Difficult skills to master require a decent amount of investment - of time, energy, blood, sweat and tears. Influence is just one of those that requires a big investment on many of these fronts.

While you can learn a great deal from books and articles, nothing quite works as well as learning through observation. However, passive observation is slow and of variable quality.

When it comes to learning influence through observation, some questions will help give you structure and speed up the process.

For instance: Read More

Be very careful with the attitude you adopt when you go into action. Attitude begets behaviour at the subtlest of levels.

If you hold a negative attitude, no matter how much you attempt to cover it up, it will show through, if only at a subconscious level.

People will pick up on it. Even if they cannot put their finger on it, they will know something is wrong. But, what?

Since you are hiding how you re really thinking and feeling from them, they will most likely guess what is the matter rather than asking you point blank. Read More

If you’re like most people, you will tend to shy away from conflict and things you don’t like. 

When you don’t like the politics, you’ll sky away from that too.

And that my friend, is a big problem - especially if you want to make progress with other people, because it is all about the politics. Read More

Far too many people are rooted to their own position, their own job, their own immediate vicinity when they're thinking about the world. 

Rightly so, because they've got a job to do. They've got to focus in on what they need to deliver satisfaction to their immediate stakeholders.

Yet this is missing a major opportunity to step up to a higher level of thinking. Read More

The common exhortations:

“Walk a mile in his moccasins.” 

“Seek first to understand.”

“You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

All point to the vital need to consider alternative perspectives when approaching difficult situations, people or problems. And for most people, this present a major problem. Read More

You would be surprised at just how much influence happens at a subconscious level. And where this becomes particularly harmful to you and your progress is when you don't agree with somebody else, and they know it.

When you're opposing somebody, you're in disagreement, you know what the right answer is. And there is a very big danger that means that they are wrong. 

They are being the idiot. They are being naïve. They are being stupid. Read More

Political capital is simply the amount of power that you're able to call into action to support your agenda. This is a function of the number of powerful people and the power they can wield on your behalf.

To accumulate political capital, you’ll need a lot of great relationships in which you are helping them and they stand ready to help you in return. The deeper these relationships, the more inclined they will be to respond to your call when you need them. Read More

Making an impression that is aligned to your goals will help you enormously, because it establishes and reinforces the expectations others have of you. And what they expect, they're likely to get.

Here’s a little example.

If your aim is to become a top-flight negotiator, you’d better begin creating that impression as fast as possible. Acting weak, vague and indecisive will convey the notion that you are not terribly good at negotiating.  Read More