Introduction

Comfortable and disastrous times come in everybody’s life. Such periods require you to have a shoulder to cry on or share your happiness with.

Moreover, edgy times in your workplace can affect your morale and productivity to a greater extent. So it becomes crucial to surround yourselves with people who can help you during such moments.

But how can you win friends and influence people? This era of digitalization bolsters the process by helping you to connect with your coworkers easily.

Making friends and influencing people with the right strategies can help you to entice people towards your character.

Such friends will help you to motivate yourself in stressful times and keep you company.

Moreover, there is a book named “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. This book was published in 1936.

Since then, it has worked as a pathway for businessmen to pursue their goals by enticing coworkers towards their side.

The book has 30 principles that tell you how to win friends and influence people.

You can influence people in the world by aligning the strategies of work with your personal life. It tells you how to deal with the dynamic nature of humans.

One of the principles of the book is explained as follows.

The book says that while interacting with people, you should not consider them as figures of logic. On the other hand, people have emotions, thoughts, opinions, and they are motivated with appreciation.

Hence, we should make use of such qualities to spur our influence on the people.

So let us behold some of the techniques and strategies that help us to win friends and influence people.

Exhibit Interest

One of the best ways to entice people towards your personality is to show interest in them. For example, avoid saying “I did this.”

On the other hand, start asking “How was your experience while doing that activity?”

Let us glance at one of Dale Carnegie’s principles from “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. This principle shows the importance of having an interest in other people.

It says that an individual can make more connections in two months, rather than in two years.

They can do this by showing interest in the lives of other people, rather than making the people enthusiastic in your life.

Showing interest in others requires you to know about their family and other aspects of their personal life.

In such circumstances, you can give a small toy to your coworker’s child on their birthday. But make sure not to get too personal while conversing with them.

Sometimes, your colleagues may tell you about the ill health of their family members. To show care for them, you can ask about their health through a phone call or message.

Apart from this, have work-related talks with your colleagues. Offer them help to achieve their aims in the best way possible.

For example, you can congratulate your coworker on their success in procuring a profitable project.

Relevant Office Etiquette

Your moral and social ethics are likely to exhibit your professionalism and personality. Office decorum expects everyone to be kind to one another in the workplace.

This helps to create a peaceful and enjoyable environment and thus allures people towards your vibe.

Apart from this, you should always be positive and treat others with respect. Not following the basic mannerism exhibits your amateurism that is likely to make less impact on people.

Moreover, you should use the three magical words- please, sorry, and thank you. Being punctual to the office helps you to interact with others as well as impress your boss.

On the other hand, your manager may provide you with a remote working facility. In such a situation you should try not to transfer the work to your colleague.

Thus, as an individual of a workplace, you should be responsible enough to create a good impression of your image.

Effective Listener

Imagine a situation. You show interest in others and ask various questions to them. However, while they answer the questions, you do not pay heed to them.

Not only do you not maintain proper eye contact with them, but you also do not respond to their problems effectively.

In such situations, you are likely to tarnish your relationship with the other person. They will never want to talk to you again and feel insulted.

Thus, to foster relationships and influence people, it is crucial to be an effective listener.

A good listener not only listens to people but also provides various solutions for problems. However, avoid giving unsolicited advice to people.

Genuine Friend

You should always strive to be your reflection of a “good friend”. Ask yourself the question- Would you love to spend time with yourself if you were someone else?

If your answer is yes, then you are a good friend. This is because it is your personality and attitude that entices people towards you. So always remember to be kind to others.

A good looking resume with numerous accomplishments and technical skills will help you to enter the threshold of the organization.

But in the end, it’s your soft and social skills that allow you to make friends and connections with people.

Admit Your Mistakes

Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” says that any successful individual will try to learn from their mistakes. They should believe in the saying- “Failures are the pillars of success”.

Thus, you should use your errors as an opportunity to learn and give your best the next time.

Admitting your mistakes is a necessary skill in the workplace. It helps to exhibit your responsibility and growing nature.

This is because human beings generally make mistakes. But to accept them is a more significant task that helps you in your career development.

Moreover, apologizing for your mistakes makes the coworkers help you in improving them. On the other hand, being stubborn will only damage your reputation.

For example, your manager asked you to perform a task in a team. However, due to your mistake, the project could not be submitted before the deadline.

But you do not accept your error and thus, tell the employer that it was the team’s fault for such delay. This will lead your team to be against you.

Forget about influencing the people, but no one will even want to work with you again.

Honest Appreciation

Appreciating people in the workplace makes them want to talk to you. It also influences the people to give the best of their capabilities and thus motivates them.

You never know how your little deed of kindness can reignite the spark in an individual’s heart. Besides inspiring, it helps to improve the self-confidence of the people and thus know their importance.

So thank the people who organize your desk, an individual who fills your coffee mug, or your assistant.

Be it the janitor who cleans your bathroom, the cook who prepares food for you, or the CA who handles your accounts- honest praise can lighten up their day.

It is better to appreciate people with their names. For example, if you do not know their name, you can say- hi, this is (your name). I have seen you cook delicious food for me. May I know your name, please?

On the other hand, you should also congratulate your colleagues for their success and hard work.

Such appreciation exhibits your empathic skills and is likely to help you to initiate a conversation with different people.

Initiation

Maintaining connections with people and not checking on them is not right. Hence, you should try to bolster your connections with the people through effective initiation.

This means that you should start conversations with the people in the workplace. The digital era makes it easier to contact people in different places.

Take the phone numbers of your colleagues or their social media accounts and chat with them. Invite your colleagues to have lunch with you.

Maintaining friendships with people is like dating. Unless you start conversations with them, you will not foster a good relationship.

During your break or free time, go to the cabins of your colleagues. You should try to converse with them on mutual topics.

Ask them about the history of the photo frame kept on the desk. Moreover, make sure to collect relevant details during talking that can help you in future conversations with the person.

Such information may relate to a hobby, interest, or a favorite food of the individual.

Team Language

The words which one uses are the soul of the conversation. How to win friends and influence people? The best way is to sprinkle kindness in your words while speaking to them.

Team language refers to making people believe that your idea is theirs. Persuading people to agree to your vision helps to influence them.

For example, use words like “we” and “us” while exhibiting your ideas during conferences. This has two advantages.

First of all, it helps to implement your ideas due to more substantial support from the coworkers. Secondly, it gives power to the coworkers, and thus they will return your favor in the future.

Moreover, people are likely to develop loyalty and friendship with you if your ideas align with their requirements.

Lastly, it is the choice of words that determine the way you influence people. For example, use the word “please” rather than demanding people to perform an activity for you.

Candid

Exhibit your authentic self in front of the people in the workplace. If you try to be someone else, then it is likely to tarnish your professional image.

Being credible helps you to develop a meaningful connection with your colleagues, which is based on trust.

You should make sure not to change your opinions to suit the nature of other people. This is because people can come to know about the false statements in the end anyhow.

And dishonesty will degrade your relations.

There can be situations when you disagree with the views of other people. In such cases, it is better to express your honest opinions.

This is because each human has their own attitude of perceiving things. Hence, people are likely to entice individuals with the same liking and tendencies.

Impressive Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a brief introduction that you offer to prospective clients and colleagues.

It is a reflection of your personality and gives answers to several questions. Who are you? What do you do? What do you want to do?

Hence, the elevator pitch is a speech in a condensed form that helps the people to analyze your skills and aptitudes.

It gives the first impression to the people and allows you to augment your networking outreach. So you should create an impressive and intriguing elevator pitch that exhibits professionalism.

Preparing an elevator speech beforehand helps you to avoid awkward pauses. On the other hand, it also increases your chances of initiating a conversation with any person you come across in the workplace.

Effective Body Language

Researches showed that body language helps us to communicate between 70% to 93% of our information of which, the right tone helps in communicating 38% of the words.

So your content only has an importance of 7% in the process of communication.

Thus, while fostering relationships with people and conversing, you should exhibit acceptable body language. It is a reflection of your personality, self-confidence, and listening skills.

Try to revitalize the spirits of your colleagues through smiling. According to research, a single glance of 33-100 ms proffers the first impression of an individual.

Moreover, smiling helps to alleviate your mood and the mood of the people near you. You look easy to approach while smiling, and hence people will approach you and talk to you.

Conclusion

Thus, improved networking outreach is beneficial in the workplace. It helps you to procure various future job opportunities that can facilitate career development.

Moreover, it is our friends and supporters who show us the right path when we deviate from our goals.