INFLUENCING WITHOUT AUTHORITY

Jaimon Jacob

Participant Handbook

Lesson

1

I N F L U E N C I N G W I T H O U T A U T H O R I T Y

Participant Handbook

Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................. 1

Lesson Overview ...................................................................... 1

Target Audience ....................................................................... 1

Lesson Goal and Outcomes ..................................................... 1

Lesson Goal .................................................................................... 1

Lesson Outcomes ........................................................................... 1

Lesson 1: Influencing Without Authority ................................... 2

Introducing the instructor and the participants ................................ 3

Icebreaker ....................................................................................... 4

Lesson objectives ........................................................................... 5

What is influence? ........................................................................... 6

What do you know about influence? ............................................... 7

External barriers to influence .......................................................... 8

Internal barriers to influence ............................................................ 9

Overcoming the barriers ................................................................ 10

Step 1: Assume all are potential allies .......................................... 11

Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities ......................................... 12

Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person ............................ 13

Step 4: Identify the relevant currencies; theirs and yours.............. 14

Step 5: Deal with relationships ...................................................... 15

Step 6: Influence through give and take ........................................ 16

Case study .................................................................................... 17

Problem ......................................................................................... 18

Step 1: Assume all are potential allies .......................................... 19

Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities ......................................... 20

Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person ........................... 21

Step 4: Identify relevant currencies; theirs and yours ................... 22

Step 5: Deal with relationships ..................................................... 23

Step 6: Influence through give and take ....................................... 24

Introduction to simulation .............................................................. 25

References .................................................................................... 26

D E S I G N C U S T O M I Z A T I O N

1

Introduction

You always come across situations where you have no real authority over key stakeholders but have to influence them to get your work done. You know what needs to be done and know how to do it, but you can’t get you boss, colleagues, and even the people who report to you to do “the right thing.” This lesson prepares you to do just that, “making people do what you want them to do.”

Lesson Overview

This lesson is delivered as a blended training program which is divided into two parts. The first part is an instructor-led session which is followed by an online assessment. The lesson is designed for 2 hours with 10 minutes buffer provided at the end.

Target Audience

This lesson provides essential influencing skills for all types of employees in an organization. They can be business analysts, sponsors, managers, or executives.

Lesson Goal and Outcomes

Lesson Goal

When presented with a situation where you must get your work done by another individual with a higher authority, you will be able to influence or persuade the individual to do it with a step-by-step influence strategy.

Lesson Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Explain the purpose of influence.

Identify the barriers to influence.

Influence your colleagues using an influence strategy.

Lesson

1

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Lesson 1: Influencing Without Authority

Influencing Without

Authority

Jaimon Jacob

3

Introducing the instructor and the participants

Let us introduce each other!

4

Icebreaker

Icebreaker

Purpose:

Use different methods of persuasion.

Objective:

Each team has to persuade a neural person to join their team.

5

Lesson objectives

After completing this training, you

should be able to:

Explain the purpose of influence.

Identify the barriers to influence.

Influence your colleagues using an influence

strategy.

6

What is influence?

What is influence?

The power to get your work

done.

You influence:

Friends

Colleagues

Managers

What is influence?

Influence is the power to get your work done.

You live in a global village. There are very few jobs where a person works completely

alone. Most of you are dependent upon others, and you are important to your

colleagues as well. Hence, there will be scenarios where you need to influence your

friends and employees from other departments, that is, people you can not order or

control. You will also come across situations where you need to influence your

manager and others above you.

Some common scenarios where you may need to influence others are:

To sell important projects

To persuade colleagues to provide needed resources

To convince your boss to respond to issues that may not appear important to

him

7

What do you know about influence?

What do you know about

influence?

Ask and get it

Think how to get it

Give and get it

You already know a lot more about influence than you realize!

Sometimes, you just ask what you need, and if the other person or group can

respond, they will.

Sometimes, you have to work a little harder to figure out how to get what you

want.

Sometimes, you instinctively understand that when someone helps you, you

are expected sooner or later to somehow pay them back.

8

External barriers to influence

External barriers to influence

Power differential

Different goals and objectives

Incompatible performance measures

Rivalry

Convincing a friend is easy, but how about convincing somebody you do not know?

You may feel lost when you think of ways to convince somebody you does not know

or who is superior than you. There are barriers to influence which are external to you;

that exist in your business environment:

The people that you want to influence and you are separated by a large power

differential.

The people that you want to influence have different objectives from yours,

leading to different priorities, and you cannot find a common ground.

The people that you want to influence have incompatible performance

measures and rewards.

The people that you want to influence are your rivals or feel competitive and

don’t want you to succeed.

9

Internal barriers to influence

Internal barriers to influence

Lack of knowledge

Attitudes

Fear

No focus

However, more than often, the barriers are inside the person who wants to influence

others.

Lack of knowledge on how to go about influencing when you are not sure of

the objectives

Presence of attitudes that may blind you to important objective information

Fear of the other person or group and how they might react

Inability to focus on what you need and how the other person could benefit

from that

10

Overcoming the barriers

Overcoming the barriers

Relationship exists

Relationship does not exist

How do you overcome these barriers?

We will start from the assumption that influences are about the person being

influenced getting something valued in return or avoiding something disliked for

willingness to give what is requested.

This give and take concept is not so much easy as it sounds. When you already have a

good relationship with the another person, you just ask, and if the colleague can

respond, he or she will. There is no need for a conscious diagnosis of the situation and

thinking through the appropriate approach. But there are other times when it is not so

easy to influence the other person (for example, influencing your superiors), and a

more deliberate and conscious approach is needed.

11

Step 1: Assume all are potential allies

Step 1: Assume all are potential

allies

Influencing someone else – especially someone who seems to be "being difficult" – can

make you feel upset, nervous, or unsure. Begin by assessing whether you could form an

alliance with the person. Try to discover where there might be overlapping interests.

This same mind-set of assuming the other person is a potential ally also applies to your

manager.

Failure to do that by assuming the other person will be an adversary rather than an ally

prevents accurate understanding, leading to misperceptions, stereotypes, and

miscommunication, and can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

12

Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities

Step 2: Clarify your goals and

priorities

You need to think hard about your objectives, so you won’t get side tracked into

pursuing secondary goals:

What do you require?

What are your priorities among several possibilities?

What are you willing to trade off to get the minimum you need?

Do you want a particular form of cooperation on a specific item or would you

settle for a better relationship in the future?

Would a short-term victory be worth the creation of hard feelings, or is the

ability to come back to the person in the future more important?

Too often, the person desiring influence does not sort personal desires from what is

truly necessary on the job, and creates confusion or resistance.

13

Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person

Step 3: Diagnose the world of the

other person

Determine the organizational situation of the potential ally that drives much of what he

or she cares about. These forces usually play an even greater role in shaping what is

important to them than their personality. If for any reason you can’t ask that person

directly, examine the organizational forces that might shape goals, concerns, or needs.

14

Step 4: Identify the relevant currencies; theirs and yours

Step 4: Identify the relevant

currencies; theirs and yours

This is most important part of our influence strategy. Identify the things that people

care about. We will call them currencies. To make trades, you need to be aware of as

many things as people care about and all the valuables you have to offer. There are 5

types of currencies:

Inspiration-related currencies

Task-related currencies

Position-related currencies

Relationship-related currencies

Personal-related currencies

Most people care about more than one thing (for example, prestige, money, being

liked). If you can identify several applicable currencies, you will have a wider range of

possibilities to offer in exchange.

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Step 5: Deal with relationships

Step 5: Deal with relationships

In this step, you need to analyze what kind of relationship you have with this person. If

you know him or her well and you are on good terms, you can directly ask him or her

for what you need.

If you are not on good terms or you are a complete stranger, then you need to focus

on building trust and building a good relationship before you move on to the final step.

To do this, take time to get to know the person you are interacting with. Make sure you

use active listening techniques when you are speaking with him or her. Also, develop

your emotional intelligence skills, which will help you recognize not only your own

feelings but the feelings of those around you.

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Step 6: Influence through give and take

Step 6: Influence through give and

take

Once you feel you know what your ally wants or needs and you have determined what

you have to offer, you can make "the exchange" and put your findings into action. You

can use a win-win negotiation to do this.

Make sure that when you make the offer or exchange, it is done in a way that builds

trust. Show respect, empathy, and understanding to the other person. Show your

gratitude to them for helping you, and keep looking for ways to help others.

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Case study

Case study

Now, we will see a real-life application of this influence strategy.

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Problem

Problem

Eric is the head of the CRM function of his organization. He wants implement a new

software package that will streamline the customer feedbacks, recording, and response

processes. However, he needs the help from his colleague, John, to solve a problem.

John is the lead software developer.

The problem is that John is extremely busy with his own projects, and has so far been

unwilling to help.

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Step 1: Assume all are potential allies

Step 1:

Assume all are

potential allies

Eric knows that John could be an ally; they've always gotten along in the past. The only

reason that Rob is unwilling to help is because he's "snowed under" with his own

projects, most of which have tight deadlines.

20

Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities

Step 2:

Clarify your

goals and

priorities

Need

John’s

help for

half a day!

Eric takes a moment to clarify his goals. Why does he need to influence John?

This is simple: John has the expertise that Eric needs to overcome a problem he's stuck

with. His goal is to gain John 's help, perhaps for half a day, to solve the problem.

21

Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person

Step 3:

Diagnose the

world of the

other person

Eric looks at the professional world that John, who works full time in IT, works in

daily.

Eric knows the IT department is deadline driven. John is often under immense

pressure to troubleshoot problems as they come up but also to deliver major projects

that have quick turnaround times. As a result, John frequently stays late and comes in

early to meet all his demands.

22

Step 4: Identify relevant currencies; theirs and yours

Step 4:

Identify relevant

currencies;

theirs and yours

I need more

resources to

help me!

Eric believes that John's currency is task-related. What he needs most is another set of

hands to help him complete some of his current projects. If he could catch up, he

would probably be willing to help Eric with his own project.

23

Step 5: Deal with relationships

Step 5: Deal

with

relationships

Eric is already on good terms with John. They do not talk often since they work in

different departments, but they have chatted a few times in the hallway, and Eric would

consider John a friend.

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Step 6: Influence through give and take

Step 6:

Influence

through give

and take

Eric decides on his exchange. He is going to offer John a full day of his own time to

help him catch on his projects. In return, he will ask for half a day of John's time to

help him with his own project.

When he approaches John, John looks surprised at the offer. But, he accepts

immediately. Eric shows his appreciation by showing up early on his day to help John,

and working hard the entire day. When the time comes for John to help Eric, the same

holds true: John shows up early, and the two get the problem figured out by lunchtime.

Eric then takes John out for lunch to show his gratitude.

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Introduction to simulation

It’s your turn now…

What follows is a simulation where you try to influence and make your idea accepted in

a real-world situation. Good luck!

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References

References

Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (2012). Influencing up. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Fisher, R., & Sharp, A. (1999). Getting it done: how to lead when you're not in

charge. New York: HarperPerennial.

Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (1990). Influence without authority. New York: J.

Wiley.

The Influence Model. (n.d.). - Communication Skills Training From

MindTools.com. Retrieved August 21, 2013, from

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/influence-model.htm