Power and Influence in the Workplace Goals Managing

Power and Influence in the Workplace

Goals • Managing people over whom you have no formal authority • Start visualizing power dynamics at work • How to exercise influence • The limits of formal power

Kay Sunderland Account Director, Attain Learning Mike Morgan Content Development Director, Attain 3

Juan Nunez (CLO, Gramen) John Chama (COO, Attain)

Action Alternatives Action - Leave Morgan immediate message: Don’t call again! - Morgan: Come see me - Get more information? - Involve Chama? - Push or Pull Morgan? - Which currency to use? Pros Cons

Sources of Power • Legitimate – This comes from the belief that a person has the right to make demands, and expect compliance and obedience from others. • Reward – This results from one person's ability to compensate another for compliance. • Expert – This is based on a person's superior skill and knowledge. • Referent – This is the result of a person's perceived attractiveness, worthiness, and right to respect from others. • Coercive – This comes from the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance.

Determinants of Power at Work Sources of positional power: • Formal authority – position in hierarchy and prescribed responsibilities • Relevance – relationship between task and organizational objectives • Centrality – position in key networks • Autonomy – amount of discretion in a position • Visibility – degree to which performance can be seen by others Sources of personal power: • Expertise – relevant knowledge and skills • Track record – relevant experience • Attractiveness – attributes that others find appealing and identify with • Effort – expenditure of time and energy ©Whetton and Cameron, Developing Management Skills: Gaining Power and Influence, New York, Harper Collins Publishers 1993

Exchange Currencies • Inspiration-related: provide meaning to others’ work • Task-related: provide assistance directly connected to getting the job done • Position-related: enhance others’ position in the organization • Relationship-related: strengthen the relationship • Personal: enhance others’ sense of self ©Cohen and Bradford, Influence without Authority, New York: Wiley and Sons, 1990

Key Elements of a Good Action Plan • • • Analysis/diagnosis Identify assumptions and what-ifs Periodically reassess in light of latest info. Have you defined objectives long-term and short-term? Have you developed a strategy? – Is action plan feasible given constraints/opportunities and sources of power? • Assess the likely impact of your plan – Aware of tradeoffs? Direct and indirect consequences – Carefully documented the stakes and risks involved? • Taken important contingencies into account? What’s probability of success at each stage? Alternative contingency plan/s? • Easy to have goal displacement– reevaluate periodically

Context Goals Risks - Client Responsiveness Lose/piss off client Preserve/enhance relation with Morgan quits/complaints - Tough Economy Managing “creatives” Culture: in transition from entp to profesional Gramen needs fast turnaround High stakes project Alienate Morgan’s minions Sunderland Morgan Nunez - High stakes account - ? ? - High stakes; long term -MBA, sales past at IBM - Loves entrep. culture - CLO Landscape/ag. Manufacturing co. - Push style of influence -Push with Kay; Pull with others? - Push? -Good track record; appointed to proj. by Chama - Sole content developer; key to the “technical core”; understaffed - Pet project: -Brought in to professionalize - Has to get clients to take risks; and protect - Pressure from boss?

Power Play • Power: the ability to get things done [your way]. . • Why people shy away from power: – The just world belief – The (bullshit) leadership literature on authentic leaders, etc. – Self-handicapping • Make your peace with power – You need: substantive business knowledge so you know what to do and political skills to

Power Play (Pfeffer) • The exercise of power: – Mete out resources – Shape behaviors through reward and punishment – Advance on multiple fronts – Surprise! Make the first move – Co-opt antagonists – Remove rivals – Don’t draw unnecessary fire – Use personal touch – Persist – Make important relationships work – Make the vision compelling

Scenario 1 After 10 years of working hard, you have finally been promoted to the position of department head at a firm that specializes in creating custom kitchens for rich clients. Before your promotion, there were many good ideas you had that never seemed to get the attention they deserved. When you would make suggestions at meetings, you would often be ignored; but when the same suggestion was made by your boss, people would pay attention and it would seem like it was your boss, not you, who came up with the idea. Moreover, when you wanted to get your colleagues to do something, you would have to beg for their help and assistance– what else could you do as you had no formal power over your peers. All the power was in the hand of the boss, it seemed. All that would change, you thought, once you became the boss. Finally, you would have the necessary authority to compel people to act. No longer would you need to beg for others’ cooperation (which was often not forthcoming anyway because your peers seemed to often think of you as a potential rival, bucking for the position of department head). And yet, six months into the job, however, you discovered that whereas people were certainly willing to assent to your directives, they rarely seemed to do much more than pay lip service to your directives. You are frustrated and wondering: how can I influence people so that they show genuine commitment rather than shallow compliance.

The Limits of Formal Authority • Don’t depend on formal authority – People want more than a formal authority based relation: do you care about me? Do you want to help me grow? – They disagree with you – They think other things are more important – They don’t understand what you want: impossible to give instructions that are so explicit as to obviate need for judgment – Circumstances may change, robbing your directive of force. – Many hate being bossed around. – No compliance because of confusion – Cannot generate genuine commitment or change or elicit others’ knowledge – Being the sole boss places an impossible burden: now you have to be right all the time.

How and When to Use Formal Authority… • • How to use authority: – As a two-way relationship: give and take – Apply ethical judgment – Use authority sparingly – Involve others; act transparently; delegate authority When to use authority: – When swiftness of decision is needed/emergencies – When group members cannot reach agreement – To maintain group standards and norms – To set useful boundaries (use goals; emphasize group standards; budgets; policies) – To focus peoples’ attention on what’s really important

Your Feedback Style • When giving feedback to another person, I… (1) Focus my comments on specific, job-related behaviors (2) Keep my comments descriptive rather than evaluative (3) Prefer to save up my comments so they can be presented and discussed in detail during the person’s annual performance review. (4) Ensure that my feedback is clearly understood. (5) Supplement criticism with suggestions for what the person can do to improve. (6) Tailor the type of feedback to reflect the person’s past performance and future potential.

Skills for Obtaining Feedback • Take initiative and ask for feedback. • Don’t be defensive. • Check your understanding by offering a summary of what you heard the other say. • Ask questions to clarify… but don’t try to mount a defense…

Cialdini’s book “Influence” Given the propensity towards fixed action responses… Weapons of Influence: 1. Reciprocity– e. g. , the “rejection then retreat” technique. 2. Commitment (active, public, effortful) and consistency– e. g. , Festinger and Carlsmith. 3. Social proof: action correct if others are doing it. 4. Liking (attractiveness, homophily, flattery) 5. Authority 6. Scarcity For summary of book, see: http: //www. scribd. com/doc/55605801/Robert-Cialdini-s-Influence-Science-and-Practice-Chapter-Summaries

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