The Art of Influence: Empowering Developers' Team Collaboration

In the field of software development, collaboration is key. Yet, many developers find themselves working in teams without ever being taught how to effectively express their opinions and ethically influence their colleagues to align with their vision and goals.

In this practical and enlightening session, we delve into the science of influence. By understanding the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business, we explore the psychological triggers that drive human behavior. Participants will learn how to communicate considerately yet persuasively, inspire cooperation, and foster a culture of collaboration within their team.

Whether you're leading a project, seeking buy-in from stakeholders, or simply aiming to improve team dynamics, mastering the art of influence can lead to smoother workflows, better decision-making, and ultimately, greater success. This session will share proven practical strategies and techniques for harnessing the power of influence to create a more productive and harmonious work environment.

This talk has been presented at TechLead Conference 2024, check out the latest edition of this Tech Conference.

FAQ

Liran Glikman is a specialist in networking, personal branding, and business development. He works with tech companies to improve team communication and advises startups on global expansion. He is also an advisor to the United Nations Committee.

Liran Glikman believes everyone is an influencer because we all have the ability to influence the people around us, especially in our teams and companies. Mastering this skill can help achieve personal and professional goals.

Effective communication can lead to promotions, success, a sense of belonging, and enjoyment at work. It helps in building better relationships, sharing ideas clearly, and navigating team dynamics.

Common challenges include different perspectives, roles, communication styles, and priorities among team members, which can lead to disagreements, wasted time, and miscommunication.

The 'influence booster' is being likable. Building relationships with team members and colleagues can significantly increase your influence within the company.

Smalltalk has three stages: First Impression, Connection, and Continuity. First Impression involves smiling and positive topics, Connection involves finding common ground, and Continuity involves setting expectations for future interactions.

You can use social proof by highlighting successful projects or examples from others, bringing case studies, and joining forces with team members who share your ideas to build authority and support your suggestions.

When team dynamics are not supportive, you should raise the red flag and encourage open discussion about the issues. This helps to clear the air and improves team collaboration.

The art of influence is important because it builds trust, understanding, and collective empowerment within the team, which helps achieve both personal and company goals.

'Be the confetti' means standing out, making a difference, and positively impacting your team. It involves taking actions that improve team dynamics and making people feel better and more motivated.

Lirone Glikman

10 min

14 Jul, 2024

Comments

Video Summary and Transcription

You are all influencers already in your teams and in your companies. If we learn how to master this skill, you can really achieve what you want. Collaboration is key to successful software development. Shift your thinking from old thinking to growth thinking. Effective collaboration requires more than just technical skills.

Available in Español: El Arte de la Influencia: Potenciando la Colaboración en los Equipos de Desarrolladores

1. Introduction to Influence

Short description:

You are all influencers already in your teams and in your companies. If we learn how to master this skill, you can really achieve what you want. Learning how to communicate better and influence will help you succeed, get promoted, have a sense of belonging, and enjoy your work.

I'm liran glikman and i have about seven minutes to share the rest of the talk. So, the reason I say this is because, newsflash, guys, you are all influencers. You are all influencers already in your teams and in your companies. We all influence the people. But if we learn how to master this skill, you can really achieve what you want. And why do you work? Why do you do what you do? Because you want to maybe get promoted, right? You want to succeed? You want to have a sense of belonging? You want to enjoy? You spend so much time at work? And if you will learn how to communicate better and how to influence for this matter, you will definitely get all of these and more.

2. Overcoming Communication Challenges

Short description:

I am liran glikman. I work with tech companies, helping teams communicate better and teaching startups to expand globally. Collaboration is key to successful software development. Different perspectives, roles, communication styles, and priorities can cause challenges. Struggles to get team buy-in, endless debates, wasted time, and cross-functional team issues. Let me tell you what to do.

So, a bit about me. I am liran glikman. As you can see, I'm doing a lot of stuff that I have built the specialty of networking and personal branding and business development in the past decade and more. I work with tech companies and I basically help the teams to communicate better and I also teach startups, help them to expand globally. I'm an advisor to the United Nations Committee. But what you really have to know about me is that I love yoga and whiskey. Which one of you love yoga? Raise your hands. Good. And whiskey? Only Irish. I mean, sorry, Scottish. Sorry. Only the Scottish. Good. Belvini. Fantastic. So that's what you need to know about myself.

So, guys, collaboration is a key to communication in any successful software development cycle. And you all know, right, what gets in the way of the collaboration could be different perspectives of your teams or the people that you work with, different roles that everybody's saying something else and can get you confused, communication styles. Some people are more technical, more emotional, more just don't speak. And priorities. What your priorities is not always your colleagues' priorities which these ones and more make a lot of troubles when it comes to getting things done.

Now, challenging situation can be and I'm sure you've experienced these and more. You know that you have the right way, you know that this is how things should be done, but you struggle to get your team to buy into it. Some challenges that you probably experience are a discussion devolved into a never-ending cycle of debates and disagreements. These are kind of the hard cases, I would say. Feeling like time is being wasted because you couldn't reach an agreement. Right? Like time, resources, energy. And cross-functional teams. Working with different teams from the company also can lead to disagreement and miscommunication. So what do you do? Let me tell you.

3. Mastering Influence Techniques

Short description:

Effective collaboration requires more than just technical skills. Shift your thinking from old thinking to growth thinking. Three strong influence techniques to harness people, make decisions faster, and position your brand better. Start by being likable and building relationships with your team and others in the company. Use the Smalltalk formula to approach new people in the company and connect through common ground.

This is where you should bring your influencer superpowers out there because effective collaboration requires more than just technical skills. I'm sure you're great at what you're doing, but obviously we all know that we need to know how to connect better with our peers, how to share ideas clearly and compellingly, how to navigate the complex dynamics of teams' interactions and nobody actually teaches us this and that's the most important thing. Have you ever, like, when you went to university, did you get, like, collaboration, like, classes? Okay. Did you get communication, how to work with teams? So these are a few. Most people usually don't get it. And that's why, sorry, we suck at it mostly. So I want to shift your thinking from an old thinking to a growth thinking. Old thinking means that we're good at what we're doing. Everybody knows and everybody sees it, but no, people don't know and people don't see it. And when I'm talking about growth thinking is how you can stand out, how you can raise your knowledge and voice when needed in order to share your stand in the team. So I'm going to give you a quick three strong influence techniques that will help you to harness people, get decision faster and position your brand better to get shit done. I hope I can say get shit done here. So the influence tool number one is, so some of the common frustration would be when others don't respond in a timely manner and not cooperating with you. So my best tip for you here is use the influence booster, be likable. And being likable starts way before you start your actual meeting. So it's about building relationship with people in advance. And by the way, when you build good relationship with your peers from other teams as well, you increase your chances to get to influence others by 200% because we want to listen more to people that we like and know. So what is the action that you can take? Just invest time in building relationship with teams, with your team, with different teams, with different people in the company. Make sure to even grab a coffee with one person you don't know a week, and I promise you this will increase your influence, your knowledge and your ability to even enjoy in your company. So I want to give you like my Smalltalk formula if you want to approach, again, new people in the company. So Smalltalk has three different stages. First impression starts in the first two seconds, so about 30 seconds to one minute when you meet someone new in the company and you want to interact with them. The body of the conversation should be about connection and the end should be about continuity. So the first impression is about smiling, introducing yourself where you work in the company and talk about positive topics. Don't talk about negative because you want to build a good relationship and start it in a good note. The body of the conversation is about connection and how do you do it? Common Grounds is the best connector ever because when we see people that remind us of ourselves, it's actually connected. This is our primal brain and I want to give you a tip on how to connect with people in Common Ground. The four P's. Talk with people about either passions, places, people and present. What happens right now? So passions like trips, sports, kids, places is where you work, where you studied and so on.

4. Influencing with Confidence

Short description:

First impressions and connection are about finding common ground and making a good impression. Use social proof to back your suggestions and join forces with like-minded teammates. Be brave and address team issues openly, fostering trust and empowerment. Be the confetti that stands out and makes a positive difference in your team.

People you know or admire and present, what's happening right now. And don't forget, when you finish your Smalltalk with new people, just make sure to give them a hook. What do they expect? You will send them an email. You will share with them an article. You will set a time to meet for a coffee. So first impression, connection is about Common Ground and also finding interest in others and state their names, remember their names and make sure to set the hook for the next meeting. So this likeability will get you closer to people and will help you to influence them or to them want to listen to you in hard times.

The second tool comes when some of the common frustration would be when all your suggestions are not being accepted and you feel like a limbo in a never-ending discussion. I'm sure it happens to many of you here. So my tip to you here would be to use the social proof method which means that we are more likely to be influenced by the actions and behaviors of successful others or successful projects. So the action you can take here to build your authority and knowledge through either when there are some conflicts, highlight example of successful projects to back your case, maybe bring a case study from other companies or leading figures in the world that back a certain approach and also a good thing is to join forces with people in your team that have the same idea and make sure to go through it together.

My third and last one is actually for the brave developers only. Some of the frustration that can come to you in order to use this tool is when the feeling in the team is not fun and supportive and it reaches a boiling point. And many times we just don't talk about it. We say, okay, well, we'll just let it go but it goes in and it just makes the situation really uncomfortable and the relationship uncomfortable. So my tools for you would be to raise that red flag. Be the person to raise the red flag. Now it's not always easy to be the one to break, you know, like break the scene and make sure everybody are meeting, but I want to ask you to ask the team to openly discuss the situation, be the one to give them the permission to share, raise their struggles and their frustration and clean the table. This will put you in such a great position of the person who solved it all, but also it will help the team to develop better.

The art of influence isn't about manipulation, guys. We had seven minutes. So it's very short, but it's not about manipulation. I want to make sure that you understand. It's really about building trust. It's really about building understanding within the team and collective empowerment of the team so you can achieve your own goal and the company's goal. And you have the power to set the tone in your team, guys. So I want you to think about it. I don't want you to be the rotten apple, the one who takes the team down. I don't want you to be the regular apple that people don't see or don't really, you know, like don't really matter. I want you to be the confetti. I want you to stand out. I want you to shine. I want you to make a difference for the team and make people feel better and make people take good actions. So I want you guys to be the confetti next time you're coming to your meetings. And thank you so much.