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Influence With Impact: Gain the Support and Commitment of Others
| Guest post by: Richard Lepsinger |
Article Overview: A leader's success often depends on the ability to gain the support and cooperation of people who have competing priorities and/or conflicting goals. The effective use of influence is the primary tool a leader has to create alignment in these situations.
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Influence With Impact: Gain the Support and Commitment of Others
The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and to influence their actions. -- John Hancock
A leader's success often depends on the ability to gain the support and cooperation of people who have competing priorities and/or conflicting goals. The effective use of influence is the primary tool a leader has to create alignment in these situations.
In addition, because the core processes of a business-ones that are responsible for creating end-products or services-cut across functions, the best and most efficient way to meet the customer's needs is to improve the way in which people in these functional areas work together. This collaboration enables the organization to accomplish goals and implement major change initiatives more quickly and with better quality than if each function operated as a separate "fiefdom." Key to success in this environment is being able to work effectively with people across the organization, over whom one may have no authority.
The greatest misconception about influence is that you need to be the most senior person in the room to get people to do what needs to be done. The ability to influence is not only based on organizational hierarchy. OnPoint's research on the effective use of influence has focused on two key questions:
Research has identified the four core tactics that are most closely associated with gaining commitment from others as well as the specific situational factors that impact the effective use of each of these tactics.
Rational Persuasion. Rational persuasion involves the use of explanations, logical arguments, and factual evidence to explain why a request or proposal will benefit the organization or help to achieve an important objective. This tactic may also involve the presentation of evidence that a project or change is likely to be successful.
Factors that Facilitate the Use of Rational Persuasion
Factors that Inhibit the Use of Rational Persuasion
Example:
Jim manages a team that generates reports that field personnel depend on to provide effective client service. The system his staff currently uses is old, inefficient, and often malfunctions. Since Charlotte recently left the department, Jim's team has had to put in extra time to keep things running smoothly. Citing budget constraints, management has postponed replacing Charlotte. Jim recently met a programmer who has extensive knowledge of a new system that would require significantly less manual labor. Jim would like to hire this person and needs to convince his boss to approve the hiring decision. Jim says to his boss: "I would like to talk with you about hiring a programmer to implement a new system in our department. In comparison to our existing system, this new system has greater accuracy and requires significantly less manual labor. I recently ran some numbers that I would like to share with you that indicate the new system would boost our productivity by at least 10%. In addition, the new system would boost morale and help us retain top performers."
Inspirational Appeals. This involves an emotional or value-based appeal, in contrast to the logical arguments used in rational persuasion. An inspirational appeal is an attempt to develop enthusiasm and commitment by creating strong emotions and linking a request or proposal to a person's needs, values, expectations, and ideals.
Example:
Factors that Facilitate the Use of Inspirational Appeals
Factors that Inhibit the Use of Inspirational Appeals
Linda is a member of a cross-functional task force charged with developing recommendations to enhance existing project management processes. Recently, Linda was asked by the leader of the task force to head up a new project. One of the key people she will need support from is Joe, a peer of Linda's who is also part of the task force. Linda knows that Joe is very busy with other work for the task force as well as his daily job responsibilities. Linda has worked with Joe for a number of years and knows that he is particularly motivated by achievement and excellence. In her first meetings with Joe she says, "I know it will be a challenge and the goals we've set out are a stretch-but I believe we have what it takes to be successful. The new approach we develop will be much better than anything done in the past and we have the opportunity to build it. When we successfully complete this project there is no question in my mind that we will have a significant and lasting impact on organizational performance."
Factors that Facilitate the Use of Consultation
Factors that Inhibit the Use of Consultation
Example:
Susan is the manager in charge of developing a new system to process financial transactions that will provide a significant cost savings to the company. She is new to the position and her experience has been in other areas of technical development. John built the current system and is the manager in charge of running and maintaining the system. His expertise will be essential in designing the new system. Susan knows John is very busy with other priorities, yet without his direct involvement she can't be sure she is making the best decisions. In her meeting with John she says, "I wanted to get your thoughts on the best approach to developing the new system. Based on conversations with users and my team, I have a beginning idea about how to get started. But I wanted to get your input to help refine the idea and increase the likelihood of success. What are your thoughts on the next steps and from your experience and what are some of the pitfalls we need to avoid?"
Collaboration. This tactic involves an offer to provide necessary resources and/or assistance if the person will carry out a request or approve a proposal. Collaboration involves reducing the difficulty or costs of carrying out a request, and it is especially appropriate when compliance would be difficult for the other person.
Factors that Facilitate the Use of Collaboration
Factors that Inhibit the Use of Collaboration
Example:
Bill is struggling to meet a key deadline for an important project he is working on for his boss. The deadline is two days away, and Bill knows he won't be able to hit the deadline without help from Andy, one of his colleagues, who is more familiar with the system required to analyze the data Bill needs. Bill approaches Andy and says, "I'm concerned about being able to meet my deadline and I was hoping to get your help." Andy says that he has been working long hours to respond to a request from one of the organization's key clients and taking this on would be difficult. In response, Bill suggests, "What if I identify and organize the relevant data files, which is the most time consuming part of the work. That way you would just have to run the analyses and I can take that and finish the report."
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About the Author: Richard Lepsinger RSS for Richard's articles - Visit Richard's website Rick is President of OnPoint Consulting and has a twenty year track record of success as a human resource consultant and executive. He was a Founder and Managing Partner of Manus, a human capital consulting firm, which he sold to Right Management Consultants in 1998. At Right, Rick was the Managing Vice President of the Northeast Consulting Practice where he was responsible to 55 professionals and grew revenue from $7 million to $20 million. The focus of Rick's work has been on helping organizations close the gap between strategy and execution. He has served as a consultant to leaders and management teams at the Astra-Zeneca, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Citibank, Coca-Cola Company, ConocoPhilipps, Eisai Inc., Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Merck & Co., the NYSE Euronext, Northwestern Mutual Life, Pfizer Inc., Pitney Bowes, Prudential, Siemens Medical Systems, and Subaru of America among others. Rick has extensive experience in formulating and implementing strategic plans, managing change, and talent management. He has addressed executive conferences and made presentations to leadership teams on leader effectiveness, strategy execution, performance management, 360� feedback and its uses, and developing and using competency models. Rick has authored or co-authored five books on leadership including Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley, Flexible Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices, (co-author with Dr. Gary Yukl) published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, The Art and Science of 360º Feedback, (co-author with Toni Lucia) published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, and The Art and Science of Competency Models, (co-author with Toni Lucia) of published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. His newest book is Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide to Working and Leading From a Distance published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley. Click here to visit Richard's website   Execution AllStars Five Famous Companies That Bridged the Execution Gap and How They Did It Using Influence to Gain Commitment Are Men and Women Really That Different A Bridge Builders Cheat Sheet Tips Tricks to Help You Traverse the Execution Gap Start an Execution Revolution Five Ways Leaders Get Results Execution Meltdown Four Key Failures that Sank BP |
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