Can you spot a fake? When it comes to gravitas, I believe that anyone with a reasonable amount of experience can easily detect when someone is pretending. They may not be able to explain why, but they will certainly get the feeling that the individual they are...
How to Develop Political Courage
One of the downsides of having great political instincts and insight is that it increases the need to make political decisions. Once you have worked out what agendas are being hidden and discovered people’s strategies, tactics and games, what are you going to do about...
How to Upset People without Being Offensive
Let’s face it, sometimes people need shaking up a little. Everyone gets stuck in a rut and needs to be helped out with a little shock treatment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating you running around creating enemies. What I am saying is that sometimes too many...
Building Trust Beyond the Obvious
Over recent months we have been engaged in debates about trust on many platforms. This has convinced me even more of the benefits of focusing on building trust in relationships. On workshops, I often ask the question, "How can you build greater trust in your...
The Fallacy of Rational Argument: Influencing Mistake No. 4
Time and time again we meet people on our workshops that have spent lots of time and energy building their business case. They have stacked up the numbers and convinced themselves that it works. The numbers speak for themselves — it’s a no-brainer. But somehow they...
Trust and Integrity Made Simple
Trust and integrity are two intertwined concepts that usually crop up when I start talking about influence. Although interconnected, they are different, and a clear understanding of them can help you to build influence more quickly. However, despite the temptation to...
