Show and Tell: How to Gain Influence That Lasts

“Show and tell” is a very interesting phrase in many different fields.

Show and tell in writing and in demos

Back in my early days, I used to write, and editors used to say: you need to show it, not just say it. If something happens, you don’t say “an explosion” only; you paint a picture of how the explosion happened.

The same applies in systems development projects. The point of a demo is to show and tell: you don’t speak over the feature, you demonstrate it and let it speak for itself.

Ways people gain influence

I found it interesting how the same concept applies to ourselves. There are different ways people gain influence. A typical way is through power or fear: you listen to someone because you are scared of the consequences or how much damage they can do to you. Another is social status, such as popularity: you want to stay in their good books so their popularity may rub off on you.

However, those ways aren’t always effective in the long term. Lose your money or your popularity and see who is still around.

The influence that remains

The kind of influence that remains comes from not just saying it but showing it. In other words, practising your words. People tend to talk about things; I make a post every other week on a topic. But the key point is: do I do it? Talking about honesty and trustworthiness is easy, but do we apply it to ourselves?

Try this: ask people their impression of someone. You might hear “keep this one at arm’s length”, and you may hear “this one is a good person”. That person may not have any financial or social influence, but people will still respect them, or even listen to them. Why? Because they show it in their actions.

And that, my dear readers, is how to gain influence for the long term.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.