Develop and stand by your Convictions

Conviction - Webster defines conviction as a strong belief or opinion.  

In the course of our daily business interactions, there are many occasions where we need to provide our opinions on various matters - some with smaller implications and some with larger implications.  Some people have the ability to generate greater buy-in in to their thoughts, ideas, and opinions than others.  This ability to generate buy-in in to one's thoughts and opinions is one of the key traits of successful leaders. 

If we look more closely in to why these leaders are able to gain more buy-in and influence others, few things stand out.  These leaders would have done the following:

1. Thought through the matter at hand from all possible perspectives.  
2. Researched and gathered the required data to form an informed opinion.  
3. Developed their hypothesis on the matter.  
4. Tested their hypothesis with the data they gathered.  
5. And finally they would have developed a very strong opinion - a conviction

Their opinions are based on facts and not emotions.  They know the alternatives and the pros and cons of the available options. They are able to speak with authority as they have done their research already.  They can communicate effectively and efficiently as they are not making it up on the fly.  And they inspire confidence in their audience and hence they are able to generate buy-in.  More importantly they stand by their convictions and not afraid to stand by their point of view even before people of higher authority by rank.  

The thing these leaders need to watch out though is not to fall in to the trap of over confidence.  They should still be open to others feedback and input and be flexible to change their own point of view if their assumptions proves to be incorrect or they learn new facts.  

Develop a strong point of view, a conviction, on important matters and stand by your conviction.