When seeking change, you will often start out by thinking about who the influencers are and how you could influence them or have them influence others. You may draw up a stakeholder management plan or a spreadsheet mapping out key people of influence in the domain you want to reach.

Xero, the very successful accounting software company that has superseded MYOB in the number one spot in this sector, used this strategy successfully.

Those most likely to recommend an accounting or bookkeeping software package to you are, unsurprisingly, accountants. Xero targeted accountants by showing them how its software could make accountants' lives easier. Xero's big WIIFM (what's in it for me?) was to demonstrate to accountants that they understood what it was like to walk in their customers' shoes. Accountants, as key influencers, were in turn able to explain the software, demonstrate its benefits and persuade their clients to make the switch, hence Xero's tremendous success.

Identify the movers and shakers

You can map out a similar approach. Identify who the key influencers are in your target audience's world, and how you might reach and persuade them. This exercise will also help you identify blockers — people who could stymie your initiatives.

To be successful, you must identify your enemies as well as your allies, and develop strategies to at least neutralise them, if not convert them.

Twitter and Facebook are great media to use to identify and reach out to the movers and shakers in your domain.

The Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 did this well by publicly co-opting celebrities to participate in the campaign to raise awareness and money for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or motor neuron disease.

ALS, which causes muscle wasting, has no known cure. The campaign challenged celebrities to video themselves upending a bucket of ice and water over their heads, and at the same time to publicly challenge at least three other personalities to do the same. It created a viral ripple of publicity, giving the campaign unprecedented exposure and fundraising success.

In my work, my target audience is organisational leaders, and in Australia business leaders read the Australian Financial Review newspaper and its monthly Boss magazine.

One of my strategies for reaching and influencing this audience was to feature with three of my clients in Boss. The February 2014 article was a huge lead generator for me, and remains so. Determining what your audience reads, who influences them and where they gather will all contribute to your reach and your influence.

Reach out to connect and influence

Identifying the influencers in your domain (inside and outside your organisation) is a good first step. How you reach out to connect and influence them is determined by your own creativity and imagination.

Christina Guidotti, a thought leader in productivity, is the author of How to Have It All. When writing her book on productivity, she reached out to Brian Tracey, author of the monster bestseller Eat That Frog, to ask if he would consider writing a foreword.

She sent her request via email, included a synopsis of her book and let him know she was a huge fan. She wasn't sure he would even respond, but, she thought, you never know unless you try. Brian Tracey was impressed enough by her enthusiasm that he wrote that foreword.

In a workshop recently one of my clients shared her secret for getting what she wanted. She succeeds, she said, simply by asking for what she wants. It may sound obvious, but most people struggle with the concept. This was brought home to her when she came back from a conference loaded with goodies and a colleague asked her how she finished up with two pens. She blinked and replied, ‘Why, I asked for them'.

Everyone listening was inspired to try this simple influence strategy. Of course, you will not always get what you ask for, but at least you've made a start.

One of Australia's most heavily booked speakers sends a beautiful gift pack filled with popcorn, chocolate and brochures to speaker bureaus. He has identified the audience that can book him for speaking engagements and deliberately sets out to woo them. His memorable gift boxes help him stand out from everyone else.

The rise of the mega influencer

What I am going to suggest here is you shift from influencing the influencers to becoming the influencer in your domain. Whoa!

When you think of branding or marketing, who comes to mind? Is it Seth Godin? What about productivity? Is it David Allen (Getting Things Done)? What about talk show hosts? Oprah Winfrey?

All these people influence you because of their profile and positioning. Remember they didn't start out as mega influencers but became mega influencers along their journey of influence.

Book publishers uncork the champagne when Oprah picks one of their authors to feature as her ‘book of the month'. They know her influence in America and globally will have cash registers ringing, automatically guaranteeing a blockbuster. It happens, even when a writer (think Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections) decides not to support the selection.

Profile and positioning

What makes a mega influencer or thought leader a rock star in the organisational world? Just as we associate Einstein with physics or Charles Darwin with the theory of evolution, we should associate mega influencers with profile and positioning. Mega influencers are not born but made one step at a time, each step dedicated to working on their profile and positioning.

Profile and positioning differ subtly. In their business book Sell Your Thoughts, Matt Church, Peter Cook and Scott Stein describe positioning as being the expert in your domain, and profile as being known as the expert. Often experts have positioning — they know their subject inside out — but they are not known for their expertise.

On the other hand, some people have profile, but no positioning, which makes the profile a hollow promise. They're famous for being famous, through a name or an inheritance, rather than for any expertise. You could call it the Paris Hilton phenomenon.

While you and I live in an age of instant celebrity (Andy Warhol's celebrated 15 minutes of fame), this is not what I mean when I talk about profile or positioning. If you crave the short cut to fame through celebrity or notoriety — the kind of mentality, for instance, that might persuade you that one sizzling sex video will set you on your way — you won't find the formula here. But if you are looking to build an enduring profile and positioning based on work, integrity and authenticity, then please read on.

When we discuss mega influencers who use their profile and positioning to advance their own and others' causes, understand that their success is always based on credibility and expertise.

Mega influencers use both profile and positioning to achieve super influence. They embody competitive advantage. Their positioning and profile create commercial advantage, profit and prosperity for themselves, their organisations and the world they influence.

Bernard Salt, international demographer, author and KPMG partner, is a classic example of this new age mega influencer. He is positioned as an expert in his field and has the profile to back it up. Many people have heard of him and refer to his work, and his clients and prospects fall over themselves to work with him.

Salt popularised the expressions ‘sea change' and ‘tree change', and gave Australia the ‘goat's cheese curtain', for a ring around inner-city Melbourne delineating the area in which a hipster lifestyle flourishes.

Bernard Salt is all the things we're talking about: a mega influencer, a professional rock star.

How to become a mega influencer

Imagine if your organisation was packed with mega influencers and the quantum leap this would allow you to make over your competitors. More importantly, imagine if you were a mega influencer. How can you become a mega influencer by building your position and profile inside and outside your organisation for prosperity, profit and competitive advantage? And do this with authenticity, integrity and longevity? That is what we will do in the model that follows.

Brand Godin and Brand Oprah weren't created overnight. Building your profile and position is a long-term game, a marathon, not a sprint. Everything you do to reinforce your profile and positioning will add weapons to your arsenal of influence.

In this journey (illustrated in figure 11.1) you start at base camp by doing the work. Doing the work lays a strong foundation for your success as a mega influencer. Once you have successfully set up base camp you can begin your climb to mega influence by getting your voice heard, learning and growing, and partnering with the right people before scaling the giddy heights to conquer the rock star peak of your world.

At base camp

The first stage in the mega influencer's journey is like setting up at base camp. Base camp is where you build the foundation from which you'll make your steady climb up the professional mountain.

Base camp is made up of three steps:

1. Do the work.
2. Promote the work.
3. Engage others.

1. Do the work (create and contribute)

Jerry Seinfeld was paid a very large fee to present his success secrets at a leadership conference. Legend has it he entered stage right, wrote three words on a big whiteboard at centre stage and exited stage left. He wrote: ‘DO THE WORK!'

Three simple words, and his secret to success.

Your journey to becoming a mega influencer starts in the humblest way. You must do the work. Even Bernard Salt, while he has minions churning out reports and crunching data, still does the thinking. Oprah commands a mighty team, yet she reads, researches and vets ideas all the time.

So doing the work will give you the strongest foundation you can build on your path to becoming a mega influencer. I know it's unglamorous. Like Cinderella, you would probably prefer to skip straight to the ball with the glass slipper and the prince. But that amazing transformation is not possible without humble beginnings.

The US TV series Undercover Boss takes remote business owners and senior executives out of their ivory towers and onto the shop floor. The disguised execs join ordinary workers at the coalface to experience the conditions there, to discover what makes people tick and to learn who is doing it hard.

It's made-for-TV drama, often with a big finish where all is revealed, with tears and hugs and hard-working employees rewarded in unexpected ways. The series promotes the idea that it is the work that matters.

No matter who you are, whether you are a small cog, the monkey that keeps the wheels turning or a mysterious god at the top of the corporate pile, this first step is the same. Create the work or contribute to the work.

Surprisingly, most people stop here. They firmly believe the work will speak for itself. Women particularly suffer from what I call meritocracy bias — a notion that merit will be duly recognised and rewarded. You do the work and you wait for the accolades to flow. And if we lived in a perfect world, it would happen. The hard reality is we don't, and recognition and rewards don't always match performance.

I have suffered from this syndrome too. In an early job, in a pharmaceutical company, I worked on a project shoulder to shoulder with a male colleague. We worked in a very similar way and with similar results. Our team had regular meetings at which everyone shared what they were working on.

My colleague presented his work in a way that blew everyone away. You'd think he was saving at-risk babies single-handedly and changing the world at the same time. And in a sense he was. He wasn't inventing the results, or even wildly exaggerating, but rather presenting his work in the best possible light. So while you do the work, this next step is equally critical.

Regrettably, rather than doing the same, ensuring that my work and the results it achieved for my team and for me were recognised, I chose to let the work speak for itself.

My male colleague received his just rewards. I didn't. Not bitter, just observing!

Rather than excessive humility (‘The meek shall inherit the earth'), the real world will often favour delusions of grandeur (‘Build it and they will come'). As bestselling author activist, author and co-founder of The Peace Alliance, Marianne Williamson says, ‘We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you … As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same'.

2. Promote the work

Many Australians are reluctant to promote their own achievements for fear of the tall poppy syndrome, where others feel obliged to chop them down. Many build nests and hibernate once they have done the work. No one else knows what they do.

Mega influencers resist this tendency. Not only do they take pride in their work, but they make sure it receives the recognition it deserves, not just for themselves, but also for the benefit of their colleagues and the organisation.

As Guy Kawasaki puts it in Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions, ‘If you don't toot your own horn, don't complain that there's no music'.

If you use the same approach on your journey to becoming a mega influencer, you'll be surprised at the number of supporters your courage and determination will flush out to negate the naysayers and curmudgeons. Once you commit to the work, you must also commit to promoting the work — for everyone's benefit.

I run a storytelling business. I don't start by promoting myself but by promoting the field of business storytelling. I talk about it as a valuable skill for leaders all over the world. I talk about the progress of the art, research from the field and many other aspects.

Through talking about storytelling, I showcase my knowledge and expertise. When I talk about the work I have done with individual clients, I cross the bridge between promoting the work and promoting my work. And the two are already linked, so the transition is smooth and natural. (Look how I am promoting myself in these paragraphs you have just read! Practise what you preach, as they say.)

Promoting your sector builds a subtle bridge that can lead you to promoting your own work.

No one else knows what you do or what successes and learnings you have had unless you share them. As an authority and spokesperson for your industry or sector, or on your journey to becoming one, you earn the right to link yourself to its stories ahead of your competitors. But make sure you also credit others who have helped you. They'll thank you for the recognition and help you again.

Running an undercover operation around your work differs dramatically from shouting its successes from the rooftops.

Talking up your business or organisation may feel like blowing your own trumpet, and to a degree it is, since no one but a saint will do it for you. But knowing the difference between self-promotion and trumpet-blowing makes all the difference.

Make the work the star, and credit others who have helped you, especially your mentors, sponsors and team. If you are seeking inspiration on how to do this well, tune in to the speeches award-winning actors give at the Oscars. The best always make it about the movie and always express gratitude to everyone who made it happen.

Consider another prong to promoting your work: always promote work that is of interest to your sector and is commercially successful.

Make the promotion relevant. For example, few will pay particular attention to your talking about how you reshape internal guidelines for your team. But link this to how your work will change the way your sector does business in the future, and you'll capture your audience's attention.

Another obstacle to promoting your work is ‘silo speak', where you use jargon from your area of expertise and expect it to resonate with others.

For example, business development practitioners who talk about unlocking brand value, or accountants who discuss capital asset depreciation will generally fail to impress. You may think this kind of language makes you look professional but it can position you as unintelligible or, worse, as someone who is competent in only a narrow area of business.

If you suffer from silo speak, and we all have our moments, this is an ideal time to revisit chapter 8 on message power.

This poses an interesting conundrum. Your journey to becoming a mega influencer is primarily based on your solid knowledge and talent in your field (your positioning as an expert) and on being known for your expertise (your profile). But it is also based on how you can make this knowledge accessible to others.

How will you safely emerge from the trenches of competitive expertise and connect with your allies in your and other sectors to push forward with the stories and promotions that matter to your business?

Think Bernard Salt's goat's cheese curtain. He has unscrambled demographic and lifestyle data into a simple idea you can relate to, and that is what makes him a mega influencer. Again the lessons from chapter 8 serve us well.

3. Engage others

The best way to promote the work and your work is to engage others in it. Remember the golden rule of reciprocity: treat others as you would have them treat you. Translate that into engaging in their work too, or at least showing an interest in it. Nothing is more flattering than someone taking an interest in you and your enterprise. Returning the favour shows you're aware this journey is about more than you.

We recently concluded a large project with an organisation that was keen to promote its work internally. One of the challenges our client wanted us to address was how little people within the 13 000-strong organisation knew of the great work done by so many of their colleagues. Sadly this was the case even when people worked within metres of one another.

One of our initiatives was to train people from inside the organisation to present a three- to five-minute TED-style talk on their passion and purpose, and what lit them up at work.

This resulted in a five-week program and graduation where a number of staff presented to a theatre full of their colleagues, leaders and peers from inside and outside the organisation.

So many of the talks were emotionally wrenching. Some had people in tears. At the end one leader summed it up like this:

‘I feel so proud to work here. I always knew we did amazing work but I only ever got to see or hear of a few disparate incidents.

‘Now I and everyone here knows we do good work, work that makes a difference and work that makes us proud. I also feel sad that we never heard from all of you before. And how many more amazing stories do we have in our organisation that never see the light of the day? I urge you all to go back, share your work, share your stories and ask your colleagues for theirs.'

She may have been speaking for many organisations and people in business. Bad news spreads like wildfire, but we simply don't share the good stuff enough. So why not decide that you will be your organisation's broadcaster? It doesn't mean you become the office gossip. Quite the opposite. You start by collecting and broadcasting good news stories.

If you work for yourself you can distribute customer testimonials and references. As with everything, you have to do this well. This isn't a bragathon.

Be discerning and choose what's relevant to your audience. Go back to chapter 7 on empathy power for a refresher and pointers. For inspiration, look at or listen to the daily news on TV or radio. Broadcasting and engaging others in your work must follow these principles. Mix it up, find out what else is happening in the business and broadcast good news about that too. The TED talk series gave our clients an opportunity to do just that.

We often overlook another simple but effective strategy: engage the power of corridor and lift conversations.

Sometimes the small things can make a big impact, just as a tiny magnet can lift iron filings. Many of my clients work with thousands of colleagues in large office towers in the city. Every day they share the lift with relative strangers, but strangers with whom they already have one vital point in common: they all work for the same organisation. Each encounter represents an opportunity to connect and engage in their work and yours. Try a smile and a friendly chat.

Neil Armstrong was a master at taking a genuine interest in others. At a lunch organised in his honour, he was enthusiastically quizzing a lunch companion about all the places she had travelled.

Although she was flattered, she burst out, ‘But Mr Armstrong, you have been to the moon'. To which he replied, ‘That's the only place I have been; tell me more about your travels'.

Armstrong never let his celebrity go to his head and always showed an interest in other people. This is one of the fundamental principles that Dale Carnegie sets out in his blockbuster How to Win Friends and Influence People.

You will be delighted with the synergies and opportunities you discover when you build those bridges and connections. This is a step towards building your profile — ensuring that more people know about you, what you do and what you stand for.

Google spends vast sums of money on its workspaces, recognising the power of people working face to face in a common space. They call it the bump factor. People bump into each other in the gym, in the lift, in the corridor — all these random opportunities for connection and potential collaboration, for ideas to seed and grow.

One of the first and perhaps most controversial initiatives Marissa Mayer adopted as CEO of Yahoo was to dismantle the well-entrenched practice of remote telecommuting. She did so partly because it was being abused, but also to promote the power of people working together face to face and to give the organic bump factor a giant boost.

Leaving base camp … ready to conquer

The foundations of your mega influencer journey are to do the work, to promote the work then your work, and to engage with others. Now that you've successfully set up base camp, you're ready to spin the dial on your positioning and profile and to start the climb to the peak.

Conquering the mountain means committing to three stages:

1. Be heard.
2. Learn and grow.
3. Partner others for mutual progress.

1. Be heard

You will start your climb by being heard and having your voice recognised inside the organisation. Standing out starts by speaking out. When people think about your area of expertise, yours should be one of the first names that spring to mind.

A simple way of being heard is to speak up in meetings. Make a point, however small, perhaps by reaffirming what someone else has said or asking a question. So often people simply don't speak up in meetings. They're frightened of saying the wrong thing or appearing stupid; they feel intimidated by the power players in the room.

But don't overdo it. At the other end of the spectrum are the people who won't shut up. A few weeks ago at a council community engagement forum, a man stood up and made a powerful point, supporting it with a snappy example. A lot of heads nodded.

But then he went on to explain, elaborate, elucidate, embroider and reiterate his point for another five minutes, scarcely drawing breath. You could see the shift in the room. People started coughing, shuffling papers, tapping their feet.

Speaking out isn't a mandate to over-talk. Comments about this speaker overheard during a break were unflattering: ‘Loves the sound of his own voice.' ‘You can never get him to shut up.' He wasn't a close-talker but an over-talker.

Sometimes over-talkers start off persuasively but undo their good work with boring repetition. Or they cover up a lack of knowledge or preparation by making the same point in multiple ways. It's conversational smoke and mirrors.

When speaking out, apply the Goldilocks principle: not too much, not too little.

Maybe you never speak at meetings. Here are some suggestions, depending on where you are on the speaking-up spectrum. Remember, you are speaking up to build your positioning and profile.

Prepare and rehearse. Think of cuisine queen Nigella Lawson (‘Here's some I made earlier'), and pre-prepare some points or questions. This will help you tackle nerves and other blocks that prevent you from speaking up publicly.

At the meeting, resolve to make your point even if it is only a minor one, or ask the question you prepared earlier. Do it as soon as is appropriate so you don't lose courage and so no one else beats you to the punch with your question.

After the meeting, pat yourself on the back for having taken that first step. Next time, ask two questions and make a comment, even if only to reaffirm what someone else has said.

What if you do speak up, but you're uncertain if this is a step in the right direction on your journey to becoming a mega influencer? To help, before the meeting, do some extra reading and preparation on the subject. Never go in cold.

At the meeting, instead of adopting your default speaking position (it could be that you always object or wholeheartedly agree or nimbly pass the buck), think how you can add value.

To be a true mega influencer, think about the private discourse behind the discussion. While they may all appear to agree on an issue, you may have picked up on a sense of unease or discomfort, something that hasn't been voiced — an elephant in the room.

You don't have to resolve the problem but you can draw it out: ‘I sense a level of unease or doubt about this. Is that right?' People may then reveal what is bothering them and, with some informed discussion, you may be able to resolve it as a group. People will admire you for your courage and honesty. You have now moved from just speaking, and having your voice heard, to making a difference and a contribution.

In her book The Artist's Way,Julia Cameron suggests a good way of approaching this. Keep notes on meetings by running a line down the middle of a page of your notebook, recording what is said on the right and what is unsaid (feelings, agendas, elephants) on the left.

After the meeting, congratulations: you are playing a bigger game, with every meeting a speaking opportunity and a milestone on your journey to becoming a mega influencer.

What if you speak too much? Many of us have been guilty of over-talking. I know I have! Before the meeting, embrace the less-is-more principle. Watch out for these red flags:

• I'm holding court for more than a couple of minutes without drawing breath.
• I'm not allowing anyone else to get a word in.
• I'm repeating myself, while one part of my brain is screaming ‘Stop talking now!'
• People who were bright and sparkly when I started are now distracted and listless.

Not for a moment am I suggesting you should be taciturn or speak only in staccato bursts. Great conversations and deep connections make the personal and business world go round. But over-talkers lose out on these benefits just as under-talkers do.

After the meeting remind yourself that the first step needed for change is self-awareness. The second step is to modify your behaviour based on the red flags above. Analyse how you went as follows:

• Did I add value to the meeting?
• Did I make my points in the shortest and clearest possible way?
• Is my contribution helping me on my journey to becoming a mega influencer?
• Rinse and repeat for the next meeting!

Speaking is like a muscle. You may need to exercise it more to build it up or, if it is overused, rest it.

Speaking out builds your identity, helps you voice your thoughts and opinions and allows you to make a difference in your world. You speak with strategic intent, knowing each delivery is helping you build your positioning and profile.

Of course, you do this with authenticity and integrity, and don't lose your spontaneity. You don't want everything scripted or manufactured. Maintaining your moral compass and intent, you take a step closer to your status as a mega influencer.

2. Learn and grow

Your next imperative is to constantly seek and embrace learning opportunities, both formal and informal. Sign up for courses, and put your hand up for projects that expose you to the movers and shakers in your organisation or sector. Remember, if you want to be successful, associate with successful people.

In every situation, ask yourself, ‘What can I learn from this?' When you ask for mentoring, be prepared to mentor others. This doesn't have to involve a formal mentoring role, but you can always provide advice or suggestions for the newbie or the less experienced.

‘Pay it forward', so to speak, by supporting and encouraging other people where possible. Nothing is better for your own growth, your reputation and your network. But again don't be the annoying ‘know it all'. Always be clear-sighted about when your help could make a difference and when it is unlikely to. If you are not the right person, suggest a more appropriate expert and offer to connect them.

The single most powerful thing we can do for our personal and professional growth is to read. Pat yourself on the back, because you are already doing that.

Lots of business professionals struggle with reading. We never have enough time, or we feel overwhelmed by choice and worry about staying current in our field. Research suggests that most people don't get beyond page 40 of the average business book.

Today we are drowning in content and books, and we have never lived in a time when it has been easier to read. So how do we pick what to read, and how can we read faster and smarter? While you can and should subscribe to blogs (especially mine!) and podcasts, I am going to focus on books, which tend to present more complex ideas in greater depth.

First, discover the classic book and the current blockbuster in your field, and read both. Browse bestseller lists, such as those offered by the New York Times, Forbes or editor's picks at Amazon. A Google search of ‘must-read business books' will leave you spoilt for choice.

Also find out what other people are reading. Ask friends and family. Check out what leading thinkers such as Seth Godin or business leaders such as Bill Gates are recommending.

Now you have a short list of must-reads, how can you read faster and smarter? The good news is you don't have to read every book from cover to cover (apart from this one, of course — don't stop here!). The app Blinkist, for example, will provide you with a short summary of the book along with the irresistible promise of ‘a smarter you in 15 minutes'. Using this app I will often read my first business book of the day over a morning cup of coffee. For longer summaries, subscribe to a service such as getAbstract. If you prefer auditory learning, a talking book service such as Audible is a great option. Overachievers in my gym often combine audible with exercise. All these services come with a free trial period so you can experiment to find one that works for you.

Two strategies to use here are compression (what compressed version of the book can I read or listen to right now?) and ‘making time in time' (such as reading on your phone while waiting for an appointment, reading a summary in the train on the way to work, or listening on your headphones while walking your dog or driving).

So what else can you do in terms of ‘learning and growing'? Smooth others' paths as much as you would like yours to be smoothed. No one gets to the top without building bridges, nurturing relationships, making friends (and maybe a few enemies) and doing good work along the way.

In their bestseller The Power of Nice, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval share how they have moved to the top of the advertising industry by following a simple but powerful philosophy: it pays to be nice.

Where so many companies encourage a dog-eat-dog mentality, the Kaplan Thaler Group has succeeded through chocolate and flowers. Through recounting their own experiences and the stories of other people and businesses, they demonstrate why, contrary to conventional wisdom, nice people can finish first. Your learn and grow phase is about everyone with you learning and growing too. So don't hog the platform and don't be selfish with opportunities; be both a giver and a taker, not just a taker.

3. Partner others for mutual progress

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama went out to a local diner for a quiet dinner. The owner of the diner asked to speak with Michelle in private.

When she returned the president, intrigued, asked: ‘What was that about?' She replied, ‘Oh, he was my first boyfriend and just wanted to say hello'.

To which Obama joked, ‘So if you were married to him you'd be running this restaurant'.

And Michelle quipped back, ‘No, if I was married to him, he would be President of the United States'.

On your conquest of the mountain you also have to partner with the right people, both inside and outside your organisation or industry.

At base camp you were fully occupied thinking about engaging in people, engaging in their work and inviting them to engage in yours. How can you partner with people inside your organisation? And what would you partner them for?

Not all of these stages are always discrete, of course; they frequently overlap. In the learning and growing phase you might find the best way to learn more about marketing is by partnering with the marketers in their next project; or you might explore how you could add value to the production team by visiting their meetings to share ideas or brainstorm. And learning and growing never stops — in business, as in life, we must be dedicated lifelong learners.

I don't pretend the partnering process will be easy. You may have to cross tight departmental lines. Your ability to partner will depend on the relationships you formed at base camp and all through your journey.

You don't need many partnerships, but those you do form must be strategic. Wearing your smartest, sharpest commercial hat, ask, ‘What is the most important project in the business right now? Where is everyone's attention, energy and money focused?'

This would be a great arena in which to form a partnership by sharing what you might bring to the table.

For example, a learning and development practitioner might hear of a large tender for government work and find out that there is scope around learning opportunities. You could offer to partner the business development team in writing up and contributing to this part of the proposal.

If you pitch it well, and they are smart, they should rush to take you up on the offer.

At the same time, beware of the dangers of aligning yourself with a large or prestigious project. It may associate you with suggestions of opportunism. Or with major public failure: the collapse of a large star swallows many smaller stars. Choose well.

You may also choose to hitch your wagon to a star by following people you admire and want to work with, rather than particular opportunities. I have done this in my professional life, and with them as partners I have been guided to the right decisions, have loved my work and have grown through the process.

As well as checking which projects may benefit from your partnership input, consider who will lead the projects. Are they admired within the business or sector? Are they known for their commitment, delivery, results and management? Will you enjoy partnering with them, learn from them and grow? Or are they ambitious egotists who take all the credit when things go well, and dodge the blame for failures? Consider all these factors before bravely throwing your partnership gauntlet down.

What about supplier partners? Who are the supplier partners outside your business from whom your business would benefit? One of our clients, who had brought us in for a large project in her financial services firm, later said, ‘It was one of the best career decisions I ever made'.

A good supplier can be a wonderful partner and help you shine inside the organisation. But the same rules apply in choosing an external partner as an internal partner.

On your mountain climb, by working on being heard, learning and growing, and partnering inside and outside your organisation or industry, you build on your positioning and profile as a mega influencer.

At the peak

You've made it to the top. This is where you emerge like a butterfly from your cocoon and spread your wings wide. And nothing will build your visibility more than teaching and publishing.

Teaching and publishing means using every opportunity to present inside and outside your organisations. By now your confidence will have grown enough that you will be presenting in all kinds of forums.

Start small

Many great speakers have started small and come up through the ranks, seeking or accepting invitations from schools, community groups, or service clubs such as Rotary or Toastmasters. You can do the same. The world is always short of speakers.

You can then go on to larger events and stages, presenting at conferences, seminars and workshops. Never miss an opportunity to speak and teach around your area of expertise.

When Anthony Robbins decided he wanted to be a great public speaker, he attended a course, at the end of which the teacher set the class a challenge: ‘For the next 10 weeks, I want each of you to speak publicly at least once a week'.

Most of the class said, ‘No, that's too hard'. Anthony Robbins knew he needed all the practice he could get so he decided he would speak publicly three times a day every day for 10 weeks. And he did.

It didn't matter where — in a library, on a street corner, in a classroom, wherever people gathered. At the end of 10 weeks his classmates had spoken 10 times, while he had spoken more than 200 times. But even he began with that small first step.

Write your way up

The other way to build both profile and positioning is by writing. You might start with a humble blog post, put up an article on your intranet, feature in an interview in your industry magazine, do a podcast on one of your articles, write a white paper or make a contribution as a guest on another website.

Here's a handy tip on writing: create content once, but leverage it often. Remember, you have done the work, built a foundation. You create content for your presentations and speeches using the message mastery tools in chapter 8. Now you turn this same content into a blog post or a podcast.

The easiest way to write is not to write at all. How can that work?

Can you talk about your topic? Then simply record into your phone and transcribe this audio into an article. I know authors who have written whole books this way. With technology, tools and business smarts, you can ride this horse many ways.

Pete Williams of Deloitte Digital is a great role model on how to become a mega influencer through the power of publishing and teaching. He speaks and writes prolifically on his area of expertise: the digital economy.

And remember, everyone started somewhere. Your first piece of writing may not be a polished gem; perhaps it's only a humble lump of coal. It still puts you ahead of millions of other people who don't even have a chunk of coal. And time and the steady pressure of practice will one day turn that handful of carbon into the diamond it deserves to be.

Lead from the front

When you reach the peak it's clear for all to see you're leading from the front. Lead the thinking in your field, even if you don't have the formal title of leader.

Be visible inside and outside your organisation or sector, partner and work with movers and shakers on successful projects, learn and grow, mentor and be mentored.

Think of Madonna, who creates a new version of herself for a new audience every decade. Leaders also embrace constant reinvention. Reinvention keeps you on top of your game and helps you stay current and relevant. The greatest danger at this stage is that hubris can kick in, rendering you complacent.

Speak, publish, represent your company and yourself, and don't hide your light under a bushel. But at all times act with integrity.

And practise, practise, practise.

If you practise all these tips, you will become a professional rock star. You will reach that sweet spot where positioning and profile meet. You will graduate from being influenced to influencing others to becoming a mega influencer.

You will help shape the discourse and opinions of your industry. You will sway audiences and your words will be quoted, repeated and used when business decisions are made.

Be aware that with great power comes great responsibility. Those who succeed in the mega influence space over the long term have moved from pure ego and ambition to creating and sharing meaning for others as well as themselves. In their way, they have stopped just influencing people and started to use their influence for a better world and a better future.

The world needs mega influencers, just as it needs great and challenging mountains against which mega influencers can prove themselves and inspire you and me. Are you ready for the climb?

You'll need courage and determination and, perhaps even more (as explored in the following chapter), you'll need to channel fierce power.