Influencing and
Communicating With
Leaders and Peers
Our Objectives
 Building Relationships
 Outlining the Levers of Influence
 Preparing Your Pitch
Building
Relationships
Building Relationships
 Know Your Manager and Peers:
1. Spend time learning their interests and priorities
2. Learn their pet peeves and avoid them
3. Don’t talk negatively about your colleagues
4. Understand and support their:
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•
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Strengths
Weaknesses
Priorities and Goals
Work style (e.g., Is your manager a reader or a listener?)
“Managing your Boss,” by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter, Harvard Business Review
The 360 Degree Leader: Developing your Influence from Anywhere within the Organization, by John C. Maxwell
Levers of
Influence
Influencer
The true measure of
leadership is influence –
nothing more, nothing less.
- John Maxwell
Levers of Influence
 People will attempt to change their behavior if:
1. They believe it will be worth it (motivation)
2. They can do what is required (ability)
 You can influence motivation and ability through
personal, social and structural sources
Motivation
Ability
Personal
Make the
Undesirable
Desirable
Surpass Your
Limits
Social
Harness Peer
Pressure
Find Strength in
Numbers
Structural
Six Sources of Influence
Design Rewards
and Demand
Accountability
Change the
Environment
Personal Motivation
 Help people find intrinsic
satisfaction:
1. Immersing them in the
activity
2. Tapping into people’s
sense of pride and
competition
3. Linking new behaviors to
their values
Personal Ability
 Ensure that people have the
ability to change:
1. Breaking behaviors into
clear, specific and
repeatable actions
2. Creating time and space
to practice new skills
3. Providing immediate
feedback against clear
standards
Social Motivation
 Use peer pressure:
1. Cultivating the support of
“opinion leaders”
2. Surfacing undiscussables
through public discourse
3. Removing people from
existing networks and
placing them in a new,
supportive network
Social Ability
 When individuals need the
support of those around
them to change:
1. Getting entire groups to
change behavior
together
2. Co-opting others by
turning your problem
into their own
3. Having participants teach
one another new behaviors
Structural Motivation
 Extrinsic rewards should
compliment other strategies:
1. Linking rewards to
specific actions (not
outcomes)
2. Using small, heartfelt
tokens of appreciation
3. Using punishment
judiciously – start with a
warning but never bluff
Structural Ability
 Shape the environment to
make change easier:
1. Changing the physical
environment
2. Making a small amount
of important data visible
to reinforce behaviors
3. Eliminating choice
altogether
Applying the Influencer
 In small groups, pick one of the challenges you shared
at the beginning. Work together to determine how you
might apply this model to that case.
Preparing Your Pitch
Communication Discussion
 How do communication skills affect your ability
to have an impact?
 Why is it difficult to communicate effectively?
• Executive vs. peer audiences?
Focus on the Audience
 Are you communicating up, down or across?
 Are they:
•
•
•
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Experts?
Educated decision-makers?
Customers?
Collaborators?
 Frame your case – tell them why they should care
Characteristics of Executive Audiences
 Busy
 Distracted
 Impatient
 Thinking about something else
 Prone to tangents
 Have multiple agendas (some open, some hidden)
Conveying Your Message – Make It Stick
 Keep it simple and brief
 Lead with results/impact
 Use stories to support findings and
recommendations
 Make the ask clear
 Deliver the unexpected (w/o being gimmicky)
 Use alternative media as appropriate
How Do You Fail?
 No explanation of significance
 No roadmap
 Not knowing your stuff
 Gaps in logic
 Excessive detail
 Gimmicky
How Do You Succeed?
 Do not share everything you know – but be ready to
provide depth and complexity when asked
 Answer questions efficiently – if you don’t know the
answer, do NOT make one up
 Be prepared NOT to get through everything:
• You will be interrupted
• The audience may focus on one issue and never let go
• Make your most important points early
Examples of Effective Communications
 Jared Fogle – Subway Celebrity
 Derek Sivers – Starting a Movement
 Alexis Ohanian –
How to Make a Splash in Social Media
 Others?
Effective Communications Strategies
 For communications to be successful, you must
move beyond one-time communications:
• Repeat, repeat, repeat
• Explore different mediums of communication
• Meet people where they are
• Do not assume that hearing equates with
understanding or action
• Communicate throughout any initiative, not just at the
beginning
Next Steps
Action Planning
 What is one action you will take upon returning to
work?
 What support will you need to accomplish this
goal?
Stay Engaged!
 Center for Government Leadership:
• Annenberg Leadership Seminars
• Excellence in Government Fellows program
• Fed Coach
 Daily Pipeline
 Service to America Medals
ourpublicservice.org