Colin Gautrey

Guilty of Annoying Your Stakeholders?

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You are busy, and so are your stakeholders. Getting them on board with your ideas, liaising with them to resolve issues, all takes time. It also helps a great deal if you get on well with them. Effective working relationships smooth over the inevitable problems and challenges that need to be dealt with. Trouble is, it is far too easy to irritate them. You are in a hurry and time is of the essence. But, as you push things forward, try to make sure and avoid these common irritants. Read More

Assessing Risks and Opportunities

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influentialleadership2This text is taken from the original draft manuscript of Influential Leadership: A Leader's Guide to Getting Things Done and is provided here to enrich your learning on the Strategic Influencer Programme.     Besides building and protecting your motivation, it is also important to be aware of the diverse range of events that might happen which could seriously affect the pursuit of your purpose. Consideration of these now can enable you to be more proactive and reactive in the face of these events. The severity can range from mildly frustrating to “show stopper” level. At the opposite end of the spectrum, other things can happen which can dramatically improve your prospects. Often, at first sight, they have only a minor connection with what you are engaged in. Being prepared for these, spotting them when they occur and responding to them well is an important part Read More

I’m Right, You’re Wrong: Influence Undercurrents

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There is a particularly unhelpful undercurrent flowing beneath the surface of many influencing attempts. Over the last few weeks I have spoken to many people. It is part of my research into the challenges that are holding people back from success. In many of them, I am getting the feeling that they hold the opinion that the person they wish to influence is wrong. For example, Jane. She wanted to know how to influence her boss, Lukas. She wanted him to support a particular project she was desperate to get off the ground. Jane took me through the rational argument. It was a no-brainer, "Why doesn't he get it? It's obvious we should do it!" As we talked I could feel Read More

A Political Perspective for Project Managers

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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:

"Alter the structure and balance of power within an organisation, often under the guise of legitimate activity."

To be honest, I don't much mind if this is true or not. The purpose of saying it is to stimulate new thinking and new ideas. It reminds me of Po, an Edward de Bono creative thinking process. Po is a word de Bono created to signal a provocation — a statement that should be imagined to be true. If it is true, what then? If you are running a project and finding things difficult, pause for a moment and consider Read More

Stakeholder Influence Process Introduction

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The Stakeholder Influence Process is a sequence of steps which will help you work out what you need to do to achieve your goals when they are reliant on the agreement of other powerful people. It provides a simple framework to think through the situation you wish to influence, your goal, or the project you are managing. It will help you to figure out who is onside and who may be out to get you. From that you can start to develop your strategy to accomplish your goal. This will probably involve engaging with people you may have overlooked before. Before starting the process, you may have considered them to be minor players or not even interested. Some of them may not be interested in what you are doing, but the Stakeholder Influence Process may uncover opportunities Read More

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