Colin Gautrey

Project Managers Are Too Soft. Are You?

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Incredible it may be, but the data is beginning to emerge that this could indeed be the case. The usual caveat about generalisations aside, this is what my recent research is starting to reveal. And, you don’t have to be a project manager to learn from these results. Based on a group of 195 project managers[1] I have discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that they are more likely to be high in Tact and Diplomacy and low in Determination, than the general (professional) working population. To be honest, I had expected the opposite. These people all completed my Influence Profile that measures preferred behaviours when working with others. This is not looking at their actual behaviour, but rather the way they would most like to behave (which is reality is the default behaviour they use most of the time). Within this psychometric, four dimensions of behaviour are analysed and Read More

Adapting Your Style of Influence

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As you grow up and experience the world you begin to learn what works and what does not work. When you find something that works, you will tend to repeat it until such time as it is proven conclusively that it no longer works for you. This is how personality evolves and behaviours become habitual. Yet, what works for you, may or may not work for someone else. Indeed, it may work for you in some situations better than in others. So things begin to get rather complicated, and interesting. Since all of my work involves helping people to become more influential, I have approached these personality differences in terms of how Read More

Exercise: Developing Your Influencing Style

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The ability to flex your influencing style up and down each of the dimensions is very useful if you want to become more influential. This is sometimes easier said than done and it really helps if you can make it as comfortable to achieve as possible. Reflect on your scores. Which one would you most like to be able to change? If you could flex your behaviour to the other end, which would be most useful to you? Which is most difficult or uncomfortable to change? Select one end of one dimension to focus this exercise on. Then use the questions below and/or get some Read More

Exercise: Understanding Your Influence Profile Report

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The questions that follow have been designed to help you understand your Influence Profile in more depth so that you make good decisions about which skills to develop further. It is quite likely that your facilitator will work through these with you; however, it would be useful to consider these questions yourself and note down your thoughts. Read More

How to Influence With Style

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The desire to influence other people is a natural part of being human. Your style of influence — how you act — has been established over the years by your experience and learning. Subconsciously, you will have found out what works for you. Yet each individual is different and different people will have found alternative styles of influence. Psychology suggests that, when it comes to being influenced, you will be more amenable when the other person is using the style you prefer to use. The implications of this are that, if you want to be more successful, you will need to learn how to be able to flex your style to match other people. This requires that you take a good, hard look at how you operate. There are many different aspects to consider and we’ve built up a comprehensive syllabus to develop people in their influencing and political capability. A key element of this is establishing your preferred style and then learning how to become more flexible. Read More

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