28 Increase Your Influence at Work
FIGURE 3-2. WORKSHEET FOR BUILDING CREDITS.
People I’d like
to influence
What I can do to make them more effective,
successful, or appreciated
Herb/Advertising Help Herb and his team to improve the Spring–Summer
sales catalogue campaign by speeding up development
of the new customer database.
Arlene/Sales Support Delegate Carol to help Arlene’s sales support group
during the peak sales period (early July).
Leslie/Benefits
Administration
Volunteer to join the task force she’s leading to investigate
alternative health benefit plans. Offer to conduct a financial
analysis of each alternative.
port in getting something that you need, or when you want
people to adopt your perspective, you can call in some of
those IOUs. Not everyone will come through, but most will
reciprocate out of a sense of fair play and their desire to keep
you on board as one of their supporters. This tactic takes time
to bear fruit, so begin today.
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BE A SOURCE OF EXPERTISE,
INFORMATION, AND RESOURCES
Even if you lack organizational power, you can also gain and exer-
cise influence if you become a source of valuable technical exper-
tise, key information, or essential resources. Let’s look at an
example:
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Romeo is a classic computer nerd. For the past six months he
has been up to his eyeballs in a $10 million project to install
the company’s new enterprise software system—the kind of
system that runs everything from order fulfillment to inventory
control to accounting. No one really understands the details of
the new system as well as Romeo, not even his boss, the vice
president of technology. Consequently, when this VP meets
with the top management team to discuss the project’s prog-
ress, he brings Romeo along. When tough questions are asked,
everyone turns to Romeo for the answers.
Romeo has no formal authority in the organization, but
when technology issues are on the table, people at the top look
to him for evaluations, insights, and advice.
In this example, Romeo has influence in one area of company
operations because he has something that the people with power
desperately need but do not have: technical expertise. They rely on
him and value his opinions. If Romeo has attended to the founda-
tion attributes, he may be able to parlay this limited influence into
a broader influential ‘‘footprint.’’
Control of key information and resources likewise creates a
potential to acquire and apply influence. Have you heard the term
‘‘go-to guy?’’ Do you have a go-to guy (or gal) in your organization?
One of the authors recalls working with a private college that was
very troubled by the low level of donations it received from alumni.
Both trustees and administrators of the college wondered why their
alumni contributions were so low relative to those of similar insti-
tutions. ‘‘Did our graduates leave with a low regard for our curricu-
lum or faculty?’’ one administrator wondered aloud. ‘‘Did they
have a bad experience with campus life?’’ asked another.
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30 Increase Your Influence at Work
One staff person at the college had the information they needed
to answer those questions and gain insights into alumni giving. As
a long-term employee, this staff person had measured student satis-
faction levels over many years. She had designed and administered
satisfaction surveys to all graduating seniors for eight years in suc-
cession. Furthermore, she, more than anyone else, could draw
clear interpretations from that deep pile of statistical data. She was,
in effect, the ‘‘go-to gal’’ on alumni attitudes toward the college.
And this gave her substantial influence with the administration.
....................................
Do you have expertise that your company badly needs? Are
you a ‘‘go-to person’’ with respect to key information? Do you
control a resource that others need to succeed in their work?
If you answered no to these questions, give some thought as
to how you could build expertise in some area of importance
to the company. Likewise, if you see an opportunity to gain
control of information or resources that others need and
value, go for it.
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HELP PEOPLE FIND COMMON GROUND
In their landmark book, In Search of Excellence, Tom Peters and
Robert Waterman quoted a Motorola executive whose experience
told him never to allow the company’s plants to grow beyond one
thousand employees. ‘‘Something just seems to go wrong when
you get more people under one roof.’’
2
‘‘Going wrong’’ can take
many forms in large organizations: poor communication, misa-
ligned efforts, lack of coordination, and so forth. These problems
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Ta c t i c s 31
are experienced less frequently in small operations where people
work in close proximity under the direction of a visible leader who
articulates organizational goals clearly and often.
One of the greatest afflictions experienced by large organiza-
tions is silo mentality. Because specialization is needed, most em-
ployees of large organizations work within distinct functional units
(silos), where they develop specialized skills and outlooks and
focus on narrow goals. In the worst cases, people become so insu-
lar that they lose sight of the organization’s goals and substitute
self-interest in their place. Turf warfare follows as self-aggrandizing
silo managers, like medieval barons, struggle with each other and
with corporate headquarters for control of resources. Individual
employees identify more strongly with their silo clan members than
with other members of the corporation.
This unsatisfactory situation creates an opportunity for influen-
tial individuals who can help conflicting parties rise above their
differences and parochial interests and find common ground. Con-
sider the following example:
A company we’ll call Gemini Company was a major U.S. pub-
lisher of college-level business, math, and science textbooks. It
also had a trade book division that published in the areas of
current events, history, science, and technology. Though these
divisions shared the same corporate back office functions, they
operated independently of one another. Each focused on its
unique market, and each had its own sales and marketing oper-
ation. Their cultures were also very different. The textbook peo-
ple operated in a static environment in which customers,
potential authors, and competitors were clearly identified, and
in which the subject matter changed slowly. The trade book
people, in contrast, operated in a dynamic environment of fast-
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32 Increase Your Influence at Work
changing reader interests. The next ‘‘big book’’ could come
from anywhere, and its success would be driven by its news-
worthiness, reviews in the media, and the author’s public visibility.
The two divisions generally coexisted peacefully under the
same corporate roof, though neither held the other in high re-
gard. The textbook people complained of their trade col-
leagues, ‘‘Their books generate all the publicity, but ours
generate most of the profits.’’ The trade book people, for their
part, viewed their brethren on the other side of the building as
dull plodders in a formulaic industry.
Opportunities for synergy between these two different divi-
sions were few. Then suddenly they found themselves courting
the same author, an eminent academic climatologist. The text-
book people were offering him a lucrative contract to write a
highly academic college textbook on weather and climate
change, while editors in the trade division were asking him to
pen a high-impact book on the global warming crisis. Gemini’s
CFO was alarmed when he discovered that the two divisions
were escalating their competitive financial offers. ‘‘This is ridic-
ulous,’’ he complained. ‘‘We’re raising the stakes in a bidding
war against ourselves!’’
This type of organizational dysfunction is not unusual. Have
you observed it where you work? It occurs when people lose sight
of the common good and seek to advance their own interests—
even at the expense of colleagues. An individual who can break
through this dysfunction and get contending parties to recognize
the common good and work toward it together stands to gain sub-
stantial influence with both the antagonists and senior manage-
ment. He or she gains respect as an unbiased defender of the
common good.
To be successful in this endeavor, take a lesson from experi-
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