By Greg Dardis / Guest Editorial
Did you know the word “influence” has an astrological origin?
It’s drawn from Old French, meaning “streaming ethereal power from the stars” or “emanation from the stars that acts upon one’s character and destiny.” And I have to admit, I love the image of influence as star power, a celestial force that pulls the levers of destiny.
This 14th century word comes into contemporary light with the Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the magazine staff with input from former honorees.
I find each list a fascinating read, and the 100 people named for 2014 pack plenty of star power –
embodied by the cover model, Beyoncé. This year’s list features 41 women – a record high, two teenagers, the pope and a nun. Rounding out the roster: Vladimir Putin, Jeff Bezos, Scott Walker, Serena Williams and Hillary Clinton (making her eighth appearance, trailing only Oprah Winfrey and President Obama).
The Time 100 are saluted with short blurbs by high-profile writers: Dolly Parton defends Miley Cyrus; Justin Timberlake boasts that Pharrell Williams has the most fun; Amy Poehler hails Seth Meyers as “the best listener on television;” and President Obama describes Pope Francis as the “rare … leader who makes us want to be better people.”
In summarizing this year’s lineup, Time Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs distinguished between power and influence. “Power is certain,” she wrote, “influence is subtle. Power is a tool, influence is a skill; one is a fist, the other a fingertip.”
Her predecessor, Richard Stengel, offered up a similar note in 2007, writing, “Influence is hard to measure, and what we look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose discoveries, transform the world we live in.”
Ultimately, in our trade here in Eastern Iowa, influence is being heard. It’s saying exactly what you want to say to exactly the right people at exactly the right time. It’s having your message stick.
The joy of my work is that I get to help clients achieve that goal every day, whether it’s delivering a powerful presentation or crafting a more effective email. I remind them that it’s not just the pitch you make in the boardroom that matters; a single email can wield enormous influence.
Most of our clients are surprised to realize how lax they’ve gotten in their electronic communication. Some emails are too casual, many are long-winded. Our instruction gets them to the point and makes it crystal clear to the recipients what’s being asked of them. Ultimately, our email guidelines heighten productivity. Clients tell us it spurs them to do more work before sending an email and then enables recipients to carry out a task more fully and swiftly.
Our seminar, “Leadership, Presentation & Image Skills” regularly trains Iowa executives and managers to increase their influence. They craft their message with more order and precision. They design presentation slides more intelligently and clear them right away so the audience can listen with greater ease and focus. They practice the essentials of delivery, trying them out again and again and again. At the end of the two-day seminar, their command of an audience is powerful. It is, indeed, influence as a fingertip – the point of an index finger, the click of a slide, a single statement made with clarity and force.
In the workplace, influence takes a number of forms: securing a promotion or landing a new client, prompting a hire or a fire, bringing about a policy change, a budget change or a cultural change. Those are moments of real star power.
Greg Dardis is the CEO of Dardis Inc., located at 2403 Muddy Creek Lane in Coralville. For more information, visit www.dardisinc.com.
