How To Influence People

Most of your success in life will come from your ability to deal effectively with other people. Your success will be determined by the number of people you know, and who know you in a favorable way. Everything you achieve will be through other men and women. These are people who will be there to assist you at the critical junctures of your life. Your ability to influence other people to act in your best interest is one of the most important skills you can ever develop to achieve Happiness and success.

One of the common qualities that all leaders possess is the ability to get people to go along with them. In fact, the opposite of influencing others is simply being influenced by them. You can be either proactive or reactive. You can either go along with people, or you can get them to go along with you. Your success will depend on your ability to gain the active cooperation of others. Having the cooperation of others is indispensable in achieving your goals.

How you are perceived by others will not only determine the influence you have over them, but it will also determine your credibility as well. Everything you do or don't do either ads or takes away from your credibility and your capability to influence others.

One of the most important factors in your credibility with others is your appearance. You've probably heard of the saying that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. When you meet a person for the first time, they make an initial judgment about you in approximately four seconds, and a final judgment within thirty seconds.

Everything contributing to the way you look on the outside is important. If it's not helping you, then it's hurting you. While you cannot control your physical features, you have total control over the way you dress and your grooming. You are consciously and deliberately making a statement about yourself by your appearance.

Your clothes are responsible for 95 percent of the first impression you make on someone. Your grooming and your hair style can exert an inordinate influence on the way that you are perceived by someone. Your accessories, such as a purse, briefcase, watch, tie, pen, and other items you carry with you all make a statement about you that influence the way you are perceived by others.

Another important element in influencing other people are the emotional elements of your conversation with other people. Your ability to communicate to the deep and subconscious needs of other people will have a major impact on your ability to influence them. We are all emotional. Everything that we do or say, and all of our decisions are determined by our emotions. Therefore, to be able to influence others, we need to be able to connect with whatever causes them to feel strongly one way or another.

One of the most powerful, yet underused skills you can develop to influence others is the ability to ask questions carefully, and then listen to the answers. Listening builds trust and credibility. The more you listen to what the other person is saying, the more he or she will trust you and be open to your influence. An important rule to follow when it comes to effective communication, is to never say anything if you can find a way to ask it instead.

Your success in every area of your life will depend a great deal on the quality and quantity of the relationships you can initiate and develop over time. If are going to achieve Happiness and success in life, it will be through the relationships you have with other people. In the business world, a person will not do Business with you until they're convinced that you are their friend and that you are acting in their best interest. In other words, someone can't be influenced by you unless they like you in some way. Of course, it's often possible for you to influence a person if they fear you, but that type of influence lasts only until the person can rearrange their situation and escape the circumstances that enable you to have control over them.

The safest way to influence someone, is to earn their liking and respect, by becoming their friend. This requires spending time with th