THE

LINKAGE LEADER

The Management
Imperative: Influencing in
Three Dimensions
By Nina Coil

Nina Coil specializes in

designing, developing and
delivering creative train-thetrainer programs focused on
leadership development. As part
of Linkage's Product
Development Team, she
transforms Linkage's intellectual
capital into training and certification programs and job
aids/tools to help client organizations translate strategic
goals into effective individual behavior. Nina has led the
design and development of a variety of management and
leadership programs, including Enhancing Your
Emotional Intelligence, Essential Negotiation Skills,
Leadership-Level Facilitation Skills, and the Management
Skills Certificate Program.

Copyright 2005-2009 by Linkage. All rights reserved.

www.linkageinc.com

As a manager, you face the challenge of getting work done through others. Managers can no
longer rely on the power of their position to "tell" others what to do; most organizations have
become so lean that their staff is stretched on a continual basis. Asking people to do something
differently, or to do even more, requires real skill and a compelling business case. Effective
management today depends on the ability to influence senior management, cross-functional
peers, and front-line employees. In other words, an effective manager must be adept at
influencing in 3D.

Influencing Up: Shape a Robust Business Case

In order to get work done through others, you need to be able to influence your own manager
and his or her peers. Influencing up in this sense requires that you confirm and clarify the level
of commitment of your own manager to the initiatives you are undertaking, and that you fully
understand his or her business case for the work you are being asked to carry out.
Consider the following scenario: You are launching a project, with your own staff or a crossfunctional team, some of whom don't even report to you. As you pause between sentences,
questions come from the group and you realize that you don't have all the answers to their
questions. Does this sound familiar?
Time spent gathering plenty of cogent and compelling information on the business case for the
initiative before you try to roll it out is essential to your credibility with your peers and your
own staff. This requires that you ask critical questions, in a timely fashion, of the right people,
who have access to the information you need.
It can be challenging to get time with those who have decision-making authority to provide real
backing for projects you have on your plate. When you do get that time, you must use it wisely a focused "strategic interview" can make all the difference to providing you with the data you
need for successful implementation.
This data-gathering process is an opportunity to make a truly robust business case. Adding the
compelling details which make a real story - both for those who are being asked to support it, as
well as those who will be doing the actual work - will set you up for successful implementation.
Additionally, the conversation with your own boss and/or other decision makers enables you to
clarify the degree and nature of support you can count on as you roll out the project.
As you prepare to gather your data, consider what you need to know to frame it for each of the
different audiences you will need to persuade. The background, the current state, and the
desired future state of any project can be described and highlighted in such a way as to convince
the different constituencies you must enlist. This requires that you think outside of your own
mental model.
Before you start, ask yourself, "Who will I be persuading, and why would they care?"
Experienced managers recognize that if there's no difficulty with the status quo, no burning
platform, no reason to ask people to do things differently, then people will do nothing. They
know as well that what may convince one person may leave another cold.

COPYRIGHT 2005-2009 BY LINKAGE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

THE MANAGEMENT IMPERATIVE: INFLUENCING IN THREE DIMENSIONS

Influencing Across: Build a Strong Network

Successfully accomplishing work through others also requires an ability to influence across
departmental boundaries. Gaining buy-in, and operating with persuasive data beyond your own
sphere, comes from solid working relationships with peers across the company. Breakthrough
solutions to client needs are not devised in isolation, but rather spring from familiarity with
crosscutting issues and perspectives that other departments bring to bear. This requires the
ability to network effectively.
Networking, in the managerial context, consists of building contacts and relationships with a
wide variety of individuals and groups, both inside and outside the organization, who provide
ideas, information, and support for business decisions and actions.
Among the important reasons to network are the following:
1) Managers need to know what's going on and what people are thinking.
There is a complex and always-changing tapestry of opinions, alliances, developments, and
problems to be sorted through in any organization. You need constant input from a wide variety
of sources.
2) Managers get things done through people who don't necessarily report to them.
In today's flattened organizations, you need to be able to influence and call upon a wide variety
of people in order to be successful. Many of these people will not be under your direct control in fact, you will often find yourself enlisting someone who has one or more other managers - so
you must build relationships and alliances that you can count on to roll out important projects
and initiatives.
3) Managers need to tap into the informal network.
The informal network, or grapevine, serves an important function for employees, who use it to
share and test their perceptions about important organizational matters. Contrary to popular
belief, studies show that this informal network is accurate 75% of the time. You can use this
source of data to clarify key issues, shape your business case, and communicate more
effectively.

Influencing Down: Tap into Motivating Factors

Finally, if you hope to enlist the full and active participation of the people who report to you,
you must know how to tap into what motivates them. This is possible only if you have built up a
body of knowledge about what inspires them, and what barriers prevent them from doing their
best. To do this work well, you must have two-way conversations in which you balance
advocacy (making statements) with inquiry (asking questions). Conversations that are balanced
enable the sharing of helpful data and help to build trust.
There are two fairly separate sets of things that impact people's willingness to do what you
would like them to do - motivators and so-called "hygiene factors." Motivators are such things
as the feeling that your work is valued and that others care about you as a person. "Hygiene
factors" are those necessary things that, when they are present, provide the bottom line for
people, such as pay and working conditions. Hygiene factors need to be at some reasonable
level to prevent people from feeling insecure or unsafe. But it's the motivating factors that really
get people energized around their jobs and can enable you to enlist your staff to put their hearts
into their work.

COPYRIGHT 2005-2009 BY LINKAGE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

THE MANAGEMENT IMPERATIVE: INFLUENCING IN THREE DIMENSIONS

In fact, motivators are sometimes so powerful that people are willing to sacrifice some hygiene
to get them. People will work for little or no pay in a job or a cause that they love. People will
put up with lousy working conditions in order to experience real personal and professional
growth. As a manager, you have to pay attention to both the motivators and the hygiene factors.
You probably don't have much control over hygiene factors, like base pay, benefits, and the
location of your workplace. But focusing on the motivators, which you probably have much
more ability to influence anyway, will have an enormous impact on the people you manage.
First, be the best manager you can be. Managers can have a tremendously motivational impact
when they are respected and seen as offering real value. People will stay at a job that has lost
some of its allure just because they have such a good manager. It can also be a source of real demotivation when it is done poorly - people will leave a job just because their manager is so
lousy, even when they like everything else about a job.
Second, try to structure each job so that the employee gets the maximum motivation from it.
The exact source of motivation may differ from one employee to another, so get to know your
individual employees and get to know what motivates them.
To successfully implement initiatives, remember to manage in 3-D:
Gather solid information and commitments to build a robust business case from those
with decision making power
Spend time building strong working relationships with peers and others outside your
own sphere of influence
Make a point of learning what really motivates your own staff

COPYRIGHT 2005-2009 BY LINKAGE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Linkage is a global organizational development company that specializes in

leadership development. We provide clients around the globe with integrated
solutions that include strategic consulting services, customized leadership
development and training experiences, tailored assessment services, and
benchmark research. Linkages mission is to connect high-performing leaders
and organizations to the futures they want to create.
With a relentless commitment to learning, Linkage also offers conferences,
institutes, summits, open-enrollment workshops, and distance learning
programs on leading-edge topics in leadership, management, human
resources, and organizational development. More than 200,000 leaders and
managers have attended Linkage programs since 1988.
Linkage
Burlington, MA
781.402.5555
info@linkageinc.com

Linkage 200 Wheeler Road Burlington, MA 01803 781.402.5555 www.linkageinc.com

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