Most organizational conflicts are resolved through influence.

The groups with bosses that have influence will get what they need. Those groups whose bosses lack influence will not. If the thought of consciously accumulating and exerting influence bothers you, imagine the consequences if you had no influence at all. You and your group would be at the mercy of what others demand of you. Yes, power can corrupt, but powerlessness corrupts too. Just think about all the people throughout history who have explained the evil they did by saying, "I had no choice. I had to do what I was told." To be an effective boss, you must influence others -- people and groups over whom you have no formal control -- to get what your group needs and to work for what you believe is best and right. Your own people count on you to do this because they cannot do their work well otherwise. Your organization depends on voices like yours to keep it on the right track. The best way to build influence is to create ongoing relationships for mutual advantage. There's no reason you cannot do this while holding yourself to high standards of openness, honesty, fairness, and respect. The first step to influencing your manager is preparation. Barging straight in with a list of problems or concerns may very well be seen as moaning, so you should pre-plan what you are going to say. Think about the following: See it from their point of view. Try to consider why they make the decisions that they do. What is driving it? Is it profit? Is it people? Is it for self gain (they want to be recognised)? By understanding what drives them to make their decisions you can structure your approach to hit on those things that are important to them. You need to make it seem important to them. Ask yourself what is important to them. A great question I always ask myself is what keeps them awake at night?. If you can understand what they worry about, you can influence them to think a different way by aligning your concerns or ideas to the things they stay awake thinking about at night. You need to help them to see that it will keep them awake longer if it continues, or better still help them to sleep more. Dont just go with problems, go with solutions. If you know a problem exists, dont dump it on their doorstep to fix. Take some time to think about the solutions to the problems. Think how feasible each is and pick a few that you think will work, then align the benefits to the things that are important to them. Define the objective of your discussion. State what you want to achieve at the end of your discussion. So, instead of Boss, we have a problem try Boss, we have a problem and I need to talk to you to decide if we do suggestion 1 or suggestion 2. Pick the best method of communication based on their style. Try to think, do they like detail, to they just want to get things done, are they slow at making decisions? Consider sending all of your thoughts to them first by email if they are slower at making decisions. Then, plan a meeting with them. If they are faster, keep it short and focus on results and action rather than research and background.

Ask about what they wont move on. Ask them what is non-negotiable, but push fro things that are business related and more importantly linked to law and legislation. Once these things are agreed, start on the things that can be changed. Highlight the consequences of not changing. Again, link this to the things that are important to them. Help them to see how continuing or not changing could have severe consequences. Using the above techniques should help you to influence your manager more effectively. If you would like more help, take a look at our Influencing Skills Training CourseRevolution Learning and Development is a Training and Development Provider based in Seaham, Near Sunderland in the North East of England. We work with business to improve business performance through effective training and Development.

How effective are you as a boss a manager and leader? If you had more influence, could you be more effective? Of course, you could. A manager is someone responsible for the performance of others. That responsibility defines what a manager is. But what does a manager do to fulfill that responsibility? He or she exerts influence. How effective you are as a manager and leader will depend on your ability to influence others in ways that make them more productive, both individually and as a group. To be a great boss, you must be able to shape, guide, channel, nudge, encourage, and, when necessary and appropriate, direct what others do. In short, you must be able to make a real difference in their behavior and in the thoughts and feelings that drive their actions. Indeed, if youre unable or unwilling to influence others, you wont be able to manage effectively at all. Based on our research and teaching, our practical experience as managers, and the research and experience of others, we summarize a managers key levers of influence in what we call the 3 Imperatives: 1. Manage yourself 2. Manage your network 3. Manage your team Each imperative is built around a core idea and, taken together, all three encompass the key ways a manager exercises influence.

Manage yourself
First and foremost, your ability to influence others begins with you as a person. Who you are what you think and feel, your values, standards, integrity, intentions, and the ways you choose to interact with others all matter to those youre trying to influence. Every day, the people who work for you examine all you do and say to determine what you know, how you function as a person, and your goals and values. How much of themselves

theyre willing to bring to their work their commitment and willingness to go beyond minimal effort will depend in large part on the competence and character they see in you. Since management is largely a social activity, they pay particular attention to who you are in your relationships with others. It is in those relationship, again and again, that weve seen managers go astray by taking two dysfunctional approaches. Many bosses try to base their relationships on the formal authority that comes with their title. At one time or another, weve all worked for the kind of boss whos goal-driven and all business. No small talk, no personal interest in those around or under him. He strides the corridors head down, intent, unwilling even to acknowledge a passing underling. When he speaks, its mostly to ask questions and give directions based on his basic approach to being a boss, which can be summed up this way: Do what I say because Im in charge. The problem is that formal authority is not an effective way to influence others, especially over the long-run or when the work requires judgment and dedication. People resist, they find ways to avoid compliance, they do the least necessary, and they dont apply their own judgment or knowledge. As one individual told us, I fixed my boss I did exactly what he told me to do. Other managers take the opposite approach. They try to influence others by forming warm, personal relationships friendships with those who work for them. Instead of saying Im the boss! they say, Do what I ask because Im your friend. This approach produces a different set of problems because it encourages relationships in which maintaining the relationship becomes the primary goal, rather than accomplishing the work. In a real friendship, maintaining the ties between two people is the purpose. But that cannot be the case in a relationship between a boss and a direct report because, inevitably, the boss will have to choose say, in selecting someone to promote between doing whats best for the organization and maintaining the personal relationship. In the end, trying to influence others through friendship and personal ties will leave people feeling betrayed. As a boss, you need to be close, warm, and caring with all who work for you, but it must always be clear that the relationship exists for, and is focused on, work and results. If authority and friendship arent the best ways to influence others, what is? The answer is trust. You must manage yourself in ways that foster trust in you as a manager. To do that, its helpful to think of trust as having two components: competence and character. People are more likely and willing to trust you if they believe you know what to do and how to do it; that is, when they believe youre competent. You neednt be the expert, the source of all wisdom in your area, but you must understand the work, know how its actually done, and be able to make intelligent choices with regard to it. Character focuses on your values, standards, goals, and what you truly care about. If competence is about knowing the right thing to do and being able to do it, then character is about wanting to do whats right. Thus, while peoples belief in your competence is essential, it is not enough. They must also know and feel comfortable with your intentions how and

where you will apply your competence. In particular, they need to believe that you care about the work and them. Trust is the foundation of all influence other than coercion. And so, you need to manage yourself and your relationships with others in ways that lead them to believe in your competence and character. Without a foundation of trust, your ability to influence others will be severely limited.

Manage your network

All managers make a basic choice. It arises from the interaction of three fundamental features shared by virtually all organizations: division of labor, interdependence, and scarce resources. In every organization of any size, work must be segmented and people hired who have specialized knowledge of one part of the organization and its work. As a result, all organizations consist of disparate groups with often-conflicting needs, goals, and priorities. In spite of their differences, however, these groups depend on each other. No group can work in isolation. What makes this combination of differences and interdependence problematic is the third universal characteristic: limited resources. No group will get all the money, people, or attention it wants. The unavoidable result is conflict and a politically charged environment in which conflict gets resolved according to ones influence. Resources go to those leaders and groups with the most influence. Thus, to be effective, managers must be able to exercise influence throughout the organization on behalf of their groups. Here is where managers make a choice. Some choose to deal with this political environment by trying to ignore it. They consider organizational politics a waste of time; it consists of schmoozing and backslapping and focuses on who you know, not what you know. Managers who take this approach tend to think that making organizational decisions should be a matter of finding the right answer, which, once found, will be apparent to all. When the organization doesnt work this way, they bemoan the influence of office politics and swear never to play those games. Consequently, they pull back, hunker down within their own units, and deal with others only when they find someone they like or when theres a problem. Effective managers, on the other hand, take a more informed and mature view of how organizations work. Much as they may dislike internal conflict, they know they cannot simply turn away or deal with colleagues only in an idealized world. They also realize its possible to manage in the charged world of internal politics with integrity and for good ends. Such interactions need not consist of manipulation and insincerity. People with different, competing needs and goals can work together to mutual advantage. Thus, effective managers make a different choice. Without abandoning their personal standards, they turn toward the organization and engage their colleagues in the task of creating the conditions they and their groups need to succeed.

They do this by consciously and systematically identifying all those they need and those who need them to do their work. They reach out and, with discipline and initiative, build and sustain a broad network of ongoing collaborative relationships inside and outside their organizations. Thus, when issues or opportunities arise, theyre able to deal with them effectively by turning to existing relationships a far more effective approach. This is how they are able to influence (and be influenced by) those over whom they have no formal authority.

Manage your team

How often do you meet as a group with those who work for you? If you manage a virtual group, how often do you come together online, and how often have you found ways say, at conferences or company meetings to meet face-to-face? When you do meet, do you deal with important work and group issues, or are the meetings perfunctory affairs at which individuals provide quick updates without much discussion? Perhaps, like many managers weve known, you prefer to deal with group members one-onone and act as the coordinator for the group. These managers often think that most meetings are a waste of time some people do most of the talking or discussions fall into pointless arguments that and nothing useful gets done. Theres nothing magic about group meetings per se, but there is something special about a group of people who become a real team as opposed to a group of people who merely work cooperatively. Managers often ignore the possibilities of managing their people as a whole. They dont realize that they can influence individual behavior much more effectively through the team. because all of us are social creatures for whom belonging and acceptance are basic needs. Why is a team different and better? A team is a collective whose members are committed to a common purpose, and work together to achieve challenging goals related to that purpose. In a real team, members hold themselves and each other jointly accountable. They share a genuine conviction that everyone will succeed or fail together. For work that requires a complex mix of varied skills, experience, and knowledge, teams are more creative and productive than groups of individuals who merely cooperate. Managers of teams understand the power of those bonds. Instead of saying to team members individually, Do it because Im asking you to do it, they create a setting in which people do what needs doing for the team, for their colleagues. This is what we mean by managing people through the team. Given the advantages of a team versus a group, an effective manager is skilled at creating the conditions that make the people who work for them whether on a project or permanently, formally or informally into a real team. What does that require? Above all, it requires a clear, compelling team purpose, along with concrete goals and plans based on that purpose. Without these, no group can hope to become a real team. The right team infrastructure and culture are also critical. Members need to know their respective roles and responsibilities. They need to know how work gets done the teams

work processes. And they need to understand the teams values, norms, and standards. Finally, they need to know how members are expected to work together what kind of conflict is acceptable and unacceptable, for example, or how they should communicate. As the boss, you cannot simply put up a poster and declare your group a team. More is required because a team falls into place when the conditions purpose, goals, and so on are right. But while you can make sure that all those crucial conditions are in place, you cannot impose them. You can, however, focus attention on the need for these conditions, make proposals and suggestions, and have the team gather information and do analysis. You can expect the team to work with you on them. You can ask for agreement around them and coach the team through the process of developing these conditions. Then, once the purpose, goals, plans, work processes, and culture have been defined, you can expect and enforce behavior based on them, remind team members of them, and, above all, exhibit them in your behaviour as the boss. In other words, as team leader, you uphold the teams purpose, goals, processes, and values. At the same time, effective managers know they cannot ignore individual team members. Each of us wants to be a valuable and valued team member and to receive individual recognition and attention. You can hardly do otherwise because skills, knowledge, and performance will always vary from person to person and must be managed according to each personality. An effective manager knows how to provide the individual attention members need, but they always provide it in the context of the team. All three imperatives work together and each depends on the other. Each brought to bear by itself will be insufficient. Trust is basic to all of them to forming productive individual relationships, creating and sustaining networks, and building a team. Everything you do as a boss begins with trust. In the same way, everything you do also depends on a sense of purpose and the future youre trying to create around that purpose. Without a purpose, goals, and a plan, youll find it difficult to generate trust if people dont know where youre trying to go, how can they trust you? Without purpose, goals, and plans, developing a network of colleagues will be difficult as well. And without a strong network of colleagues throughout your organization, your team will struggle to carry out its plans and achieve its goals. Thus, a deficit in any imperative will diminish the others and limit your ability to influence others. All three imperatives, taken together, encompass the crucial activities all effective bosses leaders and managers must perform to influence others. Mastering the imperatives is the way managers advance from basic competence to full effectiveness from good to great.
Mastering three imperatives is the way managers advance from being basically competent to fully effective. Readers will learn what those imperatives are and what they need to do to exhibit mastery of them to go from good to great.