Having an inspired vision of the future, perhaps surprisingly, is not essential, but it really does help. Being a leader, a true leader, is all about helping people to reach towards the future, which is why it helps so much if you can create a vision. If you cannot do that, it's still okay, provided you can set and guide the team strategically. Assuming you are here to stretch yourself beyond your current limits, here's a simple process to use to create your leadership vision.

Problems

Being realistic, most good visions  Read More

Stakeholders are everywhere and your ability to engage, manage and influence them is usually mission critical. If you are unable to succeed in this respect, you are unlikely to succeed, period. The Influence Blog is focused on helping ambitious and talented professionals to take positive, high-integrity to become more influential, so naturally there is a great deal of content here relevant to your work with stakeholders. Read More

In all big relationships, be they supplier, outsourcing or strategic alliances, escalation processes are inevitable and necessary. They are formal procedures to resolve intractable problems between the parties. While accepting that these processes need to be used, and should be used, I do feel that they are often overused, and over relied upon to solve problems. Why? Well, to provoke a little debate:

1. Escalation presents an easy excuse at lower levels to pass responsibility up the chain of command.
2. The pervasive myth that senior people are better placed to solve these problems.
3. Failure to build trust and credibility at the appropriate levels.
4. Absence of a positive, proactive, and collaborative problem-solving mentality.
5. "It's the way we do things round here."
6. It makes senior people feel important and useful.

There are many reasons why escalation should be Read More

When you are taking over responsibility for a new team can be an exciting time. The opportunity to innovate, refresh and transform the performance, while also adding to your credibility as a leader, and preparing you for greater things to come.

It is also a time fraught with risks and dangers that could overwhelm you and actually damage your career prospects.

It will pay dividends if you invest some time now to maximise the opportunity ad minimise the risks. Read More

Can you imagine going for a hike on the fells or moors and spending the day just looking at the ground in front of you? Not only would you get lost pretty quickly, but it would also be very tiring and boring at the same time.  Yet this is exactly what many people are doing when it comes to influence. In fact, it ranks number one in my catalogue of common mistakes. This is easy to explain when you consider that:

• Most people arrive at their job as an influencer from a background in task execution rather than strategy. They are more accustomed to following processes, completing actions and delivering outcomes.
• Influence usually happens in the grey zone between black and white. It is difficult to understand what really needs to happen and hence, many people shy away from it and stick with the tangible.
• Not only is the influence zone difficult to understand, it is forever changing. What was true (or likely) today may be completely false tomorrow; and the change is even harder to notice.
• Many people don't know the difference between strategies and tactics, let alone the benefits of strategizing.

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As these series of articles has progressed, I hope you have been growing in confidence in the realm of influence coaching. Personally, I think there are huge opportunities in this topic, regardless of your experience as a coach (or trainer), and I trust that I have been able to show you that it is not as difficult as it may appear to get moving as an influence coach. I also hope that this is just the end of the introductory chapter for you, and for us. There is an awful lot more I could have said, and will say, if you continue to stay tuned. So, at the close of this chapter of our development, I'd like to share  Read More