Influencing is the No.1 skill required for any Senior Supply Chain Professional, this article explores how YOU can be more influential within your role.
Just how important is influencing? A recent survey on supply chain professionals found that it was the number 1 skill required, being seen as important by 81% of professionals. But what is influencing? It is “the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of command” This is hugely important in a supply chain role when you have to work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, of who many are not under your direct command.
Being more influential does not necessarily need to be difficult, these 4 simple tips will take you through what you can do the next time you need to get people onboard:
1. Be a Specialist – The first keyway of growing your influencing ability is to be well respected within your field, whilst you don’t need a PhD in supply chain, being a specialist in this area is definitely going to help. Having a depth of knowledge will allow you to talk with more confidence and conviction, which will then transpire into you being easier to trust, and therefore improving your influencing ability.
2. Plan to Influence – Whilst the need to use your influencing skills cannot always be planned in advance, in many cases an element of strategy can be deployed to the task. Often influencing is required to get people’s support on a project and therefore understanding in advance who needs influencing and how they might best be influenced will really help your case. Use a stakeholder map to understand who you will need to influence and why.
3. Understand your Communication – People like to receive communication in different ways, in some cases it’s through a conversation, other people prefer to read or watch. In order to be more influential breakdown what the key messages you are trying to get across into 3 key takeaways. Understanding these points clearly will allow you to translate them into any medium necessary whilst being able to cover them off quickly in an elevator pitch!
3. Gain Support – “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”. Momentum is really powerful and getting support to your cause will generate an excitement with what you are trying to do. A top tip is to use your stakeholder map and start with those people that will be most easily influenced and use the momentum you gain to work your way out to other people. A key factor in this is also that different people will have different networks, relationships and communication styles and therefore may be better at influencing certain stakeholders than you. Use this to your advantage!
It’s clear how easily you can improve your influencing ability, however practise will always make perfect in this case. A great place to practise influencing is with your suppliers, why don’t you try and use your improved ability to engage suppliers in SRM and unlock these five key benefits. Drop a comment below with how you got on.
The post How to be more INFLUENTIAL as a Supply Chain Professional appeared first on Supply Chain Manager.
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