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Different Influencing Styles

Written by: Debora McLaughlin

Article Overview: If you're a manager, is it important to develop different styles of behaviours and a wider range of approach? And how can this affect your performance as a manager now... and in the future? And does it matter?

Different Influencing Styles

Your behavior as a manager as well as your approach to life in general will greatly affect your success or ultimate failure. That is why it is important to have various styles of behaviors and a wide range of approach. This gives you flexibility and increases your choices in your everyday dealings with other people. It will also help you in the long run in achieving success. For most managers, they usually prefer to use the natural style of influence. But for the flexible managers, they usually resort to the fall back style of authoritative influence when the natural style isn't working or is not bringing in good results. But did you know that there are many more variations of influencing style other than the natural and fall back? And these don't include force or manipulation influence and aggression. Being a force of influence to people with varying personalities, you need to be proficient in a wide range of influencing styles in order to attain success. Sometimes, we need to get out of our comfort zone and temporarily abandon our natural style. We need to be flexible and practice new ways of influencing in order to achieve greater success. However, it is important that you think first which influencing style you will be more effective in. But you have to be careful not to overdo it. If you vary your styles many times, you may be viewed as an unpredictable person. So what are some of the types of influence? One of the types of influence is the collaborative approach, which is one of the most preferred by many. In this style, you include your team members in the process of decision making. As the saying goes, two or more heads are better than one. In a collaborative approach, all views and ideas are considered and are respected. This is a great way to make your members feel their importance to the team. Keep in mind that each member's contribution even if it is small is valuable to the group as a whole. In the collaborative approach, you don't have to make use of your power or authority in order to be successful. Giving your team members the go signal to contribute is beneficial enough for the team's road to success. But you have to remain collaborative consistently throughout the process. In case of failures, don't just simply give up. But you must also avoid enforcing too many conditions to your members. They may become frustrated if you do so and their level of efficiency will be affected as well. Another type of influence is the emotional approach, wherein you simply make use of your natural charm and enthusiasm. This type of approach works really well in the event that you want your members feel excited about an upcoming project. You can also use this approach if some of your members are a bit down and you want to fire up their motivation. But sometimes, it just goes off naturally if you are really enthusiastic about a new idea. This type of approach in influencing others is effective if it is really what you feel. It should really reflect your natural emotions and beliefs.

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Article Tags: behaviours, different styles, influence, leadership



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