The Webinar:
This month’s Business Leaders’ webinar was on
Influence & Matrix Management
If you missed it you can
Download the Podcast
or
Download whole Webinar
(which includes the presentation, and useful worksheets and templates.)
(more information below)
Here is what we talked about:
Mind Shift
All of us, whether we manage people or not, need to get other people to do work for us sometimee — People who have no personal motivation or reason to cooperate. In fact, sometimes they are motivated against cooperating through personal reasons or organizational weirdness.
The first step in gaining influence is to make a mind shift from how annoying and screwed up this is, to recognizing that it’s just part of my job to gain the cooperation of this person or group.
Once you accept that, you can put a “project plan” in place to create influence. In the webinar we talked about several ways to do this.
Motivation vs. Control
This is probably the biggest aha. Take it upon yourself to motivate people to work for you.
For them to be motivated, they have to personally care and want to do the work. What can you do to help people get to a place where they want to do the work?
We discussed some key ways to get people to care. It starts with: You have to care.
For even more ideas you can find another webinar in the Member Library called Motivating without Money.
Understand their dragons
What I mean by this is that everyone wakes up in the morning already thinking of, or worried about, a set of commitments and concerns that they already have. This is their dragon.
I have found it useful to actually imagine the person fighting a dragon. Then when I go in and say, “but I need you to fill out this compliance report”, it seems kind of obvious why they don’t do it — if they stop fighting, the dragon will get them. And for them, my compliance report is not worth dying for!
This sensitivity to the fact that they simply can’t care about your thing right now, will help you create your request in a way that is more likely to gain their attention and support.
If you not only acknowledge their dragon, but can find a way to help them with it — or if you can create a moment of safety for them by negotiating some flexibility on their behalf, they will be way more ready to listen to and help with your request.
Respect their time
Walk a day in their shoes. Take the time to understand their schedules and deadlines. Don’t make your request during one of their peak work times.
Show that you have optimized the request to take less of their time. The more you can show that you are using their time well, the more likely they are to invest their time with you. We talked about some techniques to do this.
Desired Outcome focus
You are always better off starting with the desired outcome in mind. This helps people care — and saves lots of time.
If you just start by talking about potential action items, you can end up arguing about what to do next, and waste a lot of time in an annoying conversation that doesn’t go anywhere.
But if you can put a motivating desired outcome on the table, and agree on what point in the future you are all heading toward, you will find that everyone is more motivated to do something. The disagreements fade, and the specific action plan to get the desired outcome emerges.
Publicize the process and the progress
This is a technique I have used whenever I was at the helm of a matrixed program. We talked about how to get and use sponsorship, and how to create communication tools about the progress that make everyone visibly accountable in a non-confronting way.
There are templates as part of this webinar which help create these communications.
Build your “Extra Team”
Finally, we discussed the need and the value of always building an extra team of people who care about helping you.
This is an ongoing networking exercise which the most successful people do. I have observed many successful people, even some who have never been managers, who have built a team of people inside and outside the company at multiple levels who care about their success. Their extra team will spring into action when they need something.
You need your extra team. This is something I talk more about in the webinar and in my book RISE (on page 186!).
Want more?
If you missed the webinar and you want to hear it in its entirety…
- Listen or download the podcast for $9.99
- Download the complete webinar for $19.99 and get the presentation and the worksheets, too!
.
All downloads are free for members.
Become a member
The program I launched last week to get a free signed copy of RISE for the first 50 people who joined was a sell out!
Several of you have inquired if there were more copies available…
Special BOOK Offer Extended
Since I do this Business Leader’s program…
and I wrote RISE…
…to actually help people
— I want to get both of these in the hands of as many people as possible.
So I have extended the offer to another 50 copies of RISE.
If you are one of the next 50 people to join now, before July 31, you will get a free, signed copy of my book RISE.
So do yourself and your career (and life) a favor and Join Now. Become a Member
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With your membership to the Business Leaders’ program you will get access to this webinar and podcast AND:
- Access to all the webinar podcast downloads from the Member Library
- Useful worksheets with each webinar to help act on what is most important to you.
- Personal access to Patty in monthly member-only Coaching Hour conference calls
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About Patty
Patty Azzarello is an executive, best-selling author, speaker and CEO/Business Advisor. She became the youngest general manager at HP at the age of 33, ran a billion dollar software business at 35 and became a CEO for the first time at 38 (all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk)
You can find Patty at www.AzzarelloGroup.com, follow her on twitter or facebook, or read her book RISE…3 Practical Steps for Advancing Your Career, Standing Out as a Leader, AND Liking Your Life.
