Influence

Jonah Berger, Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School in Pennsylvania, has some new and deep insights into how we are influenced at the subconscious level.

On a recent PBS radio interview, I heard Jonah’s interesting take on influence. Here are a few of the lessons gleaned.

1. As Americans, we tend to think of influence as a bad thing.

We like to think of ourselves as lone mavericks, controlling our own destinies unencumbered by outside influences. Yet without influence, life would be more difficult, a series of raw uninfluenced decisions. Contrast America to Japan, where “team” thinking is much more prevalent. There the symbiosis of how one fits into the team, culture and society is given much more weight. Yet, we as the American individualists aren’t nearly as individual as we’d like to think.

One of the things that robs us from healthy influence is worry, fear and anxiety. In fact, these often don’t decrease our influence but actually cause us to seek to influence others in unhealthy ways in order to bring quick alleviation to our anxiety.

Anxiety causes us to take the short-term look rather than seeking the best long-term solution. Our primary concern becomes, "Get this feeling of pressure off of me." We then tend to push for whatever we think will make us feel better the fastest, rather than asking, "What is the best long-term solution for this problem?"

We all worry. We all have fears. We all have anxiety. It is simply part of being human. But how we handle our anxiety is what sets apart leaders from those who capitulate to the stress.

The Edelman Survey and Karen Keller’s Reaction

An interesting new study on influence was recently conducted on the topics of trust and influence by the Edelman group.

In this study, the global population was divided into two groups.

1) The INFORMED Public

15% of the Global Population

• They are the top 25% earners in their age group in their country
• College Educated
• Report significant consumption of engagement of business news

2) The MASS Population

The rest of the 85% of the global population not included in the INFORMED Public.

We often use our words to influence others, but how does nonverbal communication convey meaning in regards to influence?

A recent study reveals that 75% of emotional meaning is carried via nonverbal channels. In fact, when the nonverbal and verbal channels send contradictory messages, people assign more weight to nonverbal cues.

Two thousand and fifteen was a great year at the Keller Influence Institute. We created the Keller Influence Indicator® Partner Program, provided a complimentary trial version of the KII® and launched our redesigned website.

We also enjoyed a dramatic increase in our readership. Our articles are designed not only to help you increase your influence potential, but also include practical action steps to help you grow as a leader and influencer. The articles listed below resonated most with our readers.

The Ten Most Read Articles on Karen-Keller.com of 2015

Two thousand and fifteen was a great year at the Keller Influence Institute. We created the Keller Influence Indicator® Partner Program, provided a complimentary trial version of the KII® and launched our redesigned website.

We also enjoyed a dramatic increase in our readership. Our articles are designed not only to help you increase your influence potential, but also include practical action steps to help you grow as a leader and influencer. The articles listed below resonated most with our readers.

The Ten Most Read Articles on Karen-Keller.com of 2015

Wanting to expand your influence? Dr. Karen Keller invites you to explore her new website, karen-keller.com and online catalog. The new website has been designed to provide the ultimate user-friendly experience with improved navigation and functionality throughout, allowing you to access detailed product information, blog content and videos with the option to share information across all major social networking sites.

You have the ability, whether in a position of corner office, highest authority or a cubicle dwelling worker bee of creating hero moments for others and claiming hero status for your organization.

Energy is vital to successful leadership. Regain your energy and maximize your leadership influence.

Fifty-one percent of any leader’s job is to use  their influence to develop new leaders. How do we, as leaders, proactively grow and empower emerging leaders? A chief means is to have a deliberate process which serves to increase a leader’s decision space.