A Political Perspective for Project Managers
In the opening chapter of my new book, A Project Manager's Guide to Influence, I suggest that the purpose of a project is to:
How to Make Your Agenda Powerful
While running a webinar for Warwick Business School in 2016, something quite unexpected happened. This particular event ran quite soon after the publication of Influential Leadership: A Leader's Guide to Influence. It was the first opportunity that I had had to ask a large group of people to identify the sources of power they were currently using.
As they placed their marks on my virtual slide, something very interesting emerged. Hardly any of them indicated Agenda as a source of power they used. This helped me to realise that the Power of Agenda is a massive opportunity for those who want to grow and develop their career, regardless of their level of experience and seniority.
Let me back up a little.
When writing Influential Leadership, I put a great deal of energy into researching and analysing what makes people Read More
Trying to Impress the Boss? Don’t Try Too Hard
The trouble with bosses is that they can have such a massive effect on your life. They can decide to promote you or fire you. To a great extent, your future is in their hands.
Making a good impression becomes vital. Shine in their eyes and you will rise. They will favour you with the best development opportunities, your performance reviews will be a foregone conclusion and as for pay? Well, they will do what they can.
A bad impression with the boss, well, where are you going Read More
The Practice of Stakeholder Management
If you need to get things done, you need to get your stakeholders on your side. In my recent book, Influential Leadership: A Leader's Guide to Getting Things Done I shared a process I have been evolving over the last ten years. Here is a short video, taken during a recent workshop, that considers the more practical aspects of using this process to engage with your stakeholders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EXz7Xj9NNk
There is a great deal more Read More
Seven Ways to Build Extraordinary Trust
If you want to become more successful at selling, make sure that your customer trusts you. It doesn't matter what you are selling (product, service or idea), or who you are selling to (client, colleague or spouse). The more trust you engender, the more likely they will buy.
There is no need to waste your time here with lengthy rationale. Just consider the last time you bought something from someone you distrusted. My bet is that you'll find it quite hard to think of an example. Much easier is to think of a time when you bought something from someone you did trust. How did you feel about the transaction? What difference does it make to you that you trusted the individual (or company)?
Rather than debate how you might be able to Read More
How to Manage a Crisis
Once upon a time, I suggested to my MD that if he didn’t give me a crisis, I would make one. Never afraid of a crisis and confident in my ability to manage, effectively what I was saying was that I was bored and wanted some excitement. He duly obliged and I didn’t have to create any problem.
Fortunately, at that time I had the benefit of lots of experience in managing difficult situations, so I was pretty confident I could handle what he threw at me ― and I did. We all have to start somewhere, so here are a few thoughts about what I have learned about managing people during times of crisis.
BEFORE you do any of this, make sure Read More
Building Purpose by Creating Visions
Having an inspired vision of the future, perhaps surprisingly, is not essential, but it really does help. Being a leader, a true leader, is all about helping people to reach towards the future, which is why it helps so much if you can create a vision. If you cannot do that, it's still okay, provided you can set and guide the team strategically.
Assuming you are here to stretch yourself beyond your current limits, here's a simple process to use to create your leadership vision.
Problems
Being realistic, most good visions Read MoreThe Stakeholder Management Collection
Stakeholders are everywhere and your ability to engage, manage and influence them is usually mission critical. If you are unable to succeed in this respect, you are unlikely to succeed, period.
The Influence Blog is focused on helping ambitious and talented professionals to take positive, high-integrity to become more influential, so naturally there is a great deal of content here relevant to your work with stakeholders. Read More
Escalation Woes: Alleviating the Grief
In all big relationships, be they supplier, outsourcing or strategic alliances, escalation processes are inevitable and necessary. They are formal procedures to resolve intractable problems between the parties. While accepting that these processes need to be used, and should be used, I do feel that they are often overused, and over relied upon to solve problems.
Why? Well, to provoke a little debate:
- Escalation presents an easy excuse at lower levels to pass responsibility up the chain of command.
- The pervasive myth that senior people are better placed to solve these problems.
- Failure to build trust and credibility at the appropriate levels.
- Absence of a positive, proactive, and collaborative problem-solving mentality.
- "It's the way we do things round here."
- It makes senior people feel important and useful.
How to Realise Big Goals
This article was first published on Sales Initiative on 23rd October 2014.
My bet is that if you have been a reader of Sales Initiative for a while, you are the sort of person who is ambitious, driven and motivated by great achievement.
No doubt you've done all the goal setting routines and got pumped up visualising your dreams. You might have tried affirmations and put up motivational pictures by your desk. I sincerely hope these things are working for you. I've read countless books on the topic of success, but I don't recall one that Read More- « Previous Page
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