[Music] foreign [Music] leading through influence is a critical leadership trait and it's not just one that leaders who have a boss need to learn because everybody manages up even owners and Founders manage up who do they manage up to they manage up to their suppliers their customers Banks other people have a say in the decisions I make so because of that everybody needs to learn through influence or to lead their influence so what is a great way to do this one of the best ways to lead through influence is to socialize an idea ahead of bringing it in a formal proposal so you have an idea you have a meeting later this week with those parties at the table who are going to care and you want to get it across and everyone to agree and so you can move forward before you do that you know who your greatest opposers likely are and who are going to bring the negative and hard questions to the table socialize the idea with advance ask them for their feedback what ideas might they have what are some of their concerns you'll be better prepared to address those concerns and answer those questions and they won't be surprised and shocked in asking them in a defensive way they will more likely ask them in a softer they may ask the same tough questions but it will come across in a different way because you already alerted them to the fact that this was something you were talking about proposing and got them thinking about it differently rather than coming across shocked same with your biggest supporters so you think you absolutely have this one person who's going to support you all the way the best supporters are great to socialize with in advance too let them ask you questions get things out on the table get some information think about how you can make your presentation more effective make sure you know what any of their concerns might be because your best supporters if you haven't asked them still might have a concern and if they throw it at you in the meeting now your supporters don't look like they're positive on you either so the best way to be most effective at leading Foo influence managing up whatever you want to call it is to make sure that you socialize ideas in advance get the questions and the information out on the table so that when you come to the decision making meeting all of the information is out there you're not surprising anybody and you're having a really great conversation and discussion to get the best decision for the company not trying to sell in a tough environment foreign [Music]