During the Positive Power & Influence Programme delegates practise their influence skills using behaviours that may feel unfamiliar. The core styles are persuading, asserting, bridging and attracting, and during the pre-programme assignment and the live programme itself, delegates analyse which styles they might overuse, and which they tend to avoid using altogether. This is important as an over reliance on a single style can, in the long term, lead individuals to damage working relationships or miss business targets. The ultimate goal of the Positive Power & Influence Programme is for our delegates to achieve influence-style flexibility – to learn how to alter their approach to suit the situation, in order to maintain and strengthen relationships while also achieving their goals. Last year we compiled a series of film scenes as examples of influence styles and behaviours. Today we introduce our second batch of classic clips showing influence in action . . . but with varying degrees of success.   Style: Asserting Behaviour: Negative Evaluation / Pressure Clip: Barefoot in the Park Jane Fonda exerts pressure on her new husband. Excerpt: ‘Was that a kiss? ‘Cos boy if that’s what kisses are going to be like from now on don’t bother to come back at five thirty.’   Style: Asserting Behaviour: Stating Expectations Clip: Apollo 13 Ed Harris states expectations to the ground crew. Excerpt: ‘Well, we’re gonna have to figure it out. I want people in our simulators working re-entry scenarios. I want you guys to find every engineer who designed every switch, every circuit, every transistor and every light bulb that’s up there. Then I want you to talk to the guy in the assembly line who had actually built the thing. Find out how to squeeze every amp out of both of these goddamn machines. I want this mark all the way back to Earth with time to spare.’   Style: Attracting Behaviours: Finding Common Ground Clip: The Magnificent Seven Eli Wallach attempts to attract Yul Brynner to his way of thinking. Excerpt: ‘I leave it to you. Can men of our profession worry about things like that? May even be sacrilegious. If God didn’t want them sheered he would not have made them sheep.’   Style: Bridging / Attracting Behaviour: Disclosing / Finding Common Ground Clip: Pride & Prejudice Colin Firth’s disclosure partially disarms Jennifer Ehle. Excerpt: ‘I have not that talent which some possess of conversing easily with strangers.’ ‘Well I do not play this instrument so well as I should wish to, but I have always supposed that to be my own fault because I would not take the trouble of practising.’ ‘You are perfectly right. You’ve employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you could think anything wanting. We...

The annual Performance Review is a critical influence situation, perhaps the most important of the year, and one that requires planning and influence flexibility. The review season can be a nervous time for employees, and the best way to combat nerves is through preparation. Even if you’re not particularly apprehensive, even if you’re confident that the review will run smoothly, time allocated to preparation can help you deal with any unexpected hitches, and maximise what you get out of the process. The goal of an appraisal is to give feedback – to communicate the expectations the organisation has for the employee. But it’s a two way street, a dialogue, and your chance to let your employers know what you want. Many performance appraisals are about progress – employees asking about promotions, receiving feedback and ensuring they are set a challenging and inspiring set of targets for the year ahead. Your ultimate goal for the review might be: Pushing for a new set of challenges. Asking for investment in your personal development. Suggesting new ways to manage your work/life boundaries. Putting yourself forward for new projects, overseas secondments, etc. On the Positive Power & Influence Programme, delegates learn how to influence upwards – to influence others through personal power when they don’t hold positional power. And influencing the opinion of your supervisor, manager or team leader, will take preparation. This means planning both content and approach – what you say and how you say it. In short: when making the case for yourself, perhaps the most critical issue is to determine what is really important to the person with whom you are meeting. Whatever the situation, be explicit, specific, concise and confident about the value you bring to the organisation. Don’t waffle! BEFORE List your achievements Make a list of all the achievements and accomplishments you have made since the last review. If you don’t have a system for keeping track of them, this will take time and thought. Most importantly, make note of how your employer has benefited from your hard work, i.e. increased profits, improved systems, completed projects, internal/external relationships, etc. Then highlight everything you want to discuss. Review this material the night before your meeting. List your goals Make a list of what you want to get out of the meeting. Performance appraisals are all about your progress. Think about the subjects you want to raise, such as promotions, targets for the year ahead, and projects you want to take on. Are there opportunities for personal development? Do you have ideas about how you can better manage your work/life boundaries? Be aware of the recency effect You may find that your manager is focussing on more recent events as...

Many people are hired on the strength of technical expertise, only to find themselves promoted to a position of leadership. This is a time in your career when putting active thought into the way you influence others can have real value. Shifting to a leadership role can cause all kinds of problems for the expert. The expertise that once formed the core of your duties may be wholly or partially sidelined by tasks such as determining/tracking budgets, running meetings, setting goals, performance reviews, managing relationships, and more. The transition may be unsettling. Much of your confidence may stem from your own expertise. You may be used to being judged on your knowledge. It can be challenging to move beyond a specialism, to step outside your field, to a place where your performance will be judged by a new set of criteria. Not only that, but the technical knowledge you once held can wane as you spend more time away from the coal face. Another issue is whether the expertise you hold is actually close to the core of the organisation. If your expertise is in finance, and that’s also the company’s core function, you are more naturally aligned with the organisation’s overall direction. Whereas an IT or systems expert, taking on leadership responsibility in the financial sector, isn’t such a comfortable fit. There are of course significant advantages to leading a team when you have the knowledge to back it up. Professional management, without technical expertise, may have to fight to win credibility or the respect of those working under them. Whereas an expert leader is more likely to start with the respect of co-workers, and also to function as a role model – showing a career path to others. Nevertheless, someone who is technically good at their job won’t always be a natural leader, at least to begin with. Jonny Gifford, co-author of The Expert as Leader, conducted research in seven UK organisations with a strongly scientific/technical base to their core functions, surveying the experiences of technical experts who had taken on management responsibilities, and canvassing colleagues who worked with them. One of the conclusions of his report was that any expert-leader should learn to be self-aware. He said: “Self awareness is at the core of leadership, the core of working with other people. Only by being aware of your own self can you realise how you’re going to influence and impact on other people.” It may be that a recently promoted leader, will need to work on their influence style flexibility. They may be used to interacting in a certain way. As an expert, they may have a strong reliance on facts/analytics when making decisions, and yet the...