Positive Leadership: Influencing Up

Stanford Professor David L. Bradford shares his top tips on how to influence your boss and overcome power gaps in his new book "Influencing Up".

Bradford is the Eugene O'Kelly II senior lecturer in leadership (emeritus) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Allan R. Cohen of Babson College co-wrote the book.

Positive Leadership: Influencing Up

Positive Leadership: Influencing Up

David L. Bradford shares his top tips on how to influence your boss and overcome power gaps in his new book "Influencing Up". Bradford is the Eugene O'Kelly II senior lecturer in leadership (emeritus) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Allan R. Cohen of Babson College co-wrote the book. 

Learn more about "Influencing Up" : http://www.influencewithoutauthority.com

Positive Leadership: Influencing Up

Positive Leadership: Influencing Others

Positive Leadership: Influencing Others

Positive Leadership: What's Your Influencing Style?

Effective leadership today relies more than ever on influencing others — impacting their ideas, opinions, and actions.

While influence has always been a valuable managerial skill, today's highly collaborative organisations make it essential. Consider how often you have to influence people who don't even report to you in order to accomplish your objectives. Success depends on your ability to effectively influence both your direct reports and the people over whom you have no direct authority.

Have you ever thought about how you influence others? The tactics you use? We are all aware that people use different influencing tactics, but did you realise that we each naturally default to the same tactics every time? Or that the tactics we default to are also the ones to which we are most receptive when being influenced?

It is these preferred tactics that define our influencing style. Analysing the different influencing tactics, researchers have identified up to nine primary influencing tactics. In our quest to further understand personal influencing styles, we did additional research to build on the existing knowledge base. From our research, we've identified five distinct influencing styles: rationalising, asserting, negotiating, inspiring, and bridging.

You may have an idea what your style is just from hearing these labels, but the most accurate way to identify your style is with an influence style indicator — a self-scoring assessment that classifies your style based on answers to questions about preferred influencing tactics. But even without the indicator, here are some questions you can ask yourself to begin to understand your style:

Rationalising: Do you use logic, facts, and reasoning to present your ideas? Do you leverage your facts, logic, expertise, and experience to persuade others?

Asserting: Do you rely on your personal confidence, rules, law, and authority to influence others? Do you insist that your ideas are heard and considered, even when others disagree? Do you challenge the ideas of others when they don't agree with yours? Do you debate with or pressure others to get them to see your point of view?

Negotiating: Do you look for compromises and make concessions in order to reach an outcome that satisfies your greater interest? Do you make trade-offs and exchanges in order to meet your larger interests? If necessary, will you delay the discussion until a more opportune time?

Inspiring: Do you encourage others toward your position by communicating a sense of shared mission and exciting possibility? Do you use inspirational appeals, stories, and metaphors to encourage a shared sense of purpose?

Bridging: Do you attempt to influence outcomes by uniting or connecting with others? Do you rely on reciprocity, engaging superior support, consultation, building coalitions, and using personal relationships to get people to agree with your position?

While answering these questions, take your style a step further. How often does it work for you? Are you more successful with certain types of people? Have you ever wondered why? Since there are five different influencing styles, using only your preferred style has the potential to undermine your influence with as many as four out of five people.

Gaining awareness about our own influencing style and those of others is especially critical in light of todays fast-paced and stressful work environments, and here's why: When we are operating unconsciously out of a preference (our style) and not seeing the results we expect, we actually have the tendency to intensify our preferred behaviour — even when it's not working!

If your individual success depends on gaining the cooperation of people over whom you have no direct authority, this should concern you. The way to begin to increase your odds of influencing more people is to learn to recognise and use each of the five styles.

Becoming aware that there are influencing styles other than yours is a good start. To further increase your influence, you must learn what each style sounds like when it's being used effectively and ineffectively. Gaining this awareness will help you recognise when the style you're using isn't working and how to determine one that will.

What's your influencing style? And what are you going to do about it?

For more, see - http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/whats_your_influencing_style.html

Positive Leadership: What's Your Influencing Style?

Positive Leadership: Power & Influence

Rod Kramer of the Stanford School of Business speaks to students about "Power and Influence: psychological perspectives on leadership."

Positive Leadership: Power & Influence

How Can Leaders Build Followers?

Great leaders understand that people will not follow you just because you want them to, or because you say they must. Leaders create a following only by being the type of leader that people want to follow. So the question for aspiring leaders becomes, “How can I get people to want to follow me?”

If you’re a leader with this question on your mind, consider these things:

People follow leaders they trust.

No matter how good you may be at your job, regardless of your skills, knowledge or talent, you will not create a following without first being a person that people can come to know and trust. Character goes much farther than brains when attempting to recruit believers to your cause. People will quickly see through a charade if you are trying to be someone you’re not. Great leaders not only talk the talk, they walk the walk!

People follow leaders who care.

When you want to lead so others will follow, you have to care about them as individuals. When a person feels that he matters as a person, that his opinions are valued and his efforts appreciated, he is far more likely to respond in a positive manner. The more a leader or manager proves genuine interest and concern for his employees, the more loyal his believers and followers will become.

People follow leaders they can talk to.

It is impossible to make the kind of connection necessary for strong leadership support if your followers can’t approach you. You must be available and open to discussion, ready to listen sincerely, and willing to acknowledge valuable input and suggestions. This consistency will help build trust and increase the confidence of your team.

People follow leaders they admire.

The most important trait that others will see and value is a leader’s sense of commitment. A great leader must be ready to give everything he has for the cause he believes in. If a leader cannot demonstrate his own true dedication to the company goals and objectives, how can he expect others to follow along?

People follow leaders they respect.

Respect never comes automatically with position or title, it must be earned. Initially, people may follow along with a leader because he is the person in charge, but ultimately they will follow a leader whom they respect. Being able to do the job well increases a leader’s credibility. It is when things get tough and a leader must stand up to his commitments, that he will develop a following of individuals who respect him and his competence.

All of the above actions are built on the principles of influence, not position. 

Everything a leader does, and everything he says plays a critical role in the way he ultimately influences those around him. It is this influence that builds the trust, confidence and loyalty that every good leader strives for. 

How Can Leaders Build Followers?

Bono at 50: The Leader We Need

Earlier this week, Bono, the U2 singer, global activist and one of the most powerful leaders on the world stage, turned 50. At this important milestone, it is worth briefly taking stock of his journey thus far--a journey of purpose, impact, passion, and humour. It is a path with lessons for leaders from all walks of life.

So what has Bono been up to that accounts for his enormous influence--influence that extends from the 100,000-seat stadiums that U2 plays to the White House, Vatican, and Downing Street to debt forgiveness and medical aid to Africa? After all, he was not born with cash or connections.

Bono's leadership journey has its roots in U2, the Irish band that he and several schoolmates, including Larry Mullen, Jr., David Evans (who later became known as "The Edge"), and Adam Clayton, founded in 1976. The story of U2's success is one of commerce as much as art. At its centre is the creation and stewardship of a very powerful brand, a brand that, in the midst of an ongoing perfect storm of turbulence in the music distribution business, is still going strong around the world.

Leading this enterprise has meant keeping the key team members motivated, engaged and growing--as human beings as well as music makers--for almost 34 years. Growing the organization four gangly teenagers - who in 1979 had to sell one of their instruments in order to buy passage home after a short London tour--to one of the most successful rock bands in history has demanded abiding faith, a steady stream of courage, huge reserves of personal energy, and a disciplined openness to the world as he continues to meet it.

From this solid foundation, Bono has acquired great agency. Not only money for himself and sway with his customers--music fans of all ages, shapes and sizes--but also extraordinary access to other movers and shakers as well as influence on a wide range of issues outside rock music. One of the most compelling aspects of Bono's leadership is how he has chosen to use the authority that has accompanied business success. He has decided, over and over again, to put his artistic, political, strategic, and spiritual muscle to work to alleviate suffering in the world's poorest countries.

Amidst all this activity, Bono keeps turning his energy to making and distributing music. His work as a musician is as central to his humanitarian efforts as the money he helps raise or the politicians he wins over for debt relief. At the same time, his activism has become part of the U2 brand, animating the way that millions of people think about the group and their offerings.

Herein lie several lessons. First, all successful organisational leaders wield power, often in excess of that granted them by their office. How such individuals decide, explicitly or not, to use this control is a question of grave importance for the world today.

The most important problems confronting us now, including a precarious global financial system and an equally vulnerable environmental system, do not come in separate buckets labelled "business" and "public policy." These are challenges that are smashing through older boundaries and helping redefine organisational place and mission.

Second, as Bono seems to understand, these issues demand a new kind of leadership, one based not in aging hierarchies and status systems but in humility, an ardent desire to learn and a respect for the individuals that organisations serve.

Third, individual leaders have to keep getting right with themselves about their own path and impact.

Finally, effective leadership today demands a willingness to stay open, not only to one's own enterprise but also to the teeming global village around it.

Bono, like Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago, has not let himself become isolated in an elite atmosphere. He has used his touring and travels as classrooms to help him understand the hopes, dreams and tribulations of his fellow citizens, whom he often calls his brothers and sisters. And he has used this knowledge to light his way, his music and his leadership.

Happy Birthday, Bono!

Bono at 50: The Leader We Need

Influence and Respect

Influence and Respect are values of Positive Leadership.

‘Leadership is influence.’ John Maxwell

‘Respect a man, and he will do all the more.’ John Wooden

Here are some reference materials which speaks to this value:

Influence and Respect

Why Flattery is Effective

Forget rational argument: to achieve lasting business victories, you'd do better to spend your time complimenting people on their dress sense, writes Andrew O'Connell. Rational persuasion lasts only until a better counter-argument comes along, O'Connell notes, but subconscious "gut feelings" -- like the irrational sense of well-being that follows even an obviously insincere complement -- are harder to shake off. For more, see - http://blogs.hbr.org/research/2010/03/why-flattery-is-effective.html

Why Flattery is Effective

Being a Great Coach

Did you watch the Winter Olympics recently? The most successful athletes seemed to share a common experience: the positive personal impact of one to one leadership with their coaches. These relationships are designed to guide athletes to the pinnacle of success. Olympic coach Michelle Leigh says, "Ultimately being a great coach is all about helping people to become more." 

The coach/athlete relationship illustrates dominant themes in successful one to one leader/follower relationships: mutual trust, authentic concern for others, and self awareness.

Although we may not aspire to Olympic fame, we can’t escape the one to one leadership relationship because it occurs naturally in family, work, school—it is inherent in life. When we interact with individuals, we may be leading or following. How do we measure up? Do we have the other person’s interest in mind when we lead? Are we gracious followers when someone else takes the lead?

Leadership author John Maxwell asserts that leadership is “influence—nothing more and nothing less.” This may appear over simplified; however, it highlights the crucial element of personal relationship in one to one leadership. In relationships, whether in the leader or follower role, we exert influence—on thoughts, attitudes and actions; good or bad—and we either build trust or tear it down. This influence has potential to unite people in purpose around common goals to culminate in great results. Even in one-time exchanges, for example in a check-out line, there is the opportunity to lead someone through the influence of a patient, kind attitude, honesty, and humble service.

Retreat from life’s business and look at your own one to one leadership relationships. Are they “gold medal” quality? Consider anew your influence through relating to others in your many roles in life. Wherever you are today—helping out at home, putting in a long day at work, or completing coursework for school—remember that one to one leadership is a skill worth honing. 

Your influence on another can be the catalyst to positive results. Be trustworthy, authentic, and aware of your personal challenges. As organisational consultant Don Brawley says, “To the world you are just somebody, but to somebody you are the world!”

Being a Great Coach

How to Become a Positive Leader

In the words of a 19th century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, “ No man can for any considerable time wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.” You should therefore concentrate on building your inner character rather than building reputation or image. D. L. Moody said “if I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.”.

To become a person of integrity and a positive influencer, you need to develop the following qualities:

1. Fulfill your commitments-one of the surest ways to break trust with people is to renege on a promise. Hence never promise anything you can’t or don’t intend to keep. 

2. Live honestly- choose to be truthful; avoid telling lies. Avoid hypocrisy and duplicity; be consistent in your character with everyone. This will make people have good impressions about you.

3. Exemplify humility-People tend to distrust someone they perceive to be driven by ego, jealousy or an air of superiority. Humility is one of the hallmarks of an effective leader and a positive influencer.

4. Imbibe an attitude of service- leadership is all about serving others and not an opportunity to be served. Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell says “the service that we render to others is really the rent that we pay for our room on this earth.” Leaders are to give of their time, energy and gifts to others.

5. Do the first things first- Resist the temptation to do the easy and quick activities because these are often the trivial things. Zig Ziglar says “when you do the things you have to do when you have to do them, the day will come when you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them.”

How to Become a Positive Leader

Influence

Influence is one of the values of Positive Leadership. All Black captains have influence and inspire followers:

Influence

Why Connectors are the New Influencers

Here is some fascinating insight from Havard Professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter on how social networking is changing the concept of leadership influence in the 21st century:

'In the world according to Twitter, giving away access to information rewards the giver by building followers. The more followers, the more information comes to the giver to distribute, which in turn builds more followers. The process cannot be commanded or controlled; followers opt in and out as they choose. The results are transparent and purely quantitative; network size is all that matters. Networks of this sort are self-organizing and democratic but without any collective interaction.

The significance of Twitter is yet to be determined; it is a simple, impersonal, and transient application of technology. But very real network effects are a new source of power in and around organizations.

America in the 20th century was called a "society of organizations." Formal hierarchies with clear reporting relationships gave people their position and their power. In the 21st century, America is rapidly becoming a society of networks, even within organizations. Maintenance of organizations as structures is less important than assembling resources to get results, even if the assemblage itself is loose and perishable.

Today, people with power and influence derive their power from their centrality within self-organizing networks that might or might not correspond to any plan on the part of designated leaders. Organization structure in vanguard companies involves multi-directional responsibilities, with an increasing emphasis on horizontal relationships rather than vertical reporting as the center of action that shapes daily tasks and one's portfolio of projects, in order to focus on serving customers and society. Circles of influence replace chains of command, as in the councils and boards at Cisco which draw from many levels to drive new strategies.

Distributed leadership — consisting of many ears to the ground in many places — is more effective than centralized or concentrated leadership.

Fewer people act as power-holders monopolizing information or decision-making, and more people serve as integrators using relationships and persuasion to get things done.

This changes the nature of career success. It is not enough to be technically adept or even to be interpersonally pleasant. Power goes to the "connectors": those people who actively seek relationships and then serve as bridges between and among groups. Their personal contacts are often as important as their formal assignment. In essence, "She who has the best network wins."

Connectors have always been more promotable, even in traditional hierarchies. In my early research in a rigid industrial conglomerate (that has since gone out of business), I saw that women tended to be excluded from top ranks because there were so few women already in top ranks, and being part of peer groups mattered for career advancement. Wherever teamwork across positions is desirable, natural connectors who instinctively reach across divides to form relationships get the plum jobs, on small sports teams as well as in large companies. For example, on the North Carolina women's soccer team, a perennial winner among college teams, Jordan Walker was a team leader because she was a connector who helped other players work together, even though Coach Anson Dorrance called her one of the least athletic players he had ever seen. As for big business, during the Seagate turnaround, Joan Motsinger was asked to head a technical area even though she wasn't a technical expert, because of her business card collection, which made her a network star.

Network stars have social capital — a stockpile of personal relationships with many people whom they regularly connect to one another. Though technology tools are increasingly common to help people find connections, from LinkedIn to Facebook, I find that even the most technology-savvy leaders rely on their own personal networks to find the best resources quickly. The technology is so democratic that the information is considered less reliable. The human networks are what count. In SuperCorp companies with far-flung global operations, personal networks of people that managers have met or worked with are often better sources for key assignments than data bases of resumes. One manager in a high-tech company called this "the old-fashioned way, the knowing people type thing: I know a person who might know a person..."

To be known is to be in the know. This is why connectors with big networks have so much power. They don't need to be the formal boss if they have the connections. Nick Donofrio, former IBM executive vice president, encouraged 90,000 technical people to think of themselves as working for him, even though they did not work directly for him in any formal or official way. He answered hundreds of daily emails personally, counting on this as a major bottom-up source of information about issues and opportunities.

Social capital is often, but not entirely, correlated with length of organizational experience. The other factor is whether the nature of the job encourages getting to know large numbers of people — that is, whether the job involves mobility, a portfolio of varied projects, and participation in initiatives that call for communication across groups.

In short, giving people work that spans boundaries is a way to grow the potential for more connectors, in a nice multiplier effect. But ultimately the power of connectors lies in themselves, not in the stars. It comes from their own willingness to continue making relationships, passing on information, and introducing people to one another.'

Why Connectors are the New Influencers

The Qualities of an Influencer

Leadership is all about influence, not position. Leadership is a choice you make, not a place you sit. What are the qualities of an influencer?



INTEGRITY - builds relationships on trust.

NURTURING - cares about people as individuals.

FAITH - believes in people.

LISTENING - values what others have to say.

UNDERSTANDING - sees from their point of view.

ENLARGING - helps others become bigger.

NAVIGATING - assists others through difficulties.

CONNECTING - initiates positive relationships.

EMPOWERING - gives them the power to lead.

The Qualities of an Influencer