For Harvard Business Review
Photo: Carl Lyttle/Getty Images
Summary:
The tendency towards under confidence can also lead us to needlessly (and endlessly) search for ways to gain influence when what we really need is to get better at recognizing the influence we already have — but may not be wielding effectively. In this piece, the author offers three suggestions, not for gaining influence, but for becoming more mindful of the influence you have already but don’t always see, so you can begin to use your latent influence more wisely.
If you’re like most people, you chronically underestimate your influence over others. When researchers ask people how much they think others pay attention to them, think about them, and would agree to do things for them and then compare these estimates to objective indicators of how much others actually pay attention to them, think about them, and would agree to do things for them, people’s subjective perceptions tend to be underconfident compared to reality. Even people in positions of power can underestimate their influence by incorrectly assuming those they have power over feel more comfortable challenging them or brushing off their suggestions than their subordinates actually feel.
