10 Signs of an Influencer

When you start your career, there are many things you will need to learn; you may even feel overwhelmed from learning the ropes of your new Organization and building your skill level, as this will take a great deal of your time. But, as you progress forward in your Organization, you will begin to learn who’s who at your Organization and that certain people will appear to have more influence at your Organization than others. 

Learning who the influencers are within your Organization takes time and can be difficult, as they may not be obvious. Yes, Influencers can influence, that’s an easy one but not all influencers are easy to pick out of a crowd, as many influencers consciously choose to stay out of the limelight and work effectively behind the scenes.

When you start to build your network early in your career, you will most likely not have access to key decision makers within your Organization… this is fine. Start with who you do have access to and sometimes, this could be an influencer. Many times, influencers have access to key decision makers. Networks are like spiderwebs, with many connectors, links and reinforcement… influencers are strong connectors and generally climb the corporate ladder as they mature and turn into decision makers. A strong network will have all generations, levels, roles and ranks covered within their network and one extremely critical role to fill, will be influencers; this is a role that you will want to reinforce with redundancy over and over throughout your network. You can never have too many influencers within your network.

It’s important to have access to influencers, but before you can recruit and secure them for your network, you must be able to recognize them; below are 10 signs to assist in spotting an Influencer.

1.     They may not have a title or authority – Influencers are often people within the inner circles of the Decision Makers; this is why finding a true influencer can be difficult; to assist, ask yourself these three questions:

• Does someone’s opinion appear to have more influence than others?
• Does this person have a strong reputation?
• When this person speaks, do people often listen?

If the answer to the above questions, are a YES, then you may have found an influencer. Never be na?ve to think title has anything to do with influence. I have met many decision makers that struggle with influencing others, while, I have met many gate keepers that have a great deal of influence. A gate keeper can be a personal assistant or administrator; they are a gate keeper because they are often what stands between you and a decision maker; they hold the key to their schedules, and therefore, can find you a time slot if needed. Always be respectful and kind to gate keepers.

2.     They are Persuasive – As stated with number one, an influencer doesn’t need to have a title or authority to be an influencer. Their superpower is persuasion, as they can sway people’s opinions and behaviours, and because of this, they are extremely valuable.

3.     They have a Strong Network – Influencers may not have a large network, but they are generally well-connected with a diverse group of people, which includes some key power players within their Organizations.

 4.     They often are found behind the scenes – Since influencers may not like the limelight, they are sometimes the critical players in powerful people’s success, such as, the main advisor to a key decision maker. They have played critical roles in assisting an Executive or Vice President reach their level of success, therefore, they are often found in the inner circle of authoritative people. If you can’t access the decision maker, build a road to them through their inner circle.

5.     They are strong communicators – Influencers are gifted with words; they reign supreme in persuasion and can sell effectively… Whether it is an idea, a pitch, a product or design… An influencer can choose the right word to sell their objective. They can read an audience and pick the correct messaging to sell.

6.     They are highly respected – Influencers have a strong reputation and are respected amongst their Organizations. They aren’t necessary well known in the sense that they have a sellable name, but they are spoken highly of by the people that know them.

7.     People listen when they talk – An influencer can bring a room to silence. Since they have a gift with words, they generally know the right words to bring the right type of attention. When an influencer speaks, people listen. They agree with them, by nodding their heads, clapping when they are finished speaking and often want to hear their opinion on a topic. Observe people when a potential Influencer is speaking; this can be cues in recognizing a true influencer.

8.     They have Strong Supporters – They can persuade, they can sell, they can network, and they are respected… this commonly results in gaining strong supporters. People like to invest in safe bets… and when you can influence and persuade, your generally gain supporters, as you have a valuable asset that people want access too. 

9.     They set trends – Since an influencer can persuade, they can often set trends. If you want to change the company culture or sell a new t-shirt… get an influence to star in the marketing campaign. Since influences are well respected, and have strong supporters, people naturally pay attention to what they do, and then talk about it with others. Having an influencer help you sell, in an effective way to get your idea/product out there; this can assist in your idea getting momentum.

10.  They create engagement – For all the traits listed above, influencers commonly create engagement. They can create excitement; a buzz regarding what you’re selling. Influencers can assist in getting momentum in your favour; they get the ball moving.

When building your network, you want all generations, levels, roles and rank within it. But absolutely no network can be considered strong, if it lacks influencers. Even with the list provided in this article, if you haven’t been able to recognize an influencer within your Organization, you may be able to get their attention by building your own reputation as a profession who delivers high quality results on all their responsibilities. Just like you want to secure influencers to assist with your own network and business reach; influencers like recruiting resourceful people for their own network. 

If you’re confused as to why your network is considered weak, if you lack Influencers, ask yourself: how can an Influencer benefit you?

• Increase your access to Decision Makers – If you can’t get access to a decision maker on your own, build a road to get to them… influencers are this road.
• Help sell your idea before you pitch it – Influencers can persuade key decision makers ahead of time. If you are going to pitch a novel idea to major players within your Organization, you don’t want them to be hearing about your idea for the first time at the time of your pitch… You want supporters strategically within the room to help support and sell your idea. Influencers can help bridge these relationships and get word out on your idea. Influencers can do a lot of the heavy lifting before you get into the room.
• Increases your business reach – Influencers can connect your network with their own; this can increase your business reach to span a large distance.

Influencers within your network creates a major career advantage and therefore, no network is complete without numerous influencers within it. Because there are so many benefits to having influencers within your network, and few negatives, recruit as many influencers as you can… you want redundancy. This will assist and increase your own influence and business reach. 

Remember, an influential network can play a critical role in you being offered stretch assignments and career growth opportunities; Influencers can assist in selling your name and ability to people that can open doors for you.

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