If you are experiencing imposter syndrome or finding it hard to influence at work, it could mean that you are unknowingly hitting the brakes on your career development. Adopting a leadership mindset is critical to success, especially in today’s workplace where flat hierarchies can increase the number of stakeholders. We sat down with BECYCLE member and career coach Shivani Berry, who is about to kick off her 6-week Influential Leadership program. Read on to get inspired…

1. What does influencing at work mean? Why is important?

Influencing at work means that you are able to motivate your team and colleagues to support your initiatives and adopt your ideas. This includes gaining buy-in, managing up and across, inspiring others and communicating effectively. To be effective at work, you have to be able to influence people. However, it’s difficult to gain influence in today’s workplace because there are so many distractions and more flat structures which often result in increased number of stakeholders. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t taught how to influence despite the fact that it’s critical to succeeding in our careers.

2. How can women increase their influence at work?

Build connections. As human beings, we are more likely to do things for people we like - whether it is to support your idea or getting an extra hand on a project. You don’t need to be the most fun person in the room but you should have a good rapport with your colleagues. Get to know your team members and stakeholders by working with them, grabbing lunch or coffee and general chatter about your personal lives (only share what you are comfortable with)
Practice active listening. Make others feel heard and truly listen to what they are saying before you respond or propose your ideas
Be conscious of your body language and tone. Your body language is critical to conveying the right message. Stand up straight, make eye contact, have your tone be warm yet confident.
Develop expertise. Be known as a subject matter expertise for your domain by staying up to date on the latest trends, driving good results and sharing your learnings. People will naturally start to think of you when they need support on a topic related to your domain

3. How can women learn to manage up?

Successfully managing up requires 3 things: trust, alignment on expectations and good communication. These 3 elements apply also to managing across with your peers.

1) Trust: Get to know your manager (or peer) including understanding their goals and constraints and sharing your goals and constraints. Indicate to them that you want a successful outcome for both of you and the company

2) Alignment on expectations: Be clear on goals, timeline and responsibilities. Have this information documented and shared with relevant parties.

3) Good communication: Communication should be constant and proactive. This includes sharing potential red flags before they become major issues. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

4. What is imposter syndrome? How does it affect women’s careers?

Imposter syndrome is when we feel inadequate despite evidence of success. In other words, we feel like a fraud and our successes are undeserved. We often think “I’m not good enough” or “I got lucky”. So many of us, especially women, feel imposter syndrome for different parts of our lives. Personally, I have felt imposter syndrome many times throughout my career and only recently realized how common the feeling actually is.

Feeling imposter syndrome can hold us back from taking on a new challenge and advocating for ourselves. It shakes our confidence which results in lower quality work and interactions with colleagues. For example, we may be afraid to voice our opinion in a meeting even though we have valuable input. On the positive side, a bit of imposter syndrome often helps keep our egos in check and indicates that we are challenging ourselves.

Interview by Stephanie Cusack - Head of Partnerships and Head of Yoga at BECYCLE.

How To Influence At Work