When you have a clear understanding of what you bring to an organization, you become an empowered individual who uses today's projects to build tomorrow's skills. Using the influence model in career development will give you an extra, powerful tool to achieve your career objectives.

The Three Steps of Career Development

Having a written career development plan with specific goals is important.

One of the most important influence moments in your career is the moment where you must convince someone to hire you. Whether you are just out of college, looking for a change, or a contractor who must convince others of your services almost daily, you will find that a set of simple influence skills will propel you through the interviewing process on your way to a successful career.

If you thought that selling was difficult, think again. The truth is that successful selling involves a simple set of skills. One is the skill of getting information. The other is giving it. When you master the balance between the giving and the getting, you will find much more success in your sales situations.

Getting Information

Many new sales people make the mistake of trying to tell the customer too much too soon.

You can move people to action better with persuasion than with power. Think of those people in your life who have drawn you in and made an impression on you. Maybe they've convinced you to take action without seeming pushy or panicky, merely stressing the necessity and benefit of what they wanted you to do. Or maybe they won you over through their empathy, seeming to truly understand your point of view.

Much of our work today depends on our ability to influence groups of people we lead or work with on projects. Groups are made up of many personalities, mindsets, motives, and agendas - some explicit and others hidden - so having a specific strategy for influencing teams can mean the difference between success and failure.

To successfully lead a group or team, consider the following do's and don'ts.

Do you have a boss who...
Changes priorities often, giving you one direction then suddenly sending you off in a different direction entirely?

Changes priorities but doesn't inform you? When you finish a project, do you often hear, "Oh, no. You shouldn't have done THAT. That changed."

Doesn't give you timely feedback on your work, so you don't even know if you have been successful? Doesn't have the time to show you appreciation with a "Thank you" or a "Hey, good job"?

Micromanages every little thing to the nth degree? Is a "Big Picture" type, giving you a sense of what needs to be done but no real direction?

If any of these sounds familiar - or if you have a different, difficult scenario with your boss - you are experiencing Tough Boss Syndrome.

We call asking for what you want in a negotiation stating a position. Positions define the issues and problem to be negotiated. Positioning sets the frame for the entire negotiation, so how you introduce your opening position will impact your desired outcome.

Your position also represents your ideal out come, and if the other side could just do what you're asking for all would be fine! However, you will have to assume that the other side will be unwilling to give you exactly what you're asking for, because they simply can not or will not.

We all negotiate - whether in the workplace, at home or in volunteer activities. We do because we all have needs and sometimes these needs conflict with the needs of others (e.g. "I need a low price and the supplier wants the highest possible price").

For negotiation to happen, however, there must be common needs ("We are in conflict over the price but we both want to make this deal"); equally, we both must be willing to exchange or give something up to get those needs fulfilled.