Leverage and Influence

How Each of the Roles leverage their strengths to influence others

“How do I convince someone this is the right thing to do?!”

We all know and have felt this both confused and frustrated bundle of emotions when we are trying to convince someone that “blank” is the right direction. In reality we are talking about influence.

Influence is defined as the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

I have spent the last few months thinking about how each of the 7 Roles wields their influence and how to influence someone based on the roles they play highest.

Before we get into the details, we need to consider another word: leverage. Leverage as a verb is using something to its maximum advantage, or in business, using borrowed capital in hopes it will return more profitable returns. Why do I bring this up? Because the Roles are, in my opinion, tools that we are lended and we have the option to use in the expectation that the returns will benefit us/others. We leverage the Roles to exert our influence! The key here is that the roles are a gift that we were given, and we have the ability to use them to lead.

THE ROLES

Here is a breakdown of each of the roles and how one leverages it to influence others.

Prophet: Succinct belief in a certain direction, demonstrating with gravitas the right direction. They are also very keen on pointing out and addressing the flaw in the current system.

Organizer: Leverage and influence for the organizer role is used predominantly in the system as it is, the rules are used to their favor and empirical history shows that this process has worked before and will prevail again.

Conceptualizer: The conceptualizer conveys their opinion forward through facts and data points, only through proving there is reason and evidence towards going in a certain direction (either for or against a direction).

Investor: Leverage is found through strong negotiation and the idea that the long term value will validate the reason and cause for moving forward in whichever direction the investor is pushing to go.

Implementer: Implementers use their ability to break down each step to their advantage. If one can walk the counter party through the steps, they will see the value and need to go in that direction as well as the logical outcome of going in that direction.

Luminary: The luminaries calling card is their enthusiasm, they can rally people around an idea and make each person feel excited to go in said direction.

Team Builder: Inclusion and space is the method of choice for the team builder. They make sure that each team member feels heard and their counterpoints are seen and valued. Consistently bringing up the belief that everyone will be best accommodated by the certain direction.

Upon reading through each of these, people may come to mind who have used these tactics around you both when they worked, and more interestingly, when they utterly failed. A way in which people utterly fail using the Roles is by abusing their influence. For example, prophets and luminaries may use their gravitas and excitement to rally people around the wrong idea. Implementers, organizers and conceptualizers may rely on known systems too heavily and not see black swans (read Nassim Taleb for that wonderful analogy). Investors may care too much about a single outcome to not notice or account for unintended consequences. And finally, team builders might be pushed for what people feel versus what they really need. People play all of the roles to varying degrees but using a few of these tools to understand how you leverage your influence will give you a better idea of why/when things go in your favor.

In the next blog, we will discuss how to convey influence and communicate effectively across each of the 7 Roles and not abuse or neglect its influence.

Lumiere Sciences is a tech-education company providing collaboration-focused sessions and executive coaching around the 7 Roles Framework. We help your team’s boost productivity, be empowered in their strengths, and achieve goals through 7 critical Roles!

We help team’s understand each-others Role strengths and weaknesses, create efficiencies and build harmony. Managers are well-equipped to lead, hire and retain top talent. Our family-owned company, My Team Role, can give you a brief overview of the roles, let you access our assessment, and allow you to schedule individual coaching sessions with one of our executive coaches.