How To Influence Others Without Authority

 

Have you ever tried asking for support from someone who is not interested in helping you? Or maybe you have an idea that you’re sure will take your team to the next level, but you can’t get anyone on board? These are common frustrations in the workplace… maybe even at home!

When you don’t have authority over others, it can be difficult to get them to help you or take your ideas seriously. But you’re not out of the weeds even if you do have authority! According to Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford, authors of “Influence Without Authority,” having authority can actually present problems. Why? Because it doesn’t always mean people will follow and support you. Instead, authority can create fear, and can potentially motivate people for the wrong reasons.

The common denominator here is the impact that authority has on influence. Learning to influence without authority is vital for both those who don’t have any, and those that do. So how do you do it? That’s is where the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model comes in.

The Influence Model: Six Steps

The Influence Model, also known as the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model, was created by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford. It consists of six steps. Let’s take a look at each step, and then go through an example in detail.

Here are the 6 steps to the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model:

1.       Assume That Everyone Can Help You

Keep in mind that every single person around you has something unique to bring to the table and could be a great ally. Give everybody a fair chance to prove their value including the most challenging person in the room. Always take the first step to trust the people around you.

2.       Prioritize Objectives

You have to stay focused and remember the very reason why you want to influence these people. What is the benefit of having these people on your side? What is your ultimate goal?

Stay on track and do not confuse your work goal with your personal feelings or motives. Strong emotions such as wanting to “be right” can easily take over and distract you away from what is important, so remain focused on your work goal.

3.       Understand the Other Person’s Situation

Understanding where the other person is coming from is the key in identifying what drives them. Listening to what they have to say will not only make you understand where they are coming from but most importantly, where they would like to go from there.

4.       Identify What Matters, to You and to Them

If you take your time hearing the other person, you will understand exactly what is truly important to them; knowing what he or she values most is likely to be the determining factor in this model.

5.       Analyze the Relationship

Ask yourself: What kind of relationship do you share with this person at this time? Are you comfortable enough to ask what you need from him or her?

If you’re still at the early stage of your relationship, you may need to start by establishing trust and then start building up your relationship from there before you make the “exchange”, which is the final step.

Develop your communication skills by paying attention and using active listening techniques during conversations. Use your emotional intelligence and consider what each person is feeling.

6.       Make the “Exchange”

It’s time to put the model to work. Establish what you have to offer that is valuable to your ally and then make “the exchange”.

Remember to keep building your relationship with mutual respect for each other. Stay engaged by continuously trusting, understanding, and empathizing with the other person. Make sure to show how thankful you are and always look for more ways on how you can help them.

Check out this video for even more insight into the Influence Model

 

Now let’s take a look at an example.

Here is an example…

An Example of Influencing Without Authority 

Jay has been assigned as lead for a cross functional team to develop a new organizational strategic plan. Each team member works in a different area of the company and comes to the team with their own expertise. They’ve been selected to collaborate and come up with a new strategic plan in a short amount of time.

Since this special task is outside of everyone’s primary duties, Jay finds it hard to schedule a time that would fit everyone. Mike, in particular, is currently working extra hours and therefore delaying the team’s progress. So, Jay applies the Influence Model:

1.       Assume That Everyone Can Help You

Jay recognizes that everybody has something valuable to offer; the first task for Jay is to hear what everyone has to say. Mike is not able to attend the meetings due to his heavy workload because he’s short-staffed.

2.       Prioritize Objectives

Jay’s objective is to create the best possible strategic plan while utilizing input from all of his teammates. Mike has the expertise Jay needs to make sure that their new strategic plan meets all requirements. 

 

3.       Understand the Other Person’s Situation

Jay can empathize with Mike. He knows that Mike’s been working extra hours because they are short staffed and that Mike values whatever little time that is left for him to catch up with his family.

Jay knows the mental and physical stress of how Mike’s work schedule is impacting him. As a result, even though Mike understands that importance of this special project that he was assigned to be a part of, he is not happy giving up more of his personal time to work.

4.       Identify What Matters; to You and to Them

Jay knows that Mike is passionate about his field of work, is a great asset to the company, and has much to contribute to the strategic direction of the company. Jay has heard Mike is in the process of hiring a new person to share the workload with him, which would allow him to go back to his normal schedule and free up time to support the strategic plan development project. If only he could find time to go through the applications that he has on hand, to expedite the hiring process.

5.       Analyze the Relationship

Jay and Mike don’t see each other often since they work in different buildings but they know each other enough to know they are both from the west coast and share a love for college sports.

6.       Make the “Exchange”

Jay decides that it’s time to make his exchange. Jay will offer Mike his assistance in interviewing candidates to help expedite the hiring process. In return, Jay will ask for half a day of Mike’s time to catch up on what he’s missed so far in the strategic plan development, then participate regularly in the team meetings.

Mike was surprised to hear Jay’s offer, but he accepts without any hesitations. Jay showed his appreciation by showing up early and took his time by going through each and every applicant seriously. Mike in return showed up early the next day to help Jay; the two came up with Mike’s strategic plan input faster than they both expected. Jay then showed his gratitude by buying Mike a craft beer from the west coast.

The next time you want to influence others, give these six steps a try. You may find that influencing isn’t as hard as you think! I have a bonus tip for you as well: Be sure to use your EQ. Here’s what I mean.

What challenges have you run into when attempting to influence others? I’d love to troubleshoot with you.

 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

 

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Prove You Care About Employees With Feedback

 

Do you truly care about your employees? Do you really want them to improve? If yes, prove it by giving them feedback.

Yet feedback is not just for managers to give employees. Employees also give mangers feedback, and feedback can happen between peers.

Today I am focusing on the manager to employee feedback. And here’s why: Feedback is extremely important in an employee/manager relationship. Just take a look at these statistics*:

1.    Companies that intentionally give feedback have 14.9% lower turnover rates

2.    40% of workers are disengaged when they get little or no feedback

3.    Positive or negative, 82% of employees appreciate receiving feedback

4.    Of highly engaged employees, 43% receive feedback at least once a week

5.    65% of employees say they want more feedback

6.    27% of workers say the feedback they get improves their performance

7.    42% of Millennials want feedback every week, yet 83% of Millennials say their manager’s feedback isn’t meaningful

8.    92% of people think negative feedback is effective at improving performance

As you can see, feedback improves performance, lowers turnover, and perhaps most surprising employees want it! Yet giving feedback can make managers uncomfortable. What do you say? How do you say it?

I’ve got you covered with this step-by-step guide to giving effective feedback, developed by Shari Harley.

Let’s take a look at Harley’s guide and then run through an example scenario.

Eight Easy Steps For Giving Feedback

 

1.    Introduce the conversation so feedback recipients know what to expect.

2.    Empathize so both the feedback provider and the recipient feel as comfortable as possible.

3.    Describe the observed behavior so the recipient can picture a specific recent example of what you’re referring to. The more specific you are, the less defensive he will be, and the more likely he’ll be able to hear you and take corrective action.

4.    Sharing the impact or result describes the consequences of the behavior. It’s what happened as a result of the person’s actions.

5.    Having some dialogue gives both people a chance to speak and ensures that the conversation is not one-sided. Many feedback conversations are not conversations at all; they’re monologues. One person talks and the other person pretends to listen, while thinking what an idiot you are. Good feedback conversations are dialogues during which the recipient can ask questions, share his point of view, and explore next steps.

6.    Make a suggestion or request so the recipient has another way to approach the situation or task in the future. Most feedback conversations tell the person what he did wrong and the impact of the behavior; only rarely do they offer an alternative. Give people the benefit of the doubt. If people knew a better way to do something, they would do it another way.

7.    Building an agreement on next steps ensures there is a plan for what the person will do going forward. Too many feedback conversations do not result in behavior change. Agreeing on next steps creates accountability.

8.    Say “Thank you” to create closure and to express appreciation for the recipient’s willingness to have a difficult conversation.

Seems straightforward enough, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, reading a handy guide and actually talking to a person have different levels of complexity. Each employee/manager relationship is unique, and the characteristics of that relationship will paint every conversation. However, following the guide will help the conversation stay focused, organized and neutral. Let’s take a look at an example.

Play-By-Play Example of Giving Feedback

Pierre is a remote worker who lives in a different time zone than the corporate office. While he delivers excellent work on his projects, he often won’t update his team on his progress, leaving them with an entire workday without knowing where they stand on the project timeline.

Despite being asked by the project manager multiple times to send a quick status email at the end of his workday, Pierre doesn’t remember. Sometimes he has to be emailed three times before his status is communicated. This causes stress for the team and holds back progress while the project manager waits for his update in order to inform the team on next steps.

It’s time for Pierre’s manager to intervene and try to improve the situation. In other words, it’s time for feedback. Let’s take a look at how to provide Pierre feedback based on the eight steps detailed above.

1. INTRODUCE THE CONVERSATION

First, Pierre’s manager should arrange a time to have a conversation. This conversation request can be made via email, phone call, or chat, depending on the usual mode of communication in this employee dynamic. His manager should let him know that she wants to discuss making the team function better, and how he can aid that effort.

2. EMPATHIZE

Pierre’s manager should communicate empathetically about his situation. In this case, she would say something like, “I’m sure it’s difficult to work in a time zone that isn’t aligned with the majority of the team, and that the inevitable early mornings and late nights must be tiring. Plus, I understand that not having your team around you in person can make quick and efficient communication challenging.”

3. DESCRIBE THE OBSERVED BEHAVIOR

Now it’s time for Pierre’s manager to be specific. She may say, “Last week DeAndré requested an update before you ended your workday so that the team would know if you were able to fix the reported bugs in the new website functionality. He needed to know because he had a call with the client early the next morning and had to provide a project update and discuss allocating resources for the next work cycle. However, the update wasn’t provided.”

4. SHARE IMPACT OR RESULT

Pierre’s manager would now go on to explain specifically the impact this particular behavior has on the project and the team at large. For example, “Because DeAndré didn’t receive your update, he had to cancel the client meeting with very little notice. Now the client is losing trust in the team, and we may not get future work from them. If we don’t get future work from this client, which is quite large, we won’t be able to meet our goals, and will have to scale back the team.”

5. HAVE SOME DIALOGUE

Now is Pierre’s chance to talk. Yet he might not feel that he can, if he feels he is in trouble and is retreating. That means his manager needs to create an open environment for Pierre to share his perspective. She can do this by asking open-ended questions and truly listening. For example, “What gets in your way of giving a status update at the end of your day?” or “How can I support you as you keep the team informed?” or “How do you feel about the project, in general?”

6. MAKE A SUGGESTION OR REQUEST

A skilled manager will be able to provide their employee with an actionable plan. Perhaps Pierre’s manager can suggest he set a reminder alarm for the end of his workday alerting him to the fact that he needs to send an update. Depending on the situation, the manager and employee can be creative when developing a solution.

7. BUILD AN AGREEMENT ON NEXT STEPS

After making some suggestions, Pierre’s they should settle on one plan of action that they both agree to. They should also set a meeting in a few weeks or a month to follow up on his progress for status updates.

8. SAY THANK YOU!

No matter how well the conversation goes, it’s important to acknowledge your employee’s willingness to have the conversation. For example, “I know your day is already full, so I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me today.”

These eight steps should set you up for a positive and productive relationship with your team members. And don’t forget, feedback isn’t always negative. Make a point to give positive feedback—and when you do, be specific!

Do you have any tips for giving feedback? I’d love to hear. Let’s share experiences.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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Manage Your Personal Bias with These Three Tips

 

“No, not her!” I thought to myself.

What I needed was a massage and my regular massage therapist wasn’t working. I couldn’t believe I got stuck with HER instead.

My mind started racing. “Is she strong enough to give the deep massage I like? Can she really handle a full hour on all my shoulder knots?”

I’d seen her before as I was waiting for my appointment. She was a practitioner in her late 50’s. My immediate thought was, “Wow, she looks old for this job.” But I dismissed the thought, realizing I was just being biased.

Yet when the reality hit that this “older” woman was going to be giving me my massage, I couldn’t control my mind. “You hate ageism,” I reminded myself, “so knock it off.” I smiled and told her what type of massage I prefer.

When the massage started, I immediately noticed she had a very different style than my usual therapist. “Ugh,” I thought, “is this some technique she learned 20 years ago? I guess she doesn’t know the NEW massage techniques.”

“Stop it,” I said to myself again, “quit being biased and relax.”

But I couldn’t. Because she was stepping too loudly on the floor or breathing too hard. I even thought, “What kind of music is this? Is this from the 80’s?”

As someone who writes and speaks about age bias in the workplace, I knew exactly what was happening to my brain. To be specific, my inner dialogue trifurcated into:

1.    A running monologue about every little thing she was “doing wrong”

2.    A 30,000-foot view of “Oh, so this is what happens when bias kicks in. Look how it’s running over every other thought.”

3.    Scrolling through bias management tips (link), such as “Calm down. Breathe deep. Relax. Enjoy.”

Despite these three conversations monopolizing my mind, the monologue about what she was “doing wrong” steamrolled everything. For all I knew, the music playing could have been the exact same music my regular practitioner plays. This new therapist could be the most revered in the community! I couldn’t see any of that though because my bias was holding me hostage.

Why Was This Happening To Me?

While I take full responsibility for my biased thinking, there is a scientific aspect to those behaviors as well. The culprit is the amygdala part of the brain, which is responsible for rapid visual predictions and categorizations. For example, friend or foe? In-group or out-group? This part of the brain is useful in that it enables us to recognize danger quickly. However, the rapid categorizations are made before the frontal cortex can consciously think.

Yet, if this were just about danger, my brain wouldn’t have reacted the way it did to an older massage therapist.

The compounding factor here is our culture. It is filled with stereotypes. Many of us have inaccurate and prejudicial information that is quickly accessed before the other part of our brain can analyze. This is why biases are so dangerous; they are reinforced almost unconsciously in our culture, and the outcome is often much more serious than a woman not being able to relax on her massage table.

Fortunately, the amygdala doesn’t completely run the show. We have a highly complex frontal cortex, which allows us to control impulses, make complicated decisions and behave in ways that are socially appropriate. This frontal cortex helps moderate gut reactions.

So remember, despite what it might appear like, the human mind is actually extremely adept at control and regulation. With the awareness and willingness to put some work in, we can grab hold of our biases and tell them to get out of our heads. Start by taking a good, hard look at yourself and be honest about the biases you have. Then try these tips to help manage them.

Three Real Life Ways to Manage Your Personal Bias

1. Ask Yourself Questions

When you notice a bias popping up, take a minute to ask yourself these questions:

·         Is this bias relevant?

·         Does this bias help anyone, including me?

·         Why is my brain acting like this bias is important?

·         Where did I get this bias?

Looking hard at biases can often not only make you realize they are useless, but also make them less attractive to you.

2. Surround yourself by those you are biased against

Whether it’s older people, people of a certain ethnicity, certain religious groups or otherwise, if you find you are biased against them, find a way to interact with the group in a positive way. This could be as simple as going to restaurants in parts of your city you don’t usually go to. You can also volunteer in social programs that allow you to work amongst people you tend to be biased towards, join community clubs, attend events, and even simply watch certain movies. The goal here is to challenge your perceptions of certain groups of people, and thereby create new gut reactions when you encounter those like them.

3. Ask Trusted Friends and Family to Hold You Accountable

Because biases are often unconscious, we may not even realize we have them. If you truly want to tackle your personal biases, ask friends and family to call you out when you behave in biased ways or make biased comments. It’s not easy being confronted but control your urge to be defensive, have an open mind, and thank your friend or family member for helping you on your quest to control your personal biases.

I am embarrassed to say that my bias was front and center that day, just because the person looked older than what I expected a massage practitioner to look like. Did my bias impact my massage? Yes, because I was unable to relax. Did it impact her? No. So at the end of the day, my own bias just made it worse for me.

Take a deep look and think about how your own biases may have impacted you in a negative way. 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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