Tips During Conversations To Be Influential:

Do you ever wonder why some people are more impactful than others. And have you ever tried to be more influential and the interaction backfired or you felt that you were being manipulative? Here's some tips that I feel are helpful during conversation to guide you.

• Guide people during the conversation, do not have the intention to manipulate.

• Find the deeper meaning in what the person is saying (aka read between the lines). People often fight for power, a position, respect, to be heard, etc. Conflict or fights are not usually fighting about the simple things (like who took the garbage out).

  • Be intentional with your words and tone of voice. Most people go into conversations thinking, "What am I going to say?" Keep in mind, how are you making the other people feel at the end? That does not mean you always have to agree, but you can give bad news or criticism in a nice or a mean way. A self reflection question could be: what kind of person do you want to be?

  • I feel like many people get stuck in the moment and chase validation instead of looking at the overall picture and focusing on their influence on the conversation.

  • Try to anticipate what the other person is going to say, but do not interrupt them. That is perceived as extremely rude. And you may get it wrong, which could in turn make you look like a fool.

    
    

Hopefully you're able to incorporate these tips into your daily life and ultimately get more out of your conversations. There's no better time to start than now, so get out there!