Gautrey Unleashed

Exploring Influencing Goals

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Unless you know exactly what you are shooting for, you will lose ground, miss opportunities and struggle to get buy-in. If you are clear, you’ll move much faster, save time and get even better results. You need to get focused not only on your end goal, but also on what you need to influence to get there. The first step in the Stakeholder Influence Process is to clarify what you want to focus on. Pause to consider all of the important Read More

What Is Influence? Some Practical Implications

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In my work, it is often easy to forget the simple things ― yet, they are often the most important things. If you want to be influential, a good starting point is being clear on what influence is. We throw words around, but if you pause a moment and pull it apart, you will find it contains some useful ideas to sharpen up your influence. In the fascinating world of interpersonal relationships, influence is...

"someone changing what they do, say, think, or feel"

Why they were influenced to do something different could be as simple as deciding it would be a good idea. The cause could be outside of their awareness ― like one of those little tricks some Read More

Improving Communication and Balancing Influence

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The first thing to appreciate is that by far the best way to improve on this theme is to make sure you have lots of Trust and Credibility between both sides of the relationship. The first theme forms an unavoidable prerequisite to successful Communication and Influence. Think about it. If you don’t trust someone, the more they communicate, the more suspicious you will become. Similarly, it is very difficult to influence someone if they don’t trust you (i.e. they are suspicious of your motives). To be blunt, if you haven’t got the first theme covered, you will probably be wasting your time trying to strengthen Communication and Influence Instead, as you work to improve Trust and Credibility, add in a few of the ideas Read More

New Job? Quickly Learn How to Be Influential

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Fantastic, you've got a new job! Now, quick as you can, you need to establish your influence. Unless you can be influential from the start, there is a risk you may have to recover and gradually build it later. The best time to make a great impression is right now as you start moving in the new job. Influential people don't just arrive ― they make it happen. When I am coaching someone in this position, these are the typical areas I will challenge them on...

1. Who are the powerful individuals around your new job?

This can be focused Read More

How to Influence People You Don’t Like

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Nobody says that you have to like everyone. That is as unrealistic as saying you can always influence others. You can't. But if you want to influence people, it helps enormously if they like you. People tend to like people who like them. This creates an immediate challenge if you want to influence people you don't like. There are few people fortunate enough to only work with people they like, so here are a few ideas on how to improve your success when trying to influence characters you find odious.

Friends and Friendliness

There is a big difference Read More

How to Influence People without Even Trying

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If you want to influence people, you have a couple of choices about how to achieve your result. Part of learning how to influence people involves being able to make conscious choices about how you do this, rather than simply running on auto-pilot. Firstly, if you want to influence someone, you can take action. There are many different ways of doing this, from positioning, persuading and pushing, right down to misleading, manoeuvring and manipulating. Personal ethics, agendas and consequences will determine how cleanly these actions are implemented; however, the common problem with all of them is that they take time and effort. Instead of all this scheming, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just sit back and let people do what you want them to do, and do so willingly? This is the second choice, and the preferred choice of those who are highly successful Read More

Creating a Corporate Political Campaign

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Okay, I know you are not running for office, in the office, but what if you were? As you rise through the ranks, the more political your job will become. It doesn’t matter that you don’t like it — it is simply a fact of organisational life. And, I don’t mean all the negative office politics; what I mean is the need to take a strategic approach to making things happen through the social network of your organisation. At senior levels, right and wrong start to diverge from fact and enter the realm of opinion — often widely contested opinion. This means that, as a senior manager, you need to become an opinion former — someone who is out there pressing flesh and gaining support for your version of the right solution. Ideas vie for attention and compete vigorously. The more support you can win over from the opposition, the higher the probability that you will succeed. Of course, this means that you have got to have a clear vision of the right policy to adopt, and the wherewithal and courage to make it happen. And here I have to own up to a desire to really stretch your thinking. If you are Read More

How to Discover New Ways to Influence Stubborn Stakeholders

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If you want to influence a stakeholder who is resistant to your proposal, and you have already tried everything you can think of, try this...
  1. Clarify exactly what you want them to agree to (how you want them to do, think, feel or believe etc.)
  2. Select 5 to 10 people in your network whom you trust and who also know the stakeholder you are seeking to influence. Read More

How to Exert Maximum Influence

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“What can I do to take the edge over my talented and ambitious colleagues?” “There are a lot of influential people here, how can I compete with them?” These are just two examples of the sort of questions I get asked regularly by people on my workshops and seminars. All of them wanting to be more successful — and genuinely wanting to deliver good value with integrity in an increasingly competitive internal market. As more people realise that influence is what makes it all happen, the bar is always rising. Here is a quick checklist of things to consider, which in my experience are probably not done, or at least not done well, by 95% of people I work with.

When it comes to a specific influence goal, think about your target and ensure that…

  1. Read More

Ignoring Your Competition: Influencing Mistake No. 3

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As you learn how to influence more effectively, make sure you don’t miss this on your checklist as you prepare your strategy. All too often, people get consumed with their own ideas and fail to keep a watchful eye on others who may act to protect their own interests. Developing a competitive strategy does not guarantee success, but failing to take account of the forces set against you is plain stupid, or careless, or perhaps just a consequence of being very busy. Here is a quick process to build into your planning… Read More

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