Gautrey Unleashed

Building Personal Power

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In another article, we explained the different components of personal power — the assets you own and the skills that you have. It is important to remember the point about the assets being the short cut to influence because of the time benefit you can achieve. For instance, imagine that one of your significant skills is your ability to be able to persuade people to your way of thinking. You may be very good at this; however, it still takes time to persuade people. Far easier would be the situation when the person who you want to influence figures out for themselves what you Read More

Exercise: Understanding the Politics at Work

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Organisations are full of people who are attempting to play politics at work as they try to influence each other. Some are seeking to help people, while others are driven by self-interest. Although the tactics are often the same, the level of honesty and integrity will make the difference between a healthy organisation and one rife with harmful office politics. Whatever your experience or position, it helps to become aware of what is going on around you so you can make clear decisions to improve things and protect your integrity and success. To help you understand more about this topic, take a look at a summary of influencing tactics (or dirty tricks/office politics) which our research has identified as being common in many large organisations, and then complete the exercise below. Read More

Dirty Tricks and Office Politics

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1841126578If you feel bad about office politics that go on around you, you are certainly not alone. In any group of more than one, people will be trying to influence each other and some people use less savoury tactics or dirty tricks, in order to get their way. Here are some of the more common dirty tricks which people use. Many of them were featured in our best-selling book, 21 Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Win the Game of Office Politics. These are shared here not as a game tip sheet, but rather a preparation for recognising them for what they are (office politics) and then learning how to overcome them with honesty, integrity and a fair degree of assertion.

c_handstiedMy Hands Are Tied

Pretending to be helpless due to the influence of a higher authority or process when, under the same circumstances but with a different person, there would be a different outcome. “Sorry, Ben, but the policy is…”

Email to the Gods

Using email to shame or coerce another. This is usually an email arriving from a colleague (which includes either true or false information), levelling accusations of blame, which are also copied on to bosses, directors, customers, suppliers, etc. Read More

Influencing Skills: The Seven Dimensions of Influence

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The Influencing Skills Survey is a self-assessment and 360° feedback tool used to determine the level of influencing skills you are demonstrating. It is based on research by Colin Gautrey and contains 42 different skills which were found to be significant contributors to the ability to influence. If you are developing your influence and want to use the survey, hop over to The Gautrey Group soon. The skills of influence are divided into seven Read More

Exercise: Influencing Skills Development Priorities

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If you are interested in becoming more influential, you can use the dimensions of influence explored in the Influencing Skills Survey to focus you attention where it will yield the greatest result. There is no point spending lots of time developing a skill if you it will not help you in your career. Even better if you've also been able to get some feedback from others!

With Influencing Skills Report

Use this part of the exercise if you have obtained a copy of an Influencing Skills Survey report. If you don't have one, you can get one at The Gautrey Group. If you haven't got a report, don't worry, just scroll down to view another exercise.
  1. Get a good overview of the Read More

Exercise: Organisational Risks and Opportunities

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This is another opportunity to stimulate your thinking about the risks and opportunities that might have an impact on what you are working on. Unless you have a clear view (albeit perhaps a little vague), you will keep your head down and try to deliver on your project objective, rather than become more influential and successful.

Take a few moments to brainstorm Read More

Exercise: Risk and Opportunity Action

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Without doubt, this is probably the key skill which will save you from making big mistakes in the project and influence game. This exercise will help you to understand what your options are based on the risks you face and perhaps, the opportunities you may be missing! NB: Don;t forget to print out (or draw) the diagram below and map out your risks and opportunities. Think carefully Read More

Analysing Risks and Spotting Opportunities

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One of the dangers of focusing on people and relationships in the Stakeholder Influence Process is that it draws attention away from events which could happen. High impact events are fairly evident, but not always anticipated, or planned for. Quite often, events pass by without being noticed for their potential to help or hinder the project you are working on. For this reason, taking at least a quick glance at this potential could show ways to accelerate your project, or move out of the way of things which could damage your progress. To avoid over-complicating things, a risk is an event which could have a negative impact on your objective and an opportunity is an event which could have a positive impact. The greater the impact (positive or negative) and the higher the Read More

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