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What's Your IQ (Influence Quotient)?

Written by: Mike Myatt

Article Overview: This article discusses the importance of understanding the principle of influence.

What's Your IQ (Influence Quotient)?

As a CEO or entrepreneur your “Influence Quotient” is the IQ you need to pay attention to. Your influence quotient will be a much greater determinant of your ultimate success than your “Intelligence Quotient” could ever be. Innate, raw intelligence while certainly something to be prized, is much more common and much less powerful than real influence. In today’s post I’ll examine the often misunderstood value of influence…

When I speak about influence I’m not talking about manipulation, elaborate schemes or other forms of scullduggery. Ill-gotten gains will always be exposed for what they are, and will never be worth the compromises that were made in order to achieve them. Not only is true influence much easier to acquire, but it is also sustainable. Put simply, true influence is nothing more than understanding how to work with and through others to achieve a stated objective while staying true to your core values and maintaining your integrity.

I make my living largely based upon influence. In my world influence equals leverage…It is my ability to be able to work effectively with and through many people spanning industries, specialties and geographies that allow me to get things done on behalf of my clients. Absent understanding how to create powerful spheres of influence my world would be limited to what I could accomplish on my own which would be only a small fraction of what my network is able to accomplish (further reading on how to build a network can be found in a previous post entitled “Who’s in Your Network“).

The following fundamental concepts of influence which if properly understood and implemented can help anyone become more efficient, productive, secure and successful:

1. Influence is built upon making others successful: This is often times referred to as the law of reciprocity. The theory is that if you invest yourself in making someone else successful then they in turn will likely be predisposed to helping you become successful. While this principle will not always pan out, in my experience it has held true in well over 90% of my interactions over the years.

2. Likeability: People do business with people they like and avoid doing business with people they don’t like…it’s just that simple. Are you approachable, positive, affable, trustworthy, a person of character and integrity or are you someone who is standoffish, pessimistic and generally not to be trusted? Those the fall into the camp of the former as opposed to the latter will find themselves having more influence and success.

3. Influence is wielded through helping others maintain commitments: Professionals respect other professionals who keep their commitments. In the business world you are most often judged on your ability to keep your word and deliver on your promises. The key behind influencing people via commitment lies in your ability to have people adopt an initial position that is consistent with a behavior such that they are willing to agree to requests that are consistent with their prior commitment. People desire to be perceived as dependable, reliable and successful and will normally go to great lengths not to have their track-record or reputation tarnished. Gain strong commitments early on and simply hold people to their commitments which ultimately helps them enhance their reputation for delivering on promises made.

4. Influence is most often possessed by those with authority: It is important to realize that the highest authority is that which is given and rarely that which is taken. Authority is most often given to those that display honesty, competency, expertise and wisdom. With authority comes credibility and with credibility comes influence. While influence can be wielded by those without authority it will be limited in both scope and scale. Those with the most authority will always have the most influence.

5. Value and scarcity drive influence: Understanding the value of your position, brand, authority, resources, access to people or knowledge and any number of other items as it relates to fulfilling the needs and desires of others creates influence. To the extent that anything under your direct or indirect control is scarce or proprietary your ability to influence will increase significantly.

Bottom line…Don’t manipulate for personal gain rather facilitate for mutual benefit. Take a sincere interest in the success of others, work on your likeability factor, become adept at gaining commitment, develop your authority and control and have access to things of value or scarcity and your influence with others will increase.

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