, more likely than not, we're rolling up to the parking lot at 6:25. Type A folks tend to have an oversensitivity to time, because we don't want to feel like we're wasting it.

3. We live by to-do lists.
How else are we supposed to track what we're supposed to get done?!

4. Each task we're assigned is urgent.
Because of this, we value team members who work with the same brevity and speed that we do. Once again, wasting time is our ultimate enemy. Type A workers "appreciate individuals that can communicate in a clear, concise and succinct manner," psychologist and project management executive Bernado Tirado wrote in a Psychology Today blog post.

5. We're extremely goal-oriented.
Once we commit to something, we see it through until the very end, whether it's a work project or Friday night plans. "[Type A's] are certainly more occupied with achieving outcomes," Schaubroeck previously told HuffPost Healthy Living. "And given that they're so occupied with achieving their goals, it makes sense that they would be more likely to do so."

6. It's hard for us to relax.
This is where time sensitivity comes into play again. We hate the idea of letting time pass if there's something we need to be doing, so relaxing in the middle of our workday is a bit of a challenge (but necessary, as research shows). Downtime tends to feel unproductive to Type A folks -- unless, of course, it's on our to-do list.

7. We get stressed out easily.
According to Friedman, certain personalities -- like Type A -- are more sensitive to stress (which, as we know, is terribly bad for our health). We also tend to default on the worst possible outcome when working through a situation. Sorry in advance for the slight negativity.

8. We have nervous habits.
For me, it's hair twirling. For others, it's nail biting or teeth grinding. This behavior iscommon for Type A personalities, according to cardiologist and personality researcherMeyer Friedman.

9. We're emotional.
The reason we behave the way that we do is because we care (some could even argue that we care just a little too much). Researchers suggest that Type A people are highly conscientious -- so while it may seem like we're uptight when we're organizing our friend's birthday party, it's really just because we want it to be spectacular. They deserve it.

10. We're constantly ruminating over something.
You know when you just replay a mistake over and over in your head? This is a common occurrence for Type A individuals. We are notorious for dwelling on our worries, sometimes to the point where it keeps us up at night.

11. We have a competitive side.
This is perhaps one of our most glaring flaws. Type A's put a lot of pressure on themselves to be the best possible version of themselves, which sometimes is taken to mean "the best person in the room." It doesn't matter if it's a work assignment or a board game, they're all the same to a Type A personality.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and Type A people are no exception. We mean well though, we promise.

Lindsay Holmes