To be more effective at work, you’ll want to build your ability to influence or persuade your colleagues.  Influential people are able to motivate co-workers and bring people together in pursuit of specific goals. On a personal level, people who are influential at work help their careers by having better chances of job promotion and salary increases.

You can work on building your influence with your staff and co-workers. Caroline Castrillon, writing on Forbes.com recommends the following five actions:

• Practice active listening. Active listening makes your colleagues feel respected, and helps to build rapport. To practice active listening, pay close attention (don’t interrupt), repeat back what you’ve heard, and ask clarifying questions.
• Come across as confident. Confidence can be projected by your body posture (practice taking a strong stance), and your tone of voice (avoid sounding nervous).
• Become an expert. Mastery of your subject provides authority. To become an expert, invest time and resources in continuing education.
• Practice amplification. Amplification is publicly supporting or complimenting your colleague’s ideas, in effect, promoting them to others.
• Use positive framing. When you frame issues as win-win,  you are finding mutual benefit in your negotiations and interactions with others. Positive framing helps everyone to commit to an agreed course of action.

For more, read 5 Ways to Build Influence at Work.