Reinventing Influence (Future Skills Series) - Softcover

Bragg, Mary.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0273623133 ISBN 13: 9780273623137

Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 1996

Synopsis

This is a practical book for the manager of the future which clearly shows the link between influencing skills and effective management.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Master the psychology of influence — and get things done in a world without authority!

• Six key principles of influence — and how they can activate your power in any organization.
• Lessons from "Master Influencers," from Jack Welch to Rupert Murdoch.
• Winner: "Best Management Book of the Year" MCA Award!

The disappearance of hierarchical structures has also meant the disappearance of defined authority. In other words, you can't force 'em to do what you want anymore. But you can influence them — and get even more done with honey than you ever could the old-fashioned way. That's what Reinventing Influence is about: specific, powerful tactics for getting things done — without the whip.

Understand the psychology underpinning influencing skills, including six key principles of influence — and use them to activate the seven power levels at your disposal in the organization. Network with confidence, leveraging the hidden, informal cultures that hold today's flat, interdependent organizations together. Master the tactics of influence — and discover the techniques that have enabled today's legendary business leaders to stand apart from the crowd.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

How do you cope when subordinates are unwilling to accept military-style orders? Or when you suddenly find yourself managing an international team of experts over whom you have no direct authority? Or when you must sell a proposal which can only be justified by the numbers, to a boss who hates numbers? In the modern world of work, none of these circumstances is unusual.

The world is currently experiencing possibly its biggest ever business revolution. Managers in every field—in the private and public sectors, in services and manufacturing—are being forced to rethink the management principles which have guided their institutions for so long. The old certainties are gone. The old hierarchical structures with their antiquated command and control systems—all heavily promoted in the last quarter of a century are now on the scrap heap of corporate history.

That is not to say that such structures and systems did not make sense in their day, quite the reverse. But today's business world has lost its orderly and predictable stability; today's employees have a different attitude toward authoritarian structures, and life has lost its security. Increasing global competition, the constant need for innovation, together with rapid and unpredictable biggest ever changes in business methods, have all seen to that. Systems and procedures stifle managers' ability to thrive in the new chaotic order. They simply have not got the time to write those long numbers-driven reports, which go up and down the corporate hierarchy for never ending review and consideration. Things are changing too rapidly—such iterated analysis runs the risk of being out-of-date before it finally hits the CEO's desk.

The new order drives us away from an excessive concern with data and balance sheets back toward the softer skills of vision, values, networks, negotiation, self-presentation, and culture. In other words, all those skills that we need in order to work with and through people to get results in a turbulent and chaotic world.

Ironically, our technology-driven age puts a premium on the basic, centuries-old common sense skills which guided the founding fathers of business. The lack of systems, procedures, and human resource management schemes did not hinder their entrepreneurial endeavors. They had something better. They had an intuitive feel for how to work with people. They knew how to build networks, exchange favors, talk to their customers, negotiate finance in the coffee houses of London, and make upward appeals to those in higher authority. Our business forefathers exploited to the full the whole host of interpersonal and social skills which modern managers now need to reinvent in order to unleash the power resources available to them.

What differentiates today's situation, however, from that of our forefathers is the sheer extent to which we need to be able to exercise influence, in other words, the scale of today's interdependence. Not only was the number of companies in existence significantly lower in the nineteenth century, compared to today, those companies also employed fewer people. In addition, the scope of those nineteenth-century businesses would have been much less extensive—the constraints of the communication and transportation systems, for example, would have limited the geographical range of consumers and suppliers alike.

Things are different now. Markets are global; product and service delivery systems are sophisticated enough to deliver "mass customization"; communication systems bind the world together in real time; scattered workforces are sited in areas of lowest cost; and the old corporate vertical pyramids have been deconstructed. This means that you as a manager may be dependent on literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of different people to get things done. And not only will there be this interdependence with a mind-boggling number of potential business partners, in all probability, you will exercise no direct authority or power over them whatsoever.

This places a premium on the ability to build effective and influential relationships with the most unfamiliar and alien of people. Steven Spielberg's film ET provides a parable: the rational scientists descend on the Extra Terrestrial with their checklists and sophisticated analytical techniques, and almost succeed in measuring ET to death. In contrast, the children reach out to ET on an emotional level and receive as their reward a vision beyond their dreams. The parable tells us that we all respond to and are influenced by people who are able to reach us emotionally.

Consider the true, though larger-than-life example of Tony O'Reilly, who excelled at Rugby Union football for not only Ireland but also the rampaging British Lions, before developing a meteoric business career which has taken him to the top of the Heinz Corporation in the United States. One of the key skills for which he has always been noted is the ability to build immediate relationships with anyone: from the humblest Irish farmer or South African rugby veteran, to world presidents and statesmen, all of whom he can work through and influence. Not for nothing did Henry Kissinger dub O'Reilly a "Renaissance Man," highly appropriate for an individual who has truly reinvented influence.

All the top-notch people you will meet throughout this book share this huge capacity to be able to wield influence and reach people to achieve results in their particular fields of activity. It may be Bob Geldof, mobilizing generations of young and old across the world for Band Aid; or Nelson Mandela, uniting the spirit of an entire nation by the massively simple act of appearing at the final of the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup wearing the South African team shirt bearing the number of the revered white captain; or John Sculley, communicating his inspirational vision at Apple Computers. In their different ways, all are modern masters of the ancient skill of exercising influence.

The changes introduced by the white-heat of technology have made management into a white-knuckle, roller coaster ride, where you must learn to master the art of being on the brink of control. Riding the horses on the merry-go-round was predictable and safe, but unfortunately, it is no longer an available option. So, join me on the management roller coaster as we learn how to thrive on the chaos of this global management revolution.

The challenges ahead are not for the faint-hearted: they demand courage and the ability to dream new possibilities. They ask the manager to leave behind the world of the organizational hermit where a memo is sent to a peer and copied to the boss (though "for information only", of course) rather than mastering a difficult face-to-face meeting. To be effective, a manager must throw away this crutch of authority and stand on his own two feet by rediscovering people and getting things done through influence.

The roller coaster ahead

As you speed along the roller coaster, you will have the opportunity to throw away all those sure-fire management guides dedicated to analytical, business rationality, which promised universal management success. You must now concentrate on rediscovering yourself and other people.

The first challenge in chapter one will be to consider why influence skills have become central to the repertoire of skills needed by the manager in modern organizations. This part of the ride will turn you upside down—are you holding on?

Our roller coaster will then take you into alien territory—the six psychological principles of influence and how you can use them to activate the seven power levers at your disposal in organizational life. Knowledge is power; and the more knowledge you have of the psychological processes underpinning how to influence your target, the more successful you will be.

The ride then accelerates into the emotionally disturbing land of the "touchy-feely"—there is not a single figure, or rational argument in sight! Can you cope?

Chapter two asks you to focus on the need to understand yourself before you can use influence effectively. Beliefs, values, and assumptions all have an impact on your success in influencing others to secure commitment to your goals. The chapter stresses the need to consciously manage them in order to control the impressions you create with the people whom you need to influence. Not going too fast?

Mind-boggling degrees of interdependence mean that you must learn to identify your potential target successfully. This is a difficult task, but an essential skill to avoid falling off the roller coaster—chapter four shows you how.

All journeys involve learning about cultures, heroes, myths, stories, rituals, tribal customs, and networks. Our roller coaster ride is no exception—we too must discover the hidden informal cultures and networks which hold today's flat, interdependent organizations together and we must find out what kinds of influencing behavior are acceptable.

Every journey must have a goal. Our journey nears its conclusion in chapter six by looking at influence strategy—are strong strategies more effective than soft strategies? Not only does the chapter demonstrate that soft strategies are the preferred choice; it swoops down into the detail of the eight tactical weapons of influence. After all, understanding strategy is no use unless you understand the tactics too!

Chapter seven reviews the roller coaster ride of reinventing influence which we have enjoyed together. Just as importantly, it prepares you to go on the white-knuckle ride on your own, by showing you how to put into effective practice the ideas presented during our journey.

You are not alone

On the roller coaster ride, you will see many top-flight people racing around the track ahead of you. All of them spirited, all of them interesting, they boast a wide variety of backgrounds, from finance to football, politics to production, arts to airlines, right around the globe. The names to look out for as they shoot by include:

Jack Welch, chairman and CEO of General Electric (one of the world's largest corporations) who is attempting to transform the century-old giant into a totally network-based organization.

John Sculley, whose experience includes time at Pepsico and Apple Computers (chairman and CEO).

John DeLorean, brash young executive at General Motors who went on to head Pontiac, Chevrolet and his own DeLorean Motor Company in Northern Ireland.

Rupert Murdoch, global communications magnate.

Robert Maxwell, who went from Eastern European immigrant to controversial global media tycoon.

Bill Clinton, president of the United States of America.

Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia.

Alan Sugar, chairman of Amstrad and of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Tony Blair, former lawyer and now leader of the British Labour Party.

Michael Heseltine, magazine proprietor and deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Lawrence A. Bossidy, chairman and CEO of Allied Signal, the $13 billion turnover supplier of aerospace systems, automotive parts, and chemical products.

Richard Branson, creator of the world-renowned Virgin empire, stretching from music to airlines via finance.

Margaret Thatcher, former UK prime minister, one of the most influential women of our times.

Anita Roddick, cofounder and CEO of the Body Shop.

Bill Gates, chairman and CEO of the Microsoft organization.

Steve Jobs, cofounder and long-time chairman and technical leader of Apple Computers.

Kelvin MacKenzie, one-time editor of the best-selling UK tabloid newspaper—The Sun.

Tiny Rowland, multimillionaire merchant adventurer, former chairman and chief executive of the Lonrho empire.

Hillary Clinton, the current First Lady of the American White House, and former U.S. lawyer.

Richard Goodwin, former president and CEO of Johns-Manville, Inc.

Tony Berry, former chairman of Blue Arrow plc, the largest employment agency in the world.

Henry Kissinger, consultant to President Kennedy, special assistant for national security affairs in the first Nixon administration.

Harold Geneen, former CEO of ITT.

James Hanson, eponymous head of the multimillion-pound Hanson empire.

Ross Johnson, the former chief executive of R.J.R. Nabisco.

Peter McClough, former chief executive of the Xerox Corporation.

And Laura, the heroine of the various episodes in our feature case study found at the end of each chapter. This case study fictionalizes events at a real company, which is British-based but American-owned. Laura is a real person with whom I worked as she traveled the difficult journey to reinventing influence.

When I first met her, she was utterly typical of the cerebral, analysis-oriented managers who graduate from our MBA courses—more as masters of administration, perhaps, than of business. Although she was undoubtedly one of the brightest and best, her inability to use influence effectively impeded her professional progress.

Laura should be the inspiration to all managers reading this book. In spite of, and probably because of, the toe-curling mistakes, the tough challenges, the unremitting self-examination, the continual unlearning and relearning she endured, she came out as a top-level influencer and performer. I urge you to use Laura's example to stay the course.

So let's make a start. Take your last opportunity before the roller coaster moves off to wave goodbye to the dead and lonely world of those timid grey souls who know neither victory nor defeat. Tense your knuckles as the speeds picks up—shout and scream if you must—but hang on—the world belongs to you if you can learn how to reinvent the skills of influence.

Mary Bragg, 1996

About this edition

• Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0273623133
• ISBN 13: 9780273623137
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288