(More on Influence cont.)  Strength

Introduction

Strength can be classified as 'inner' or 'outer' strengths; inner strengths are based around your personality and hard to develop or change. Easier to work on 'outer' strengths like competence, confidence and commitment. Some things that are important in displaying strength include

- tone of voice (the deeper the voice, more strength projected, ie drop the pitch)

- body language (includes posture/gestures, use of hands, eye contact, facial expressions, body movements, etc),

- use of words (including pauses, pace of speech, use of humour - like a joke, don't use fancy words, use words your audience will understand, etc)

- grooming and clothes, etc.

For example, in a crisis, nervous people talk faster, have a higher pitch, generally speed up their movements, etc while relaxed people talk slower and slow down their movement, ie the leader is the calmest person.

This is an area of where 'faking until you make it' can be of benefit to 'outer' strength, eg practising a 'powerpose' for a couple minutes before a meeting. This activity resulted in reduction in stress hormones and people feeling more confident about going into the meeting.
Need to be careful that confidence doesn't become arrogance!!!

Strength triggers for 'on paper' and 'in person', ie
i) on paper
        - reputation (recommendation from other people, etc)
        - recognition (institutional like degrees, awards, qualifications, titles, membership, etc)
        - results (your track record, experience, expertise, etc)

ii) in person
        - visual (non-verbal, space, etc)
        - vocal qualities (tone, pitch, volume, speed, etc)
        - verbal (use of words, structure, etc)

NB Part of strength is use of control and energy