It must be part of their approach, but just about everyone here seems curious to know what I do for a living. Which is a welcome distraction. And an opportunity to use this experience to reflect more on how people influence. The nurse on the left of my bed begs this question. Then he explains he learned all about leadership in the services. As he busies himself doing something down on my arm, “So come on then Colin, what’s your top tip for leadership?” I wasn’t really conscious of what he is doing, I just started to answer, enjoying the challenge of being put on the spot. Within seconds I’m distracted as a violent argument breaks out across the room. Two theatre staff are taking lumps out of each other, arguing over whose role it is to communicate with the patient. Read More

A critical aspect of influence that you have to pay heed to is that power shapes the decisions in a given group, at a personal and group level. This means that it will shape the decisions you make and, the behaviours you choose to use. For example, if the group you are working in responds to credibility in the form of technical know-how, a group will spend a good deal of time considering the technical aspects of any proposal before making a decision. It will want to understand the technology, processes and evidence that support the idea. In that group, one would also expect that those with the greatest (relevant) technical capability will be the most influential (powerful) in that group. Their opinion will count, people will turn to them for guidance, and will defer to their views. Now, if that source of power is very strong, Read More

“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” As You Like It, William Shakespeare. If they were to cast someone for your job, what would they be looking for in the actor? How would they want the part to be brought to life? That job you are applying for, what role do they want someone to play? Good cop, bad cop, peace-maker, agent provocateur? The job description may be the same, but the portrayal required can vary widely. Read More

This is important. I’m prone to making mistakes, especially typos. Earlier this week I posted a quote:

“Trying to beat a cunning political rival on their home turf? Chsnge the game instead.”

Then someone kindly pointed out my mistake and I put it right. Why do I do this? Small screens, big fingers, smaller keyboards and when I check what I have written, I see what I expect to see. To see what Read More

Gross oversimplification: When you think a thought, you create feelings that contribute to your emotional state. Your emotional state alters your physical body, and this stimulates further thoughts. As your body changes, signals will be given off that others may notice. You are desperate to make a good impression at an interview. You notice a minuscule raising of the interviewer’s eyebrow. “He doesn’t believe me!” Tension rises, your face starts to redden, the room suddenly feels hot. “Oh no, I’m sweating now!” Read More

Selling = Influencing & Influencing = Selling

Being good at influencing means you are good at selling. The pinnacle of selling is the ability to sell the intangible, and more often than not, influencing internal stakeholders involves selling the intangible. Which means, to be successful influencing internally in large organisations you’ve got to be extremely good at sales. When was the last time you went on a sales course? Here’s one extremely powerful idea drawn from Read More

Here’s another idea drawn from the sales field that can transform the way you approach your stakeholders. The term buy-in is commonly bandied about but few people in my experience actually think about the psychological buying process and where their stakeholders are in it. Reflecting on the buying process aligns well with my oft repeated notion that influencers at their best are helping stakeholders to make decisions – buying decisions. To see what this can do for you, here’s a quick Read More

A few weeks ago I was again reminded (by a client) that while I like to think of dirty tricks in the workplace as being petty politicking, the damage created by these short-sighted malicious techniques is huge. Some 15 years after the publication of 21 Dirty Tricks at Work, they are pretty much all just as relevant as they always have been. Which is perhaps why the book (published in 2005) is still selling at very respectable levels. My goal is that Read More

Video Transcript (watch here): After over 15 years of working in the field of influence, helping a lot of people to become far more influential, it's understandable that I come a little bit complacent about why it is worth doing, and why people should aspire to ever greater levels of influence. This showed up in an interview recently when I was asked, "Colin, okay, so what are the big personal benefits that people can gain by becoming more influential?" After all, it does take time, energy, learning, investment to be able to become more influential. So, is it worth it? And particularly for busy people. Here's my response, the three big benefits that I believe people get when they become more influential. Read More

Recently I was helping a client to get moving on figuring out the politics around his work. He is working through the modules on the Impact and Influence Programme. He has knuckled down and done an excellent job, delivering some pretty massive projects/programmes, but has become isolated from the political world. Part of the learning experience. We were discussing ideas on how he can do this more easily. There is a lot of ideas on what to find out contained in the course video tutorials, but even so, this is often easier said than done. Here are a few suggestions I gave him, that may be useful for you too: Read More