How many people did you influence yesterday? One? Three? A dozen? Hundreds?
How many people did you interact with yesterday? Emails, chat messages, corridor conversations, meetings, phone calls?
👉 The numbers should be the same.
Because interaction literally means “mutual or reciprocal action or influence”.
But somewhere along the line we’ve separated the two.
- Interactions happen throughout our day. They can be light or heavy. Friendly or fraught.
- Influence is something we save for special occasions. It’s something we “do” to people.
No.
In every interaction you are influencing.
But are you influencing in the way you intend?
Are you influencing them to ignore your emails, forget your request, prioritise other work or avoid you?
Or are you influencing them to make progress, to make things better?
I’m not suggesting every hallway conversation needs to have a stated goal, but I am suggesting we stop separating interactions from influence.
In every interaction you are having an effect. Make sure it’s the one you intend.
P.S. My Team Influencing Profile is designed to assess whether your team is influencing or interacting. Info here.
P.P.S. Shhh...this is only for introverts
🌟 If you found this interesting, let me know! Buy me a virtual coffee ☕ or forward this email ↗️ to someone who also might like it. Your support means I can keep sharing ideas about behavioural science for free.
💪 Find out where your team can do better (influencing diagnostic)
📈 Take your team to the next level of influence (team development)
🧠 Learn the science of Influencing Action (online course)
Hey, are we connected yet?
