Colin Gautrey

The Structure of Your Leadership Arena

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Before you go too far establishing a strategy to achieve your leadership purpose, make sure you really understand the arena in which you are about to a successful leader. Arena, as a word, has been used deliberately in the book, Influential Leadership,  to cater for the diverse nature of the environments where leaders need to become more influential. For some, it will apply to companies or organisations while for others it may be more appropriate to think of industries, populations or even social settings. Regardless of the type of arena you are focusing on becoming more influential within, you need to get to grips with its structure. The best way of doing this at first is to Read More

What Is Group Power? How to Influence Strategically

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This is another of those simple concepts often over-complicated by well-meaning consultants in the realms of organisational psychology. Avoiding the complexity gives you more time to act. Once you understand what group power is, it will become easier to spot opportunities to influence more effectively. It will help you to magnify your influence and put the group to work. So, keeping it simple, in organisational realms, group power is:

"the collective capacity of a group of people to create influence"

There are four elements you need to think about with this definition. Read More

Group, Organisational, Formal and Informal Power

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You will probably have noticed that much of the phrasing above suggests personal ownership of assets or skills. This is true; however, the same also applies to groups of individuals or even entire organisations. The combined effect of their individual assets and skills can become far more than the sum of their parts. This is what we usually refer to as group or organisational power. Common statements we hear about power include:
  • “Marketing has the power to push that one through.”
  • “How come Sales always seem to get what they want?”
Although much of this is related to the combined Read More

Exercise: Informal Groups in Your Organisation

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Without doubt, if you aspire to a senior or influential position in any organisation, you will need to open your eyes and see the social structures within it. This exercise will help you to apply your learning to the setting where you wish to be successful. It assumes that you have already read other articles, such as Navigating Informal Group Dynamics and Power and Informal Groups (see below). As with most exercises, it helps if you can get together and discuss this with one or more colleagues. What informal groups exist around Read More

Power and Informal Groups

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You can imagine that the level of power owned by an informal group consists of the sum of the personal power of each individual member. As with other ideas, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. However, this power is often latent or impotent. A group will only be able to benefit from its combined power assets if:
  1. The group has an identity recognised by the members.
  2. The key members have some form of organisational agenda or purpose.
  3. They are mobilised to act.

Development Stages

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