Competency Center
Building and Maintaining Influence
Key Takeaways
Executive Summary
•Successful business leaders are masters
of influence. They are adept at motivating
others to accomplish objectives without the
direct authority to do so. Empowering others
to accomplish goals is key in gaining overall
influence in any workplace.
In many ways, the key to successful leadership in
today’s business world is influence, not authority.
Authority suggests position or rank and although
people in high positions of authority usually convey
a sense of influence, they do not necessarily make
full use of influence in the workplace.
• Influence is driven through wide networks of
colleagues, and a general interest in every
person’s role in the company.
In any organization, influence runs along a continuum of calculation and desire. At one extreme
are those who have no influence and do not aspire
to gain any. Though increasingly rare, these are
the people who come to work, do their jobs, ask
no questions, and go home. At the other extreme
are those who deliberately plot to gain influence by gaining favor, networking, signing on for
high-visibility projects that will bring them instant
recognition, etc.—all in an effort to advance their
careers or improve their positions in the workplace. In between are those who gain influence
through the quality of their work, the extent of
their expertise, the impact of their questions, their
abundance of energy, or their ability to empower
others.
• The distinction between influence and
manipulation can be very narrow and vague—
business leaders should be careful to never
cross into manipulation territory as they will
lose any influence they ever had very quickly.
•Gaining influence without authority is essentially
an act of self-empowerment. Self-empowerment
relies on an awareness of the interdependent
relationships that exist in most workplaces—
and the ability to influence a wide range of those
relationships with skill and agility.
Business leaders today must strive to understand
this dynamic, regardless of whether they are in
positions of formal authority. More and more often,
leaders are asked to oversee a more complex
corporate structure characterized by partnerships
and alliances, virtual teams, and outsourcing. In
such an environment, the ability to get things done
through other people counts as one of a manager’s most essential skills, and it comprises a wide
range of capabilities—from networking and coalition building to persuading and negotiating.
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Competency Center
Building and Maintaining
Influence
Techniques for Development
As a result, managers should know how to develop
the organizational equivalent of ‘trade routes’ to
get things done. It is in this context that informal
networks of mutual influence are needed to motivate others, conceptualize and complete projects
faster, and broaden all networking avenues.
Those developing avenues for influence in a
company may be seen at first as seeking power.
However, over time lasting influence is much subtler than outright power. There is little doubt that
calculated efforts to win favor can be effective, but
they can be counterproductive in the long run. True
and lasting influence is more a function of common
courtesies and a sincere interest in others. It is a
function of taking the time to know what is important
in people’s lives, understanding the fundamental
values that drive them, listening to their ideas and
acknowledging their worth, extending to them the
same kind of concern for their welfare as one would
expect for himself or herself.
Obstacles
There is little doubt that the greatest obstacles
to building or maintaining influence are miscommunication, no communication at all, or making
unwarranted assumptions, especially about other
people, their priorities, or their alliances. Along
those same lines, disingenuous attempts to curry
favor will ultimately be counterproductive. People
do not respect or wish to follow anyone who tries to
manipulate them.
The best strategies for gaining influence in the
workplace include:
In addition, the following practices are obstacles to
securing influence in the workplace:
• Creating a broad network of professional relationships inside and outside the organization.
• Isolation from other groups.
• Thinking of negotiation and persuasion in terms
of mutual benefit rather than manipulation.
• A lack of understanding about what other people
experience or value.
• Soliciting the opinions and perspectives of the
people whose support is essential.
• Conflicting styles of social interaction can
impede development of influence. For example,
an expectation of getting down to business
right away can be off-putting to someone who
expects an exchange of pleasantries beforehand.
• Building a partnership with the people who will be
most affected by an initiative and whose buy-in is
crucial to success.
• Being transparent about any personal motivations, and never hesitating to “over-communicate.”
• Applying an approach that works in one situation
to all succeeding situations will usually fail.
• Sharing credit with others.
• Having a predetermined idea about the “right
way to do things” and imposing it on others is
generally not productive.
Individual Contributors
Individuals gain influence by virtue of their ability
to understand what motivates people, and their
ability to engage them in accomplishing mutually beneficial goals. People who have influence
empower others to accept change, draw upon
strengths they didn’t know they had, and reach
• Hidden agendas, misunderstanding of a project’s mission or goal, and inter-departmental
conflict or competition all undermine efforts to
win influence and bring about change.
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Competency Center
Building and Maintaining Influence
work is valued, and how much their input is
considered. In today’s fast-paced workplace,
careers can be derailed because of a general
lack of empathy and fundamental people skills.
ends they had not previously considered—motivating others to be their best is key.
Such influence demands great people skills: the
ability to engage others in a meaningful way about
their interests, their relationships, their goals, and
their work. Those who have this skill converse
freely and openly, understanding intuitively the
need for others to be treated with fairness and
respect. They gain credibility by means of their
intelligence, their willingness to work hard, and
their capacity to see a project through to the end.
They gain allegiance through their ability to make
people feel valued for who they are and what they
do.
Successful leaders know the value of establishing a positive chemistry among co-workers. One
way to do this is to provide conferences, seminars, and company-sponsored social events for
people to get to know their peers in other parts
of the organization. In addition, leaders should
not underestimate the ability of workers to forge
networking and mentoring relationships themselves, rather than try to anticipate or predict
their needs for them.
Executives
Managers
Business executives are in the unique position
of having authority but not necessarily influence.
They certainly have authority over organizational
structure and strategic decision making, but the
actual execution of their plans is frequently in the
hands of employees with whom they have very
little contact on a daily basis.
Managers no longer work in a command and
control leadership position. They cannot resort
simply to “I lead; you follow” directives and expect
to get anything done. They occupy an administrative middle ground, a kind of netherworld
of authority where they are asked to oversee
several people across an organization, not necessarily in the same building or in the same time
zone. They represent and at times speak for the
company, but they do not necessarily have any
formal authority to make decisions themselves.
Executives must acknowledge the efforts of
personnel. It is important to recognize the hard
work and sacrifices that people make for the
organization. Similarly, executives must find ways
to celebrate and reward employee successes
throughout the entire organization. When plans
come together, targets are reached, or strategies
are fulfilled, the people responsible should be
credited and included in celebrations.
In such a model, having influence is essential.
Managers have the uncomfortable position of
convincing stressed-out workers with limited
resources and overbooked schedules to add one
more “critical item” to their already full agendas.
It takes genuine intentions, trust, credibility, and
a well-developed game plan in order to motivate
people to commit time, money, and resources to
initiatives. In other words, it takes influence.
Finally, workers who feel that upper management
is invested in their development are more likely to
reciprocate that investment with a similar dedication to company goals. Executives gain influence
when they provide learning opportunities and
clear paths to career advancement.
Managers must make sure employees understand how important they are, how much their
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Competency Center
Building and Maintaining Influence
Related Resources
Land, P. (2008, June). Influencing without
authority. HVACR Distribution Business.
28–32. Retrieved October 23, 2010, from
http://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?dire
ct=true&db=bth&AN=34609 340&site=ehostlive
Influence without Authority
By Allan Cohen & David Bradford
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=qbh&AN=16898540&site=ehost-live
Oakley, E. (2007). Leading change without
authority. Material Handling Management,
62(5), 17–18. Retrieved November 6, 2010,
from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
?direct=true&db=bth&AN=25247147&site=eh
ost-live
Igniting the Third Factor
Lessons from a Lifetime of Working with Olympic
Athletes, Coaches and Business Leaders
By Peter Jensen
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
ue&db=qbh&AN=44102977&site=ehost-live
Repair a rotten relationship at work. (2009).
Communications Briefings, 28(8), 3. Retrieved
October 28, 2010, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN
=40740370&site=ehost-live
Further Reading
Cohen, A., & Bradford, D. (2005). Lessons
from a determined influencer: The rise,
fall—and eventual resurrection of Monica
Ashley, revolutionary product manager. In
association with Influence without Authority.
Retrieved November 3, 2010, from http://
www.influencewithoutauthority.com/images/
Monica_Ashley%20Final%202-24-05.pdf
Sethi, D. (1999). Leading from the middle.
Human Resource Planning, 22(3) 9–10.
Retrieved October 26, 2010, from http://
search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true
&db=bth&AN=3887494&site=ehost-live
Sethi, D. (2000). Leading from the middle.
Leader to Leader, 17, 6–8. Retrieved October
28, 2010, from http://search.ebscohost.com/
login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=1710518
1&site=ehost-live
Dattner, B. (2009, February 9). Influence without authority. Psychology Today. Retrieved
on October 22, 2010, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/minds-work/200902/
influence-without-authority
Exerting influence without authority. (2008, February 28). Harvard Business Review. Harvard
Management Update. Retrieved October 20,
2010, from http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2008/02/
exerting-influence-without-aut.html
Influence without authority. (2009). McGurer &
Associates, Inc. Retrieved November 3, 2010,
from http://www.slideshare.net/ndefalco/iwaintro
Kaufmann, A. (2010, April). How to influence without authority: An interview with
author Dr. Allan Cohen. Podcast. Retrieved
November 4, 2010, from http://www.
peopleandprojectspodcast.com/index.php/
podcast-episodes/35-episodes/76-influencewithout-authority-for-project-managers.html
EBSCO Competency Center • Copyright © 2013
EBSCO Publishing Inc. • 800-653-2726 • www.ebscohost.com
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