If no one’s told you yet, you are influential.
Or you can be—and knowing how to find your influence at work is what Brian Smith, founder and managing partner at consulting firm IA Business Advisors, hopes readers will take away from his and Mary Griffin’s three-part series, The “I” in Team. The final book in the series, Responsible Influence: Build the “I” in Team, was published on June 4.
Smith shared with HR Brew how people pros can find their influence and help employees do the same.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What do you want HR pros to know about your book series?
The three books are about the influence of humans in the different aspects we find ourselves, which is individual, alone, or together with one or more people on a team. That’s why it’s called The ‘I’ in Team Series. And, the books go over how to first find yourself and what your influence is…and then it progresses through our second book on what [you] do with that understanding, and third, with that understanding of what you want to do, how can you build and expand your influence to others?
Will there be another book in the series?
Our first book is our bestselling book even today, and it has caught on to basically the 16– to 24–year-old age group. And, so we are working on a book that is more specific to younger adults about understanding their influence and what they could do with that understanding from the perspective of younger people.
What kind of influence can HR pros have within their organization?
What they need to think about is how they address the individual and how they mentor each individual person in an organization [to understand] who they are within that organization and how it relates to who they are as a person…I think there’s a disconnect between what people think they’re there for and how they’re treated in relation to that, and I think that’s what causes a lot of HR’s problems is this disconnect between why somebody is there and what their influence is supposed to be, and what it really is.
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How can HR pros find their influence?
It starts with how we advertise and hire. So, first, how do we select our candidates, and how do we ensure that the right candidates are applying for the positions that need filling? And then, as those candidates begin to apply, how do we engage with them to learn as much as we can about them, about them as individuals, but also about them within the area of influence that they’re being considered to become part of. And then, once you choose that person, don’t lose that level of engagement, continue with that engagement, keep them included and empowered in the process of onboarding, and then continuous self and organizational improvement that will keep these individuals excited [and] focused.
How can HR help employees find their influence?
Speak to the underlying, foundational needs of people. Their security, not just physical security, but their emotional and mental health security. Allowing them to feel like they’re included and engaged with, and that they are participating in something…Equity is a word that’s kicked around a lot, but equity comes from investment, and you get equity in something by investing in it, which means that organizations need to invest in their people. And, they also need to provide for people the opportunity to invest their time, their effort, their futures in the organization.