While vaccines create antibodies to protect you from influenza, antivirals tackle a flu virus once it has overcome your defences. 

When it comes to influencing the business, all support functions suffer from some form of INFLUENceENZA. It is when the business looks at the support function and perceives its policies and processes as red tape rather than the valuable business enabler they are. Unfortunately too many support functions in the past have generated useless red tape and have caused these perceptions. That is why even you catch a dose of INFLUENceENZA from time to time. Perceptions are difficult to conquer. 

My go-to antiviral for INFLUENceENZA is my Pathfinder Model. Put simply it reminds you that the pathway to navigate past misperceptions is to:  

• Stand in the shoes of the business so you understand their world so you can describe your services in terms of their goals.
• Paint them a picture for clarity. While you may have a picture of the end result in your head, they will be forming their own and it might not be the same.
• Tell them a story to build emotions. Their decision to follow your advice will be primarily based on emotion and primarily the emotion of trust.
• Make them believe with credibility. The factual AND emotive evidence behind your case. This is where case studies play a key role and can also form part of the story.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Persuasive Adviser Survey last week. I hope it helped you to identify how you influence and advise, got you thinking about the results you have achieved for your key stakeholders and zeroed in on areas you can improve on to elevate your impact. If you missed it, here it is again (answers may remain anonymous; 10 brief questions; 2 minutes to complete).  

If you have a question or some observations you would like to make, please drop me a line. Anytime. In fact you can book a 15- minute catch up with me here.