Chapter 2
The Six Strengths of Quiet Influencers
“One indication of influence is the ability to stand boldly against hostile trends and thereby alter them.”
Madeline Albright, Former US Secretary of State
Time magazine’s April 18, 2012, edition profiled one hundred of the most influential people in the world. The write-up included this insight: “Before microphones and television were invented, a leader had to stand in front of a crowd and bellow. Now she can tweet a phrase that reaches millions in a flash. Influence was never easier—or more ephemeral.”4
Clearly, the nature of influence has changed with technology. But at its core, influence is still about “the capacity or power of persons to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behaviors, and opinions of others,” as Webster’s dictionary defines it.
I believe that influencers make a difference by challenging the status quo, provoking new ways of thinking, effecting change, or inspiring others to move forward.
Influencers labor in every type of workplace, from sound-stages to hospitals. Their jobs range from administrative assistants and authors to parents and community activists. Sometimes, they hold traditional positions of power: they are our most inspired political leaders, academics whose life’s work it is to birth new concepts, bosses who motivate people and harness resources, and committee chairs who move projects forward. Just as often, however, influencers don’t have the big title. They are simply people who encourage change and growth and achievement: the team member who comes up with the great idea, the middle manager who takes a project to fruition, the colleague who has a knack for changing the boss’s mind, the intern whose favorite restaurant becomes the new team lunch spot.
The truth is people who use their natural talents and learned skills to influence others take our world forward in large and small ways. Some of those people are extroverts, some are introverts who make a difference through a process I call Quiet Influence.
Who Are the Quiet Influencers?
Tim Cook, who became CEO of Apple in late 2011 after the illness and ultimate death of Steve Jobs, had some big shoes to fill. His thoughtful demeanor and low-key style were very different from his predecessor, and in his previous role as COO, it appeared that he provided a tempering, calm counterbalance to Jobs’s sometime bombastic personality. As COO, Cook was responsible for some major operational changes at Apple that contributed to tremendous company results.
Since his esteemed colleague’s passing, Cook has moved forward with his own leadership agenda and has received high marks from many in the technology community. A reporter at Fortune magazine described an investor meeting in which Cook exhibited his own brand of Quiet Influence. “What shocked the Apple investors that day was that CEO Tim Cook popped into the room about 20 minutes into Oppenheimer’s (the CFO) talk, quietly sat down in the back of the room, and did something unusual for a CEO of Apple: He listened. He didn’t check his email once. He didn’t interrupt.
After the CFO finished, Cook, at that point chief executive officer of Apple for all of five months, stood to offer his remarks. He strode confidently to the front of the room and held court in the no-nonsense style that has become his trademark. ‘He was in complete control and knew exactly who he was and where he wanted to go,’ says one of the investors. ‘He answered every question head-on and didn’t skirt any issue.’ ”5
Would you tag Cook as an introvert? I would. He sat in the back of the room, not needing to be the center of attention. He portrayed a no-nonsense style, which focuses on depth. Yet despite his very quiet persona, he is clearly a powerful influencer. By choosing to make a difference using his quietly effective style, Cook is helping to provoke new ways of thinking and move his company forward. Cook is influencing this incredibly creative and successful company to move past the loss of its iconic founder and forge a new future based on continued innovation. For these reasons, I call him a Quiet Influencer—a person who brings about change and forward momentum in a classic introverted style.
Like other Quiet Influencers, Cook has a personal style grounded in humility. Jody Wirtz, managing director at a commercial bank and one of the Quiet Influencers interviewed for this book, displayed a similar tendency for humility when he answered the question “Do you see yourself as an influencer?” with: “You would have to ask those around me. But if I am an influencer, it is because it is through thought that I have discovered truths and became able to articulate or demonstrate those truths in a way that resonated with others and that eventually worked for them.”
Even though humble, Cook and Wirtz are not alone in being recognized for their effective form of influence. Eleanor Roosevelt, Charles Darwin, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Rosa Parks were also introverted influencers. So are Warren Buffet, Condoleezza Rice, Steven Spielberg, J. K. Rowling, and Mark Zuckerberg. Although many books have been written on the techniques and approaches to influence, they tend to extol a more extroverted approach to influence that presents significant barriers for introverts. Strategies focus on winning people over to your side by putting yourself at center stage, talking things up, presenting great arguments, and verbally convincing others to do what you want them to do. Quiet Influence is not about talking a great game to win the deal. It is a less understood approach to influence and differs from more “out there” talkative methods.
Quiet Influencers can certainly be found where you may expect to find them: in technology, engineering, and science. But they also are found in marketing, project management, teaching, medicine, the law, human resources, and small businesses. Quiet Influencers sell products and services. Nonprofit organizations that compete for funding and airtime also have great movers and shakers who are Quiet Influencers. What they all have in common is that their powerful approach draws upon what introverts do naturally. I have named this approach the Quiet Influence Process.
The Quiet Influence Process:
Combining the Six Strengths
Through observation and interviews with numerous Quiet Influencers, I have identified the six strengths that introverts embrace to achieve an impact:
1. Taking Quiet Time
2. Preparation
3. Engaged Listening
4. Focused Conversations
5. Writing
6. Thoughtful Use of Social Media
Each strength, by itself, is a powerful lever of influence; when put together, the power of the strengths multiplies. Introverts typically combine the strengths into The Quiet Influence Process shown in Figure 2.1. More or less sequential, it starts with Taking Quiet Time. Quiet Influencers begin their influencing journey where they think and recharge best: in quiet. Being silent provides energy, increases self-awareness, and spurs creativity. Introverts return to quiet time frequently in order to recharge and reflect.
Next comes Preparation. Careful preparation gets Quiet Influencers ready for all types of situations by increasing their knowledge and poising them to address potential objections. Through creating a strategy and asking questions, they become more comfortable and confident in their efforts to influence others.
The synergistic strengths of Taking Quiet Time and Preparation combine to form a strong core for the other strengths. With the confidence that comes from tapping into these fundamental strengths, Quiet Influencers move forward out of their own heads and into interactions with others.
They then bring one or more of the next four strengths to bear on the situation. They may tap into their innate strength in Engaged Listening to build rapport and mutual understanding. Or they may decide to engage in two-way, one-on-one, or small-group interactions. These Focused Conversations are purpose-driven dialogues in which they problem solve and work through conflicts with others. Another path they take uses their natural strength of Writing. Through this specialty, they articulate authentic, well-developed positions to make a difference with others. Finally, Quiet Influencers consider how social media platforms can advance their cause. They draw upon their strength of Thoughtful Use of Social Media to reach a previously untapped, broad, or distant audience.
Because they tend to have patience and perseverance, Quiet Influencers don’t need to follow the most direct route to an outcome. Although the strengths fit together in the order described, Quiet Influencers often loop back and forth, returning to Taking Quiet Time and Preparation to rebuild energy or confidence, going back to listen for more information to adapt a plan or feed their ideas, or alternating between the verbal interaction offered by Focused Conversations and Writing.
Keep in mind that to succeed as a Quiet Influencer, you don’t have to be good in all Six Strengths. Every Quiet Influencer mixes these strengths in different ways according to his or her own personality, needs, and situation. In other words, the Quiet Influence Process is not a formula that requires equal measures of each strength in each case.
Chapter 3 includes a quiz that will help you assess your Quiet Influence Quotient (QIQ), a measurement of how effective you are at using each of the Six Strengths. In the subsequent chapters, you will then explore each of those strengths. You’ll read stories, gain practical tips, and even learn when too much of a strength can become a liability.
If you enhance your own quiet strengths, you will make a difference by challenging the status quo, provoking new ways of thinking, effecting change and inspiring others to move forward in ways that magnify who you are and bring forth your passion. Passion does not have to be expressed with fiery words and expressive body language. It can also be a fire burning within. For Quiet Influencers, that internal blaze sparks the courage, creativity, tenacity, and drive that underpin influence. As you read the stories and quotes in this book, keep an eye out for various forms of passion that ignite the Quiet Influencers’ desire to make a difference. In chapter 6, for instance, you’ll meet Elisha Holtzclaw, a pediatric oncology nurse. She expresses the inner fervor so common to Quiet Influencers when she said, “I love my work and it is in my heart. It is because I have a heart that can handle it. This is my calling.”
May you tap into your own heart, your own strengths, and answer your own unique way of making a quietly powerful difference.