How to gauge if you’re influential in your organisation

In my speech communication and sales presentations work, at the start of a multi-modular programme I tell the participants that they will learn numerous, powerful techniques in being perceived as very articulate, extremely competent and genuinely interested in other people – through how they listen, speak and present themselves. Then I ask them to consider what is the real worth of those perceptions.

The participants then read the following statements and give themselves a rating number out of 10 on the respective items. (at the end of the programme they re-rate themselves to gauge their progress.)

The statements are. One: ‘Senior customers, colleagues and reports readily act on your advice and requests’ ___/10.  Two: ‘You’re often offered to be involved in important, interesting projects’ ___/10. Three: ‘You’re confident in presenting to senior executives in challenging environments’ ___/10. Four: ‘Senior executives often seek out your advice’ ___/10.

The point here is this: You can be thought of as a great speaker, listener and/or presenter.  But if those listening, speaking and presenting skills don’t get you the results listed above – you’re not reaping the worth of those skills.

Your listening, speaking and presentation skills can be viewed as a vehicle to getting the above results. (of course there might be other results you could add to the list).

The ‘how to apply’ for this post is to rate yourself on the above statements and then over time (perhaps initially at one, three, and six month intervals) re-rate yourself on the statements to gauge your progress.