What’s Your Influence Style? Take a 6-Question Quiz to Find Out and Maximize Your Impact

Have you ever found yourself motivated or inspired by someone else and thought, “How did they do that?”

That person conjured up in your mind has a strong influence.

What sets them apart? You may be thinking of charisma or charm, or possibly assertiveness. But their influence style isn’t about personality. At the end of the day, influence is a skill that can be practiced and developed like any other skill.

Influence and Your Career

In your career, your ability to influence those around you can make or break your success. No one is an island, and you’ll need to build trust and credibility to get buy-in from others to help you reach your professional goals.

The first step is to be aware of the Five Styles of Influence. These are the most common tactics used when influencing others, either consciously or subconsciously. Knowing your preferred influence style and identifying any gaps will give you a foundation for strengthening your ability to use and switch between all five styles as needed.

The 5 Influence Styles

In our workshop, Leading Without Authority: Influence, Persuade & Motivate, we identify the following five styles and how to spot them:

Rationalizing

This is the most common style. Rationalizing involves using facts and logic to back up your ideas and goals. Rationalizers love facts and will often go with whatever makes the most sense.

This style may not be effective if the other party tends to rely on emotions or intuition. Use this style when the other party is data-driven and makes decisions based on evidence and logic.

Asserting

Asserting involves insisting your ideas are heard and challenging the ideas of others. Asserters will often apply pressure or attempt to wear others down by repeating themselves and redirecting the conversation back to their viewpoints or goals.

This style may not be as effective when the other party is very concerned with collaboration. Try this style when a decision needs to be made quickly and you have the authority or expertise to drive it forward.

Negotiating

Negotiating is all about spending the time to find a win-win solution, or as close as you can get. Negotiators are willing to compromise to get closer to their goals and are usually concerned with the greater good.

This style may not be effective in situations where time is limited. Use the negotiating style when both parties have legitimate competing interests and there is time and flexibility to explore trade-offs.

Inspiring

Inspiring involves encouraging and motivating the people around you. Inspirers typically speak with high energy, paint vivid pictures of the positive outcomes, and focus on shared interests to get others excited.

This style may not be effective if the other party is mostly concerned with facts and quantifiers. You can use this style when the other party needs motivation or a compelling vision to get behind a new direction or change.

Bridging

Bridging is about connecting with others and collaborating. Bridgers take the time to understand others’ points of view and concerns. They are active listeners and are often more concerned with the relationship than the outcome.

This style may not be effective if you haven’t yet built trust and rapport with the other party. But you can use this style when you have an established relationship and the other party needs to feel genuinely heard before they will engage.

Not sure which style you tend to use?

Ultimately, your success is determined by your ability to influence the people around you – not only the people who work under or beside you, but above you as well. Practicing these influence styles can be the first step to becoming a truly transformational leader and a strong motivator for your team.