Gautrey Unleashed

Safeguarding Your Reputation Building

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As you begin to create a disturbance with your reputation building, others may become uncomfortable with the change in the way you are operating. The status quo has gone, and they may be more, or less, happy with the new challenge you are presenting. In the last article I shared some ideas on how to prepare for these changes and the potential consequences (Ruffling Feathers and Due Diligence). That done, I’d now like to suggest that you turn your attention to a more positive thread of activity and adopt a clear set of principles to guide all of your behaviour going forward. These principles are naturally Read More

Ruffling Feathers and Due Diligence

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In the last article (A Healthy Dose of Obsession) I alluded to the idea that you need to step into your new reputation as soon as possible, and begin to live it. This means you will begin to do things differently and start to appear as a slightly different person. Consequently, others will begin to notice — which is just what you want but, be careful. As soon as you stick your head out and appear different from what you were before, all manner of things will start to happen, and not all of them are positive. For instance: Read More

A Healthy Dose of Obsession

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Obsession is frequently defined along the lines of:

“The domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire.”

If you want to build a reputation, becoming a little obsessive about it is a good thing. The trouble with most great ideas (such as your new idea about how to become distinctive) is that given a few weeks, they start to fade into the background. Little by little, they get forgotten. Don’t let this happen to your ambition to build a strong reputation in your organisation. If you’ve put the investment of time and thinking into crafting your desired reputation, now is the time to capitalise on that clarity and make sure you continue to build it in your mind, and in your behaviour. Here are five ways Read More

Preparing to Influence Others

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No amount of strategy can avoid the need at some point to actually do some influencing. Okay, you may have developed a great strategy which involves getting others to do the heavy lifting; however, you still have to influence them in the first place. Put another way, if you are not out there influencing, you’re probably missing some great opportunities or, you will lose out on the credit later. Much of what follows depends on you having a clear notion of where you are going. In an earlier article (Influence Processes and Goals) I suggested you should use the Stakeholder Influence Process to guide your influencing work. At the very beginning Read More

Behaving with Distinction

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By now you should have developed a real sense of the reputation you want to create, the brand you want to establish and the impression you wish to create (if not, see refer back using the links in the reading list). Now it is time to work out how to do this. Before we get into the building greater substance to back up your reputation, I want to focus on the behaviours which you can adjust right now, and which will help you to begin stepping into your new reputation. The exercise which follows will stretch your thinking and will evolve in Read More

Understanding the Bigger Picture

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In the last article (The Structure of Your Leadership Arena), I asked you to map out all the groups that are involved in your arena — that will be essential in helping you to gain the most from this article. Any attempt to understand your arena will falter if you don’t first know its structure. If you didn’t get a chance to do so before, take another look here. Within your arena, decide which group you wish to be more influential within. You don’t necessarily need to be a member of this group, but you do need to have a clear vision of who they are. It is also worth making sure that your decision here tallies with your earlier consideration about what you want to Read More

Building a Healthy Network

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Nothing worthwhile can be influenced unless you have a network. The bigger your goal or purpose, the bigger your network needs to be, or at least, the more powerful its members need to be. And unless you have volume first, you’re not going to find and attract powerful people to be in your network. Since everyone has a network, it is more important to challenge you on the health of your network…
  • How many people are in your network? You need to build quantity before you can achieve quality.
  • How would you define a quality contact? One indicator for me is that  Read More

Failing to Attempt Influence

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There are many common mistakes when it comes to influencing. In the work I do, arguably the most common one I see is that of not knowing what you want to achieve (I covered this in the first article in this series, Exactly What Do You Want?). Another important one to watch out for is failing to attempt to influence once you've decided what you want to make happen. To avoid this danger, you first need to make sure you understand why it might happen. Then you can take steps to minimise the risks. Potential reasons Read More

The Structure of Your Leadership Arena

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Before you go too far establishing a strategy to achieve your leadership purpose, make sure you really understand the arena in which you are about to a successful leader. Arena, as a word, has been used deliberately in the book, Influential Leadership,  to cater for the diverse nature of the environments where leaders need to become more influential. For some, it will apply to companies or organisations while for others it may be more appropriate to think of industries, populations or even social settings. Regardless of the type of arena you are focusing on becoming more influential within, you need to get to grips with its structure. The best way of doing this at first is to Read More

Build Relationships with Powerful People

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This is not about sucking-up or brown-nosing, this involves making shrewd choices about where you invest your time and energy building relationships. Powerful people are always on the lookout for talented people who may be able to help them. Early in your career, these people may be beyond reach, or may appear too intimidating to approach. That is natural and something that you need to work on. This requires assurance, and, as you progress, your Read More

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