The Seven Components of Dynamic Personal Influence

“It takes tremendous discipline to control the influence, the power you have over other people's lives.”
--- Clint Eastwood

Wouldn't you like to move people on the basis of your personality alone?

I've been thinking about persuasion techniques recently --- soft skills which weren't part of my actuarial exams. As luck would have it, I came across a good list. The Law of Attraction works ;)

Dynamic Personal Influence
Here are Dan Kennedy's components of influence.

1. Celebrity
• being perceived as having celebrity status
2. Credibility
   
• being respected and trusted
3. Expertise
• having legitimate, extensive, superior knowledge
4. Mastery of Emotional Triggers
   
• hitting more of your client's emotional triggers
  
5. Good Sense of Humour
6. Independence
   
• not needing constant reassurance and recognition of your competence by others
7. Bias for Action
   
• getting off your duff, out the door and into gear
  

What do you think of the list? Naturally, we can all improve.

“The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.”
--- Salvador Dali

While I don't think Celebrity should matter, we know it does. How can we achieve celebrity status? Here are four ways

• presenting (e.g., to prospects, not peers)
  
• writing (e.g., magazines, newspapers, blogs)
• public recognition (e.g., media attention, awards)
• advertising

More?
For more Dan Kennedy, visit sparkinsight.com (my self-development site). For my contrarian take on The Secret by Rhona Byrne, read The Unsecret.

Feel free to leave comments (which you can even do anonymously).

Creating a Memorable Seminar

A limp polluted flag
Flutters sadly in its death throes
While crippled trees in leg irons
Wearily haul themselves
Through another diluted acid day.
--- The Strawbs, Impressions Of Southall From The Train

Today, could have been another a routine seminar on "10-8" leveraging. There were a couple of twists: travelling with a colleague for the first time and meeting at a winery.

Here's what made the seminar great:

• a small, interactive group of the right advisors
  
• discussing several actual cases as a group
• having enough time (nearly 3 hours) for good discussions, including "off-topic" items
  
• delicious lunch and interesting conversation on a patio
  

Here's what made the day remarkable ("worth remarking about" in the sense of The Big Moo an excellent book by 33 authors):

• the hosts had visited my personal website (both flattering and embarrassing) and brought pages of printed content to quote some memorable passages
  
• After the seminar, I got an initiation gift (a loud shirt) with a card in a gift bag
• After the wine tasting (which followed lunch), I got a parting gift, a mug
  

Frankly, I don't expect gifts and am rarely disappointed. I don't give out what most would consider gifts either. I prefer to give the precious, personal, intangible gifts of knowledge, attention and time. I received those too.

From good to great to remarkable. A day to remember.

Sadly, my family is squabbling over the shirt. So I may not get to wear it ;)