Colin Gautrey

Six Pillars of Political Mastery

by

Like it or not, politics is a key part of your work, especially at middle to high levels in large or complex organisations. There is simply no way of avoiding it. Why? Because your work was created by political ambition. At some point, someone thought it would serve their purpose if they created your role. What that purpose was, and how pure it was might be difficult to see. In all probability, that person also had to overcome opposition to create your role, to win the budget, the approval and also, to maintain it. All of these things require influence, or politics. The words are really the same, as are the actions. The main difference between them is the intent fuelling the action – and the harmful consequences tolerated. So, you are slap bang in the middle of a political world, like it or not. Read More

Using Social Capital to Build Political Muscle

by

Traditional approaches to developing influencing skills focus on the individual. However, there is an opportunity to adopt a different mindset — instead of working out how you can be more influential, think of how you can make your team more influential. As leader, the more influential the team becomes, the more influential you can become too! Referring to countries, The World Bank has noted that, “Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable”. If social cohesion can be good for countries, it can also be good for teams and organisations. Read More

Making an Impact at the Top Table

by

The easiest way to make a big impact at the top table is to have big responsibilities. Ideally, bigger than most of the other people you have to work alongside. The type of roles which grab this limelight and, to a large extent, the organisation is reliant upon. Functions such as Sales and Operations are typically those that sit in this powerful position, but the constituents are dependent on the type of organisation you work for, and also the context in which it has to succeed. You are probably reading this because you do not have one of these roles and are struggling to make the necessary impact to be able to fulfil your own responsibilities — and deliver the results expected by your line manager. You have probably also Read More

The CXO Guide to Influence

by

Although originally stimulated by the CIO Legacy Report, this guide will be of value to any CXO, or aspirant CXO in need of boosting their capability to influence stakeholders, especially internal stakeholders. Right now, I don't intend to address the critical need for high levels of influencing skills, except to say that the less you have by way of natural sources of power, the more you need to be able to influence.  And by influence, I mean getting genuine buy-in from key powerful stakeholders who can help or hinder your progress. Based on my work with many executives and directors over the last 10 years, there are five key areas you need to focus on. All successful CXOs will score highly on each of these. Read More

Influencing Internal Stakeholders Checklist

by

A little while back I wrote and published the CXO Guide to Influence. This was born out of a report last year by Deloitte which found that the largest gap in CIO/CTO skills was their capability to influence internal stakeholders. Since influencing stakeholders is a subject I'm quite passionate about, I wrote the CXO Guide and a companion checklist for those who are interested in learning how to make sure they are doing all they can to influence appropriately. Read More

Igniting Your Ambition

by

"If you were really talented, you wouldn't need to be here, and you wouldn't need us." This is how I opened the first event of a group of our company's brightest and best, joining our top talent development programme. To say my colleagues on the organising team were shocked was an understatement. Not to mention the jolt it gave the audience. Not what they were expecting. Although this was many years ago, the principle still resonates with me. My belief is that really talented people are extremely good at developing themselves. They are highly motivated, have a good Read More

Dismantling Power Bases: Proceed with Caution

by

No, this is not a second coming of Niccolò Machiavelli. It is just that sometimes it is prudent to take action to remove powerful opposition – for all the right reasons. When this is on the agenda with coaching clients, what we are doing is evolving a clear strategy and plan of action to substantially shift power towards them. This means that others will lose a significant amount of power when my client succeeds. Which means, the stakes are high. If you think this is something you should do, bear in mind the main pros and cons. Read More

Would Your Team Choose You as Their Leader?

by

While reviewing a book proposal a few weeks ago, it struck me that here was another great missive working on the assumption that people get to choose their leader. It was suggesting that what you need to do to be a great leader is figure out why your followers are following you. Nice idea, but, certainly in the world at work, most of those decisions are taken by a higher authority. Followers just have to put up with it, unless they are in the rare and cherished position of being able to simply walk. And, don’t delude yourself that because you recruited said followers, they chose you. Most often, new hires choose the job, not the person holding the leadership position. Of course, that you are a brilliant and inspiring individual must have counted somewhere in the decision, but was probably not the critical factor. As you develop your ability to lead, and help others learn how to lead, here is a great question to stimulate Read More

Caught in the Middle of Turf Wars

by

Powerful people will usually work to protect their power base. They will also look to expand. Even if their motives are pure, they will still seek to protect their capability to do good things. The difference that selfishness makes will be felt in the personal consequences for those involved — at worst, they will stop at nothing until they have got what they want. Wherever you care to look, there will be competition of some sort going on. The intensity and tactics will vary depending on the players, the motives and the stakes. Simple enough, but what can you do if you find yourself caught in the middle? Getting trapped between two powerful opposing forces, who each want you on their side, is what we called the political dilemma of Turf Wars. The advice I wrote in 2008 as part of our book, Political Dilemmas at Work, still holds good. It focused on the imperative to make a clear personal decision and outlined four options to consider… Read More

Adjusting Political Temperature in Your Team

by

We use the term ‘political temperature’ to describe the degree to which team members compete with each other or collaborate as a team. Temperatures can range from absolute zero to boiling point — and beyond! Certain temperatures are more suited to a particular organisational setting than others — and getting it wrong can be disastrous. High temperatures exist when individuals are pushing forward their ideas and trying to beat others in the team. Higher temperatures are great when there is an imperative to innovate and change quickly. But watch out, at the extreme this turns into bitter rivalry and unscrupulous behaviour, which may significantly damage organizations and individuals alike. Read More

Terms and Conditions

ALL CONTENT PROVIDED ON THIS SITE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION ONLY. YOU REMAIN FULLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ACTION YOU TAKE.

View Terms and Conditions

Footprint

We help professionals in organisations such as:

Accenture | AXA | Bank of America | Barclays | Citigroup | Clifford Chance | Credit Suisse | EDF | Ernst & Young | Fiat Chrysler | Fujitsu | GE | Goldman Sachs | GSK | IBM | Lloyds Bank | NHS | O2 | Orange | Pfizer | SAP | Shell | Tesco | UBS | Unilever | Zurich