Influence like a thought leader

Hello and a very warm welcome to Cultural Communication Confidence with me, Victoria Rennoldson. And a very warm welcome to the last part in this mini series. So thank you if you’re joining again. But if this is the first time you’re listening in, not to worry, I’ll explain what we’ve been doing here. So this has been a three part miniseries focusing on how do you achieve your ambitious career goals in 2025. So these episodes have been released at the end of January and the beginning of February to help you really think about how is it you’re going to achieve that promotion this year, how is it you’re going to make that career move, get that new job to be seen as the leader. And, this is exactly what I want to help you with.

So part one, we had a conversation all about how it is that you can get visible, how it is that you can develop your personal brand. Part two, we were talking all about your leader identity. So what is it that you have as your personal identity as a leader? And then part three, today is, is influence like a thought leader. So this is the third and final part in the series. So if you have missed any of these parts, not to worry, I will put the links in the show notes and you can go and have a listen to those. But I really encourage you to do that because this really works as a series to give you the full picture and to help you with the insights that you need to be successful this year.

Now, before I jump into today’s topic, thinking about how do you influence like a thought leader, I want to, first of all, before we get going, make sure that you know that there is a really exciting live training that I’m running this week when this episode goes live, the 11th, 12th and 13th of February. And this particular live training is completely free to you. It’s going to be a virtual experience where you join me for an hour each day and, we’re going to do a deep dive into these leadership communication topics. So day one, tomorrow when this episode goes live, we are going to be talking about elevating your personal brand. Day two, we’ll talk about amplify your authority. Day three, we’ll bring it all together to speak like the leader. Now, if you know your leadership communication skills are a missing part in your mix and you know you need to work on this this year if you’re going to achieve those ambitious career moves, then I highly recommend that you join us. The experience, the live training, you’ll have interaction with me, you’ll be able to get your questions answered and feedback as well. But to do this, you need to claim your free ticket. So if you want to join us, then make sure you do. The ticket you can get at www.culturecuppa.com/become-leader. And I’ll just be sure I’ll put the links in the show notes for you or just reach out to me on LinkedIn. Message me on my personal profile, Victoria Rennoldson, and I’ll send you the details so you don’t miss out. But this is your last chance, so make sure that you join us. Now that I’ve done that announcement, let’s come back to today’s episode.

And today’s episode is, as I said, Influence like a thought leader. And to start off with, what I thought I would do is actually give you a definition for ‘influence’. Because when I start to talk about this topic with different people, they often come with some preconceptions and potentially even some negative views on what influence is about. So if I just read you the definition, influence means to affect or change how someone or something develops, behaves or thinks. Now I really like that definition because it is neutral. There is no positive or negative emotion attached to it. But I think it really says very clearly why, if you are a leader today or a future leader, why you need to work on your influence for your projects, for your tasks, for your team and for your organisation. You can’t get things done unless you’re affecting change in people and in things. So this is a critical part of you being a leader. And, why a thought leader? Well, I believe that the people I talk to, the people I work with, the people who listen to this podcast are people who have something to say. They have knowledge, they have experience, they have expertise. I’m sure you recognise this in yourself, so you have something to say. And if we can share that more, if we can be demonstrating that full value that we bring, then people can really see the full value of what we can do and appreciate us through considering us for those next moves. That’s why it matters.

So to start off with this idea of influencing like a thought leader, I want you to start off with the intention to do this. So no matter where you are on this journey and whether you’re very early career or incredibly senior already and on the board, I think this, these questions still matter. So, so ask yourself these types of questions: Where do you want to be seen? Who is it that needs to see more of what you do? If you’re actively considering that promotion and upward career move this year, who are the key decision makers? Who is it you need to influence? As a thought leader, I want you to also think about this from an internal and an external point of view. So take your time with these questions. Write down ideas of actual people who you know need to see more of what you’re doing. Consider, no matter how senior they are, who it is that you need to get in front of more. Once you’ve done that, then let’s move into your intentionality to influence and how you do that.

So I see this in three different parts. You have intentionality in your relationships and to help you think about this, I have a little acronym, which is PRC: so P is perception. What do people think about you now? And, you might look at feedback, you might actively go out and seek feedback, or you look back at things like recent performance reviews or development plans, but really think about how you’re perceived in your current organisation and context professionally today. The R is reputation. This is more macro and thinking also towards the future as well. What is it you want people to think about you in the future? How is it you want people to experience you and feel about you? Really consider those questions, because if you can look at perception and look at reputation, then you might be able to see where the gaps are and what you might need to work on. And then finally, C is cultural intelligence. Now, cultural intelligence is something that is a core part of my work and you might have heard me talk about this on this podcast previously, if you’ve been following me for a while. But if not, not to worry. Simply put, in this context, I want you to consider what does a good leader look like with the cultures of people that you’re working with? Your version of cultural intelligence, sorry, your version of being a leader might be very different from how others expect a leader to be. That is cultural intelligence. So it’s really recognising that you might need to adapt yourself to have that relationship where people perceive you in the way that you want to and you have the reputation as a leader. So consider PRC perception, reputation, cultural intelligence.

Moving on from that, I want you to think about your intentionality for your topics of influence. And this is just really identifying what are you known for, what are you experts at, what is your common knowledge? And you know loads about, but maybe others don’t. Now, this might be very obvious to you. It might be that you have expert topics, that you have particular points of view on, that you can talk about what’s going on currently, the trends and what’s happening in the future. Or you might need to really identify where you want to become more expert in. But consider this as again part of your unique blend, your unique value that you’re bringing to your team and organization or a new organisation that you want to aim to work for. So really consider your intentionality with your topics of influence. And then finally I want you to think about your intentionality with your messages. Now there are a number of different ways of thinking about this. The first one is that you want to think about positioning as a thought leader.

To influence like a thought leader, you need to always consider when you’re presenting new ideas or your perspectives and views. The best way to influence is to really put them in a way, in a positioning that makes sense to others. So align your ideas and views with the vision and strategy of the organisation that you’re in. Make it make sense within that context. Consider the perspectives externally as well. What are competitors doing, customers? What are best practices that you can bring views and ideas on to your organisation? Think about the future and how your views and ideas help your organisation and team be ready for the future. So positioning is everything. And the more that you can consider your positioning of your ideas, you will be seen as an important thought leader in your context.

The next point is to speak like a leader. When you can speak like a leader, you speak the same language as the others around you. That means that you understand that, particularly if you’re coming from a, specialist area or tech expertise, that you know how to translate what you’re saying into a way that others can understand. You know how to not oversimplify what, what you know, but you know how to present it in a way that others are excited by and motivated by and then finally frame your ideas. This concept is really popular and I really like it because when I work with my clients it’s a simple idea, but it really works when you know how to do it well. And this is about thinking about your messages as having a warm up and a cool down. So you want to frame your ideas in that picture frame where you’re warming people up, you’re helping them to understand what’s coming up with your ideas and perspectives. And then you’re cooling down at the end. You’re summarising, you’re giving them an overview so they can understand what that wrap up looks like.

So there we go. We have covered in this episode how to influence Like a thought leader. What do we mean by influence? Your intention to influence and who and where you need to be seen. And then we’ve talked about intentionality with three different perspectives. We have thought about relationships, we’ve thought about the topics of influence and we’ve thought about the messaging as well. Now I want you to consider at, the end of this episode, where do you need to influence more? Consider with these activation questions what it is that you need to do, focus first. So maybe you need to work on your topics of influence. Maybe it’s about your relationships or maybe those are established and it’s more about your messaging and how you frame your ideas. Pinpoint where you need to place your attention and make sure you start doing it so that you start influencing like a thought leader.

So that brings us to an end to today’s episode and a wrap up to this mini series. So thank you so much for joining me on this journey. If you have missed out on any of the other episodes, as a reminder, I’m going to put some links in the show notes below. And finally, don’t forget to join me. This is your last chance to join me for the live training that is happening on the 11th, 12th and 13th of February. It’s completely free to you and we’re going to do so much more of a deep dive into these topics around leadership that you need to start accelerating your career goals this year. Thank you so much for listening and I’m really looking forward to seeing you next time on the show.