Influencing Those You Can’t Fire
No matter where you find yourself on the organizational chart, the ability to influence people you can’t fire counts as one of the most important skills in a manager’s repertoire.
The ability to influence up, laterally and down, draws from several different bags of tricks. If you want to do this well, here’s what you need to learn.
- Authentic networking skills—you’re not looking for targets, but for people you truly like, and whom you want to help succeed.
- Negotiation skills—you’re not trying to win, but to look for ways where both can benefit. Think long-term here, not short term manipulation.
- Advocacy skills—although door-to-door selling may play a part, effective advocates know how to build coalitions to do their selling for them.
These skills are even important for your boss’s boss’s boss. He or she must influence their peers, their boards, and even you to do things they have no formal authority to ask you to do. No one is born knowing how to do this. It has to be learned. And lucky for you, it can be. And the earlier in your career you begin the better.
I didn’t invent this stuff. Lucky for you we know quite a bit about influencing without authority. I suggest you look at Jay Conger’s work to start, and then take formal training in networking, negotiations, and advocacy. And then practice, practice, practice.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
