Colin Gautrey

Stretching Your Influence

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Recently, I saw someone promoting that the secret of persuasion is to find people who want to go where you want them to go. To me, that sounds more like the secret of an easy (and boring) life. If someone already wants to do what you want them to do, little or no persuasion/influence is needed. Equally, you don’t need much skill or ability. Perhaps just mention a word or two to nudge them in the right direction.

Which got me thinking. In 2012, are you really stretching your influencing skills? Why bother with the “low hanging fruit” and the “quick wins”? Instead, look for those big influencing goals that will really make a difference when you succeed (BHAGs if you like).

One of the key stages in the Stakeholder Influence Process (outlined in Advocates and Enemies) is to get focus on what you want to influence. What’s missing from the book is looking beyond the here and now. The book is focused on what is in front of you right now. What it doesn’t do is really stretch your thinking to go way beyond what is currently realistic or believable. Yet, once you do that, the rest of the process is just as useful and practical and will help you move forward quickly towards your goal.

Now you need to consider what your BHAGs should be.

  • If you could influence it successfully, what would have a transformational effect on your work (and/or life)?
  • What do you want to happen which is currently viewed as impossible?
  • What do you need to influence to make your life today almost unrecognisable in 12 months?

Take your time. These things rarely appear immediately. Usually, they take a couple of days, and a few friendly conversations to emerge. But once you have those big goals identified, you can start to develop a strategy and identify your stakeholders. Then you can begin to make it happen. And if you don’t, watch out because someone else may get there first!

 

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Political Dilemmas at Work

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A practical, comprehensive guide to dealing with the complexities of politics in the workplace. Political Dilemmas at Work gives managers and leaders a comprehensive playbook for dealing with politics in the workplace. Ideal for anyone who works in a modern organisation, particularly managers and leaders, the book shows individuals how to deal with political situations in constructive, healthy and assertive ways. The situations in this book will be instantly recognisable to most experienced managers, but the solutions that readers will find here are fresh, powerful and effective. Based on the authors’ experiences as coaching managers, they offer practical tools and real-world tips for turning dilemmas into opportunities. Required reading for ambitious professionals in any industry, this is a practical and effective guide to surviving Read More

Women, Influence and Minority Groups

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Pay attention — this is not just for women. At the Massachusetts Conference for Women in December, Marian Ruderman (a Director at the Center for Creative Leadership) told delegates that "The ability to influence remains a core leadership competency, and leaders at the executive level must understand that there is a major paradigm shift under way. Moreover, regardless of the organizational setting, society still sends conflicting messages about how women should wield power and influence, making the topic an important one to pay attention to." Marian is absolutely right. However, her comments apply equally to all organisational levels and all groups. Her words reminded me of some research I did a few years back that noticed the different level of interest in the topic of influence between men and women. The data suggested that women are far more interested in the topic than men. Yet, looking deeper, I found that this was not because of the gender difference, but instead because women were frequently working in minority situations. This means that anyone working from a minority position is going to have to work harder to influence. Read More

Shrewd Investments in Networking

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Everyone is told they need to network. We all know the benefits; or at least we know them intellectually. Yet it still takes time and effort to get out there and do what you need to do. And, of course, we do not have very much time to spare. Getting a little more focus helps to make it easier to do. Instead of thinking of networking as a cost (time, energy and cash),think about it in terms of an investment. Convert the time and energy into a monetary equivalent. Now... Read More

Occupied Territory in the Meeting Room

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We all know about power positions in meetings, head of the table, back to the window, etc., but you can also consider how much space people try to occupy. Next time you are waiting for a busy meeting to commence, look around the room to see how the other people attending have marked out their territory. Those who are feeling powerful, or wish to appear that way, will take up as much room at the table as they can. Papers will be arranged, folders spread, and mobiles, tablets, etc., arranged to consume as much of the available space as they think they can get away with. People who are feeling out of their depth, lacking in confidence or, frankly, in awe of the assembled powers, will tend to Read More

Diagnosing Your Opposition

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One of my favourite phrases relating to Stakeholder Management is, “if you don’t have any opposition, you aren't trying hard enough” (refer to Chapter 7 of Influential Leadership). While I am not suggesting that you should go looking for opposition, if you are ambitious, it is important that your plans and ideas are strong enough to provoke disagreement, or at least vigorous debate. When disagreement arrives, it is often veiled in a cloak of assumptions and faulty communications. So, it is important when deciding how to respond to pause for a moment to check out what could be going on. Even if you cannot figure out the root cause, going through the process will highlight the gaps in your information. If someone is opposing you, it could be due to one or more of the following Read More

Hate Networking? You Are Not Alone!

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Since launching the original research and questionnaire on influencing skills, we have had thousands of people self-assess or rate others on their influencing skills. 74% say they could improve on their networking and an incredible 34% cited it as their weakest influencing skill area. So, if you don’t like going to those ‘events’ or fabricating an excuse to go talk to someone while you have more important tasks to focus on, you are by no means alone! In my experience, I believe that most people have the capability to network, but lack the motivation to do it. They either see it as a pointless activity or a contrived engagement which lacks authenticity (or legitimacy, or both). Despite the pressure from above to network Read More

Engaging Your Critics

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In the lexicon of my book, Advocates & Enemies, a Critic is an individual who you have a great relationship with (trust, openness and frequency), but they disagree with what you are seeking to achieve. Because of the strength of your relationship with them, these are special friends who can provide immense benefit to help you stretch your performance and pressure test your proposals. If the relationship is poor, they will more likely be an Enemy (okay, a strong word to use, but provocative by intent). So engage positively with Critics because they can help you so much. The best approach to engage with them depends on the type of Critic they happen to be. If you pause a few moments to reflect on this, you are likely to be able to engage with them far more effectively. In the book, I highlighted a number of different Critics… Read More

Building Stronger Relationships

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Over the last few years, I have been working with organisations to help them to develop their relationships with suppliers and other strategic partners. Part of this involved us researching the characteristics of highly successful (and the not so successful) alliances and partnerships. We noticed three key themes which were symptomatic of excellent relationships. What was interesting is that these themes easily translate into individual relationships too, and it's therefore worth taking a look for anyone who wants to build stronger relationships of any kind. The great news is that they are pretty easy to understand and also to take action on – you don’t need to go into mediation to make big strides on these themes! Read More

The Big Seven Stakeholder Management Mistakes

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These are the seven most common mistakes I see people making when it comes to Stakeholder Management. If you can avoid all of these, whatever process you are using, you will enhance your success dramatically.

Mistake 1: Not doing it.

Often methods of stakeholder management are only called for when something is going wrong. If things are generally going in the right direction you may not even hear the word stakeholder! Stakeholder Management should be a proactive process that can make things which are going well go even better!

Mistake 2: Doing it late.

Struggling with the problems that are being thrown up by people, dealing with symptoms and issue logs usually doesn't get to the root causes or the strategic solutions. Stakeholder Management should be an approach to stop problems cropping up in the first place and being ready with mitigating actions should the worst come to pass.

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