Influence Deficit

The influence deficit is characterized by your geeks having to overcome a set of obstacles in order to establish a great deal of influence in the work place. Countless hours of effort has gone into alleviating technical people from this burden has led to the discovery of particular causes of this problem. the three specific reasons why geeks experience this deficit is because geeks don’t know the difference between influence and power, geeks fail to cultivate the preconditions of being influential, and geeks try to use techniques that are more suited to salespeople than geeks.

At the very root of this issue we have our first reason. Geeks don’t know the difference between influence and power. Often times, a geeks shortcomings has to do with them actually not knowing something. Their experience comes from their misunderstanding of what influence is and where it comes from. According to our authors influencing a group that you’re working with takes a few preconditions. The first being that the audience must be open to being influenced by you. If you’re audience isn’t even open to the idea, your idea of influencing them won’t even get off the ground. A lot of geeks struggle with this first precondition because they struggle with picking up social cues. This makes it more difficult for a geek to comprehend if a person is open to what they are saying or completely closed minded Secondly, you must be willing to change their inner state. You must be willing to commit to the change your influence will bring into their life. The final precondition to influence that is referenced by our authors is you must be able to move them to think, feel, and/or believe differently. The one attempting to influence their peers must be able to persuade and motivate individuals to conform to ideas that they currently do not have.

So up until now it seems there is no hope for geeks in this world that have dreams of inspiring and influencing many people. However, I am here to say there is a beacon of hope for the geeks out there with similar dreams. In order for influence to take place the geek must tailor an approach for there audience that is designed to do specific things. Their approach should be focused on building influence rather than power. This is a less authoritative was to steward preconditions for influence. The approach must remain consistent with their goals and personality. his is important because it helps you, your message, and those influenced by your message to move together on one accord. Lastly, the approach must work for all parties involved. Our author suggest that geeks should reduce resistance in your group before attempting you change them.

Personally, I have not had to experience an influence deficit within the work place but I have had to experience similar difficulties when influencing players on a football team. At first you have to be able to feel out your audience to understand their personalities. This is important because without this understanding as your foundation, you will be attempting to influence an individual when you’re blind to their motivations and personality. At times when I have failed to get to know someone, it was often a similar trend with how well I was an influence. So just speaking from experience I would say the most important phase of influencing people is getting to know them and being able to connect with people on a deeper level because both parties have been vulnerable.