How to Positively Influence Others?

Please pay attention to the subheading of the blog. There are two words that are important – Positively & Influence. Let’s discuss each. Often when we talk about influencing people it can come across as some shady tactic or behaviour for manipulation. However, consider this. You are crossing a bridge and you see someone ready to jump off. You stop your car and approach the person. You start talking to them. You use the power of effective communication and emotional intelligence to influence that person to change their mind. Is this influence bad? No, it is lifesaving and also necessary.

As leaders, we lead people in our teams, families and communities. And sometimes, in order to help them, you must influence them. Another point to note is that we are talking about influence and not control. We can never control someone; we can only influence them by using communication and emotional intelligence. All great leaders had the skill to move people with...