Colin Gautrey

Using Social Capital to Build Political Muscle

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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

Exploring Your Influencing Performance

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Regardless of the reason why you believe that you find it difficult to influence, an important step in overcoming the challenge is to explore it in detail. What you need to do is to take a hard look at what you are experiencing, what the causes might be and then you can begin to develop solutions which will work in the short term as well as in the long term. Although geared towards your general level of skill, the questions below can also be focused on a specific influencing situation which you need to unblock. As you answer the questions, be totally Read More

Exercise: Becoming More Influential

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Research is consistent the world over that in just about every walk of life it really helps if you are influential, and this is particularly true of people who work in leadership roles. Some people have gone so far as to say that Leadership = Influence and while it is tempting to think that, there are some differences; however, we’d suggest that 90% of leadership work entails influencing people in some way. Since you’re using this library, it’s likely that you’re working on developing your influence. This is a big subject and there are many different aspects to it, but nobody has time to learn it all — even if that were possible. So we recommend that you complete the exercise below to Read More

Finding Time to Influence

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It is all very well saying that to be more influential you have to do this or do that; but what if you don’t have time to do any more? If so, becoming more influential isn’t going anywhere. Time pressure comes from many directions. Bosses want you to do more with less. Peers and colleagues want you to work on and support their initiatives; and they are perhaps, a little less interested in what you have on your plate. People in your team often seem to have unrealistic expectations of the help and support you will give them. And then of course there is the pressure you put on yourself. If you are ambitious, you want to make things happen. You have big visions and plans to get results and assure the upwards momentum of your career continues. Read More

How to Influence Upwards

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One of the key challenges facing many leaders today — at all levels — is how to influence people more senior than themselves, including their bosses. You have important work to do, and you need their input, their buy-in and support. If you’re good, this work will create many wins; for you, for them and for the organisation. But, somehow, they don’t manage to find the time to see you. Or, you see them favouring other people’s ideas instead of your own. You have clear logic to what you are suggesting, yet somehow they don’t seem to see it, or are more easily influenced by other people. Worse, they could be agreeing with you, yet somehow not following through. If Influencing Upwards is a challenge for you, the following factors could be contributing to your situation… Read More

How to Upset People without Being Offensive

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Let’s face it, sometimes people need shaking up a little. Everyone gets stuck in a rut and needs to be helped out with a little shock treatment. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating you running around creating enemies. What I am saying is that sometimes too many people are too cautious about sharing what they really think. Being too tactful risks the accusation that you are not moving fast enough, are hedging your bets or being too timid. In which case, use the list below to find ways to appear slightly less tactful and diplomatic — while avoiding taking it too far and upsetting people! On the other hand, if you are already rather good at upsetting people (perhaps you’ve been told to learn how to be more tactful), use the list as a self-assessment to heighten your awareness and eradicate some of these behaviours! Read More

23 Things You Can Do Today to Increase Your Influence

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If you want to become more influential, you must pause — but not for long. Action is essential, but action without thought is stupid. So, let's pause a moment to think about simple ways you can act to increase your influence, 23 things you could do today. Now, I insist that the first two are mandatory, and need to be completed right now. The rest you can cheery pick the most relevant and useful.  

Influence Action No. 1

Go and get a coffee and a notebook. Influence takes preparation. Spend 15 minutes thinking about the ideas below and how they could apply to your situation. A little common sense will be required as you translate them into the challenges you face, but a little caffeine should help you stay alert to this.

Influence Action No. 2

Make a firm commitment, to yourself, to identify three actions for influence you can take today, inspired by this list, to become more influential — in the next 15 minutes. With the first two influence actions already completed, let's move on to the main list. As you scan, note down each one that you “could do”. Later, refine them to what you “will do”. Read More

How to Learn about Influence

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If you want to learn about influence, you could go on a course or get some coaching. Or, you could just do it yourself. All you need is a little structure, motivation and resourcefulness. By way of structure…
  1. Pause: Stop a moment and think. Who/what is influencing you? Who/what influences others? How are you trying to influence? What do others do when they try to influence?
  2. Plan: What seems to work and with whom? What doesn't work? Why? What could you do differently? What will you do? You might like to add a little reading and talking here too.
  3. Play: Have a go at doing something different. Play safely and see what happens. Enjoy becoming more flexible in your influencing approach.
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Pausing to Influence Faster

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I coined the phrase “pause to go faster” while running workshops several years ago for a particularly fast-paced organisation. There seemed to be no stopping them. They pick up an idea and they're off the starting blocks before you know what has happened. The culture is one which admires those who get to action fast. However, at times, there is also a desperate need to pause and reflect. Then, in all probability, you will move even faster than before. This is definitely the case when it comes to influence. Unless you pause to think about how you are approaching an influence attempt, you'll probably just do what you've always done. That may work; but then again, it might not. Read More

Personal Power and Influence

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To be successful in your career, you need to be able to influence other people. This involves developing personal power. You will want people to think positively about what you do, listen and accept your ideas and also do things that you need them to do. This can include influencing someone to give you a job or promotion, delivering a key project where you need their input and help or even advocating your skills and talent to other more senior people. Little can be achieved without the ability to influence others. One of the key ways of growing greater influence is to focus on building your personal power. Power doesn't equal politics, so you don't need to become a Machiavellian character to introduce more power into your career — nor do you need to betray your integrity! In a nutshell… Read More

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