If you want to gain more influence, you’re going to need a plan!

Most people believe (incorrectly) that if they do good work, their star will rise. We think, “I will get recognized, I will gain credibility, in effect, I will have more influence.” If you look around yourself at work, you’ll find just about everyone believes that and yet the real question is, “In a world where there are many talented people, how will I distinguish myself?”

You need tools and skills, but you also need a plan! Influence doesn’t fall into your lap (unless you are Powerball-winning lucky). Yes, you can develop it (and your reputation) over time. So, you have two choices…wait for it to come to you, or speed up the rate by going to get some more of it! That won’t happen by chance, it happens by plan.

How can you be more known? How do you get credit for the good work you do without being perceived to be a “shameless” self-promoter?

You need tools and skills, but you also need a plan!

How can you be more valued? What can you do to build currency with others, the capital needed to have influence (while also getting your job done) and not working even harder than you already do?

How can you be more trusted? How do you make (what Covey called) "deposits in the emotional bank account" to get others aligned with you?

You need to create a plan, and you need to work it.

Here’s a totally unrelated example of needing a plan.

ISS Moon Transit. Photo by Dylan O'Donnell.

Here's a non-Photoshopped image of the International Space Station (ISS) crossing the face of a full moon. It took Australian photographer Dylan O’Donnell a year of planning to get this shot after another attempt “was completely botched.”

He needed a down-to-the-second schedule of the station’s path, a full moon, the station crossing the moon in a location he could reach, a clock, the right photo equipment and luck… The ISS crosses the entire face of a full moon in about 1/3 of a second. O’Donnell said, “If you think that it might be a case of sitting there with your camera and a clock, with one hand on the shutter release, you’d be absolutely correct.”

In future blogs, we’ll address some of the specific tools you can use to build influence!