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Bite-Sized Scenario Training :

Building Influence
© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 1
Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™:

Building Influence

This e-booklet is published by:

Mind Tools Limited

Copyright © Mind Tools 2008. All rights reserved.

Version 1.0

This e-book is protected by international copyright law. It may only be copied and used
by registered members of the Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™.

If you receive this publication and you are not a member of the Career Excellence Club,
please notify us at customer.helpdesk@mindtools.com.

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Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™:

Building Influence
When working with people, you need to be able to get things done. This needs influence
because you may or may not be in a position to exercise power or authority in the
situation.

Although we generally dislike talking in such terms, we rely on influence to get things
done. Whether it’s getting approval for expenditures beyond your budget, or getting
items onto the agenda for the next policy meeting, your ability to influence matters.

If you’ve ever witnessed someone without any “real” or legitimate authority achieve more
than a person with a fancy title, you’ve witnessed the power of influence. Conversely,
have you ever been in a position of authority, but still not felt powerful? You might have
had the title “team leader” but if your team doesn’t see you as credible, relevant, or
agreeable, you won’t get much effort out of them.

When this happens, it’s important to step back and figure out what changes you can
make to increase your personal influence. You need to figure out what you can do to
become more influential and better able to convince others to support and/or follow you.

Influence comes from a variety of sources. How much expertise you have, how credible
your position and objectives are, how visible you are, and how you align your objectives
with the organization all serve to increase your ability to have a positive influence on
others.

In this Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ session we’ll show you how to increase your
level of influence. You’ll then get a chance to test your newfound knowledge by working
through three different scenarios. We’ll ask you to suggest what the people in the
scenarios should do to become more influential and improve their situation. As you work
though the lesson you’ll learn:

• What contributes to personal influence and how to develop it.

• How you can use specific sources of personal power to increase your influence.
• Specific strategies for making yourself more influential and better able to shape
and control your work and your satisfaction.

Share your thoughts and experience, or ask any questions of your Mind Tools’ trainer at
the Bite-Sized Training™ forum, by replying to the posting for this lesson. Just visit the
“Bite-Sized Scenario Training: Building Influence” thread of the Bite-Sized Training forum
here http://www.mindtools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5.

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Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Understanding How Influence Develops

Influence, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is the “act or power of producing
an effect without apparent force or direct authority.” This dynamic between power and
influence is an important element of successful management.

You need to have a certain degree of influence in order to get things done. How much of
this comes from personal power and how much comes from the person that you are and
the work that you do is an interesting relationship. That’s where power and influence are
inextricably tied. A seemingly powerful person is not necessarily influential. However, for
a person to be influential, he or she has to have some power.

It’s an interesting dynamic to explore and one that you will almost certainly encounter at
work.

When we talk about power we often associate it with distasteful activities. It conjures up
visions of vengeful and domineering bosses and colleagues. Influence, too, is often
misunderstood. It’s associated with manipulating and convincing people to do things
they don’t want to do.

These notions are far too narrow. Both power and influence can be used productively
and positively.

When used right, a high degree of influence can be viewed as a sign of personal
efficacy. Influential people often help shape a positive work environment and motivate
others to do great work. This means that people with influence are viewed positively in
the organization and others want to be around them.

In fact, if you think about it, it’s often when people feel unable to influence decisions that
trouble starts brewing. They either get angry at the system that keeps ignoring them or
turning them down, or they become apathetic and quit trying. Both are self-destructive
and cause others to turn away.

Too little influence typically yields ineffective work and performance. Too much influence
can lead to abuses, which also yields ineffective work. In the middle is a point where you
have sufficient influence to get done what needs to. This is the type of empowered
position you want to find yourself in.

To build an influential position you need strategies to build influence as well as convert
certain sources of power into interpersonal influence.

Increasing Personal Influence

There are many sources of influence. Some comes from the power you have, others
come from the type of person you are, the type of position you hold, and work you do.
When you know where to concentrate your efforts, you can make a plan to increase your
level of influence despite the title or job you hold.

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Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

French and Raven’s Bases of Social Power

In 1959, John JR French, JR and Bertram Raven published their now classic theory of
social and organizational power. In it, they identified five bases of power:

Expert – power gained from having the knowledge, experience, and ability to
solve problems and make good decisions.
Referent – power stemming from subordinates doing what the leader wants
because they value the leader’s approval, and want to be more like him or her.
Legitimate – power that comes from the leader’s position, which brings with it the
right to ask others to do something.
Reward – power from controlling raises, promotions and other rewards that
subordinates value.
Coercive – power from having the authority to punish others.

A sixth type of power, information power (from being “in the know”) was added later
as an extension of expert power. We’ll introduce it when we talk about how
“centrality” enhances influence.

The power base that can be used to build power and influence with people regardless of
your position on the organization chart is expert power.

When you have expert power you have task-relevant knowledge or experience and you
can use the respect that brings to influence others. Building expert power takes time and
effort, however the payoff is typically significant.

To read more on building expert power, read the article on Expert Power – Leading
from the Front:
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/newLDR_04.htm (Premium members)
http://www.mindtools.com/community/Standard/pages/article/newLDR_04.htm (Standard members)

There is a caution here about becoming too much of an expert as this tends to isolate
you. This is particularly the case if the expertise you’ve built is not relevant to the main
business of the organization, or if it’s not valuable in the role that you aspire to.

The effect is that people don’t see you as integral to the organization as a whole; only to
a very specific part. See the discussion below on building centrality for ways to
counterbalance this.

Charismatic Power
One further source of power, that’s different from all the others, is charismatic power. It
refers to having socially desirable personal characteristics that people are drawn to.
Some people call it personal magnetism. Charismatic people are confident, assertive,
and they have presence. They get noticed not because they are arrogant but because of
the strength of character they emit. The more people pay positive attention to you and
like you, the more they will listen to you and the more personal power and influence you
will have.

Building your confidence, being passionate, and living a life that is purposeful all
coincide with charisma. Other things you can do to build charisma include adopting
agreeable behaviors and improving your clothes and grooming.

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 5

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

While these might enhance your charisma, there is also a limit how far you can go with
this if you are not naturally charismatic. At a basic level charisma is more something you
either have or you don’t. That’s why using it as a strategy to gain influence is not right for
everyone. The other issue is that if this is your primary source of influence it may not last
long. You need to have substance and this is better built in other ways.

Building Personal Influence

Building power is certainly a way to build influence. There are other means to do this as
well, which anyone can use to gain more control in a situation.

Good Work Ethic – this is demonstrated as a higher than expected commitment

to the organization’s success. The more valuable you make yourself to those in
positions of authority and leadership, the higher your degree of personal influence.
Putting forth great effort, working on vital assignments, and attending to the details
that senior managers don’t have time for are all ways you can use to become
more influential. These all tend to lead to more personal responsibility as well,
which is closely related to influence.

Value Congruence – this is behavior that is consistent with key organizational

values. It is similar to referent power where people who identify with strong
leaders are given more power as a result. To build personal influence you will
want to understand the organizational culture and work with it to get things done.
When you act in ways that are congruent with corporate values you are seen as
more credible and legitimate, and therefore what you say is better accepted.

Centrality – this is established by gaining access to information in a

communication network. The more you know has an impact on your personal
degree of influence. When you are seen as someone who is “in the know” then
what you say and do is assumed to have higher relevance and significance. Work
at building a strong network and find assignments that will put you in contact with
people from all levels and departments in the company.

Flexibility – this refers to the amount of discretion you have to get things done.
The more you are able to exercise judgment, the more influential you appear.
Those who do what they are told are not perceived as having much power and
influence. Look for ways to establish initiative and find innovative ways of doing
things. Show people that you think critically about situations and are capable of
making sound non-routine decisions.

Visibility – this is the degree to which leaders and other powerful and influential
people see your efforts. The more people you can demonstrate your competence
to the better. If you can foster relationships with senior people in the company,
even better. Try to participate in meetings and other events where influential
people are gathered. Get involved with problem solving committees. Increase your
face-to-face communication and direct contact with senior people in the company.

Relevance – this is how well your personal tasks are aligned with organizational
priorities. The more your work is associated with issues central to the
organization’s success, the greater your personal influence. This is why financial
and operational positions typically enjoy more power and influence than

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 6

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

administrative ones. Your job then, regardless of your actual position, is to prove
how your role contributes to the efficient operation of the company.

Using Your Power and Influence

Having a degree of power and influence is not enough. You also have to know how to
use it. You can be an expert with a high profile job and lots of contacts, however, if you
don’t know how to relate to people and get them on your side, your power is ineffectual.
It’s the ability to get others to work with you to accomplish your goals that is truly
important.

A great strategy for gaining influence with co-workers and subordinates is to use reason.
This means gaining commitment through a shared understanding. Commitment relies on
explaining legitimate needs and then trusting the good intent of others to work with you.

Using reason rests on your ability to persuade others using facts, needs and personal
values as the basis for your argument.

Your request has inherent merits:

“I want you to ____ because it’s good for/necessary to/consistent with…”

“The experts support my request…”
“By agreeing to do this you will meet your own personal objectives…”

Your request is consistent with their needs and values:

“Because we trust one another and have worked well in the past, I’m asking for
your support…”
“We need your help so by agreeing you’re working for the common good!”
“You’re the expert here, the outcome will be so much better if you help us.”
“This is what I need. Will you help me out?”

Note: The idea of persuading someone, even with a rational argument, is sometimes
confused with manipulation. Make sure your appeal is direct and transparent.
Manipulation is deceitful and you won’t be influential for long if it turns out you are
being deceptive.

The key to using persuasion effectively is allowing the other person to use their own
good judgment and respecting their need to feel empowered in their decision to go
along with you. To read more about persuasive techniques and arguments, see our
article on Powers of Persuasion:
http://www.mindtools.com/community/pages/article/PowersofPersuasion.htm (Premium members)
http://www.mindtools.com/community/Standard/pages/article/PowersofPersuasion.htm (Standard)

In conjunction with a rational argument, you can also use an inspirational appeal as a
method of influencing others. People are already listening to you and paying attention to
what you have to say because you’re seen as influential. When you combine that with
being inspirational as well, then you motivate people. You build passion, excitement,
enthusiasm and commitment.

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Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

These are all precursors for accomplishing great things using the skills and talents of a
group of people. As an influencer you can get people to listen to the inherent merits of
switching to a completely new production system. No one will like the idea but they’ll
probably go along with it and do their part to make the transition smooth. If you add
some inspiration and talk about the change with passion, adding a “Technicolor” vision
of how the company will prosper, chances are you’ll get a more vibrant response.

Using an inspirational approach, a rational one or some combination of the two, the end
result is that you exercise positive control of the situation and get your objectives met.
Effective work within an organization includes gaining power and influence and then
exercising them wisely. When you do this in the name of benefiting the organization your
power and influence increase exponentially and the cycle repeats itself.

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 8

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Scenarios
In our scenarios, we look at three situations where people at different levels of a
company feel “powerless” and unable to influence their situation and/or their team.

As you read each one, think about how you would advise each person to go about
enhancing their influence and help them achieve their work goals. Jot down your ideas,
and then share them with the Mind Tools Team and other members in the Building
Influence thread of the Bite-Sized Training forum here:
http://www.mindtools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5.

Scenario 1:

A Front-Line Supervisor feels that company rules and regulations are managing
his team… not him!

Jim has been a supervisor for less than a year. At first he was delighted with his
promotion. Unfortunately, things started turning sour quite quickly. He thought this
position would help him progress upward in the company he works for; instead it is
looking more and more like a dead end.

The only time he gets noticed is when something goes wrong. He is caught in the
middle trying to support his team and still answer to his superiors. Basically he’s getting
it from both ends and no one is satisfied.

The company has very tight controls and policies, which make it hard for him to tailor
his responses to satisfy his team. Essentially there is one way to do things: the
company way!

To cope, Jim has become increasingly strict and he resorts to making more rules to get
things done they way they should be. Because the only attention he gets is negative
(when something goes wrong), he has got dragged down into treating his team in the
same way, and rarely remembers to congratulate them on their successes.

The increased rigidity and focus on rules and regulations has left the team feeling very
unappreciated and resentful. Productivity is now suffering because of it.

Question
What would you advise Jim to do?

Your Answer .................................................................................................................

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Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Scenario 2

A Communications Specialist thought her job would help her get to the very
centre of what her organization’s doing. Instead, she finds herself isolated on the
sidelines.

Lisa has been with the organization for two years working as a Press Officer. Her
career plan was to use this position to gain visibility within the company, get to
understand the industry and business, and move into a general management role. The
reality is, she is feeling isolated and forgotten.

Her area of influence is extremely small and she has limited knowledge of what is going
on strategically within the business. The only authority she has is limited to decisions
that affect her alone. She hears about new directions and projects through mass-
circulated memos and when her boss calls to tell her what she’ll be working on next.

Because she is already perceived to be the expert, no professional development

opportunities have been offered. She is handed assignments, works on them by herself
and delivers the product to her boss, the VP of Operations, who barely gives her the
time of day expect when a new project has been decided.

She has her own office, works by herself most of the time and has had little opportunity
to develop relationships with her co-workers and network. To add insult to injury, a
communications consultant has been brought in a few times to work on projects she is
more than capable of handling.

This made her want to defend her turf and she dug deeper into her work making her
even more on the outside of the general business operations. The job she thought
would lead to bigger and better things is actually moving her away from her career
goals.

Question
What should Lisa do?

Your Answer .................................................................................................................

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© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 10

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Scenario 3

An Executive is keen to lead his organization forward, but is being held back by
managing day-to-day issues and tasks.

Chris has reached the pinnacle of his career. When he was named the CEO, recently,
he was ecstatic. Finally, the recognition for all his hard work managing various
departments has come through. He learned the business in the trenches. He was a
great manager who was known for his innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit. He
can’t wait to bring those qualities to the chief role and really move the company
forward.

After a few months Chris’ elation is significantly depleted. Instead of spearheading

change and bringing innovative ideas to bear, he is caught dealing with a mess of
restrictions from every direction. He has to contend with government regulations, union
officials, labor statutes, a corporate board that is demanding increased accountability,
and shareholders who want to see results immediately.

He is increasingly caught dealing with the details and has no time left over for long
term, let alone strategic planning. He’s fighting fires to keep the company at status quo
when what he thought he’d be doing was lighting fires within people and bringing the
company’s performance up a few notches.

The operational focus has also caused him to lose touch with what is happening on a
daily basis within the company. He’s feeling more and more like he is only being told
what people think he wants to hear. There are things he can’t share with the team until
the time is right and he knows that this has led to distrust by some members of his
team. The saying, “It’s lonely at the top” is taking on significant meaning.

Now he’s hearing rumors that some people think he should be fired. His response has
been to tighten the reigns and let even fewer people in. He’s started down a negative
path that is threatening to spin out of control.

Question
What can Chris do to become influential again?

Your Answer .................................................................................................................

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© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 11

Bite-Sized Scenario Training™ The Mind Tools Career Excellence Club™

Suggested Solutions

Don’t forget – to get the most out of this scenario-based training, post your ideas in the
Building Influence thread of the Bite-Sized Training forum here:
http://www.mindtools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=5, and discuss other members ideas
there too. We’ll publish some suggested solutions during the week after this Bite-Sized
Scenario Training session is first released.

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2008. 12