Leadership Caffeine: The Noble Pursuit of Power and Influence
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leadership Skills, Life and Business, Management Education, Product Management, Professional Growth, Project Management, Surviving Lousy Leaders, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Note from Art: no ethics or morals were harmed in the making of this post.
Power and influence are not dirty words. Both are components of every organization’s environment and both must be carefully cultivated to succeed as a formal or informal leader.
Power and influence provide the motive power behind organizations and initiatives and the lubrication that keeps the parts and people from binding and grinding and self-destructing.
Nothing happens without the application of power and influence wielded by those that have carefully cultivated these qualities. And while the notion of someone actively pursuing power might seem reprehensible or dirty or immoral to some, I’m not sure why.
Frequently Overheard:
“I don’t want to play the games.”
“I’m sick and tired of politics”
And the always colorful and image evoking, “He must have pictures…”
We’ve all heard those statements and perhaps nodded in agreement. Yet the presence of humans in the working environment guarantees that there will be those that are more effective at connecting, engaging, motivating, and ultimately getting things done through others. And these aren’t necessarily the smartest people or the hardest workers, but they are more than likely the smartest workers.
Intelligence is More than I.Q.
Those that cultivate power and influence work hard on managing themselves. They are emotionally intelligent. These power-pursuers also are innately aware of the impact that they have on others, and they draw upon well-honed skills to manage external perceptions and to adapt to changing situations. They are socially intelligent.
Personal Branding & Building Respectful Relationships:
Those with power and influence have carefully thought through their own personal brand and value proposition, and work hard reinforcing this brand through their actions and behaviors. Their focus is on getting work done through others and asserting their agenda, and to do that, they must forge respectful relationships, build strong social networks and guiding coalitions and they must support others more often than they ask for support.
And my informal observation on those that successfully cultivate organizational power and influence is that they are masters at managing upwards. This is different than sucking up. It’s understanding your boss’s agenda and priorities and helping her succeed, and it’s leveraging those priorities to grow visibility, get involved with key projects and to curry support.
Backroom Dealers and Dirty Politicians Need Not Apply:
While the bad eggs in the corporate world grab the headlines and the cool orange prison garb that’s been so executive fashionable for the past decade, the gross majority of people in organizations do not resemble those characters.
I’ve worked in and around companies with hundreds to hundreds of thousands of employees and while there have been some blog post worthy lousy leaders, they are the exception not the rule.
From top executives to truly powerful individual contributors that serve as influencers on key strategic choices and projects to those leading from the middle, there are great collectors and noble users of powers almost everywhere.
The abusers and the abusive exist and their tactics are reprehensible. I don’t have an easy answer if you are victimized by one of those creatures, other than to indicate that if you improve your cultivation of power and influence, you will be better able to deal with or avoid the situation and person the next time.
6 Reasons Why Pursuing Power and Influence is a Good Career Move:
1. Productivity. Those with power and influence get more done. You can print this and put it on a bumper sticker!
2. It’s honest, hard work. The pursuit of power and influence in an organization involves figuring out how to stand out from the crowd. This is generally best accomplished by some combination of darned hard work, great ideas, building good social networks and helping your boss succeed. Nothing wrong with those pursuits!
3, It’s about supporting your brand authenticity. The act of pursuing power is in large part a personal branding activity. You have to decide what you stand for and you need to communicate and substantiate your value proposition through your actions. Professionals should take responsibility for their personal branding, and the pursuit of power and influence requires that you live up to your stated value proposition. People are generally not naïve and can smell a hollow value proposition and an inauthentic leader a few miles away.
4. You cultivate critical growth skills. Gaining power and influence requires great people skills…great social intelligence. Part of cultivating great people skills involves understanding how you are perceived by those around you, and this means that you must be alert and open to feedback and to making the effort to improve based on the feedback. This growing power and influence stuff is honest, hard work!
5. You create a multiplier effect. As you cultivate power, you have the ability to extend your good across the organization. It’s easy to talk about how you wish things would work. Those with power and influence are able to define how things truly work and extend their vision across teams and entire organizations.
6. You create demand for you. Your senior leaders want to see people with ambition, commitment and an interest in doing more. As long as your approach to growth doesn’t involve stepping on the heads and hands of those that you are scrambling over, we really like aggressive people that are willing to help in the good fight.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The pursuit of power and influence is noble. Given the choice between an individual self-confident enough to cultivate power and one not interested in “playing the game,” I know where I’m going every time. The real “game” is about winning by serving customers and stakeholders and legally beating the snot out of competitors.
What’s your strategy to grow your power?
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Coming Tuesday: the latest episode of the Management Excellence Book Series, featuring a podcast interview with Jocelyn Davis, co-author of Strategic Speed. Also, in case you missed it, check out the prior episode with Bob Sutton, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss.
Management Excellence Book Series Kicks Off Featuring Good Boss, Bad Boss
Filed under: Career, Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Life and Business, Management Education, Management Excellence Book Series, Middle Management, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders, Talent Management, Values, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
For as long as I can remember, books have played a major role in my life.
I still recall the day my Mom took me to the Hild Library in Chicago for my first library card. And I remember distinctly the scene a few months later, when she engaged in a vigorous discussion with the library staff on my need for an Adult card. I had consumed everything worth consuming in the Children’s section and needed to move on. Mom prevailed, and the rest for me is reading history.
This preoccupation with reading continued through my summers as a child, including one memorable, slow, hot season reading the World Book from A to Z. While it wasn’t Britannica, it was what we had in our apartment in Chicago. And yes, I read more than the cool transparent overlays. I read the complete text. Every entry. It was a little like work, but I was on a mission. As a result, I have a remarkable store of trivial knowledge on everything that happened in the world up until 1973. Beyond that, I’m a bit fuzzy.
Fast forward a few decades, and books are still a major part of my life. I’ve authored one, I’m working on another and I consume content in history, business and science in an unquenchable thirst to learn more. Given this preoccupation with the written word, it’s fitting and about time that I extend my love of books and regard for the hard work of authors to a feature here on the blog. Thus, welcome to the first post and first interview for the Management Excellence Book Series.
About the Management Excellence Book Series:
First, I’m not a book critic, I’m a book lover. You’ll never find a negative review here, because, if I don’t like the book, I won’t write about it or interview the author. It is my intent to offer a resource with this series that extracts and shares insights and introduces you to new or time-tested great ideas.
I intend on using a mix of audio interviews (podcasts) and posts with transcribed interviews to share ideas and learn more from management book authors that have labored long and hard to help us learn and grow. My mission is to search for the pearls of wisdom, the fresh ideas or the classic ideas that help us all make a difference.
While my audio interview skills are clearly in need of practice, there’s no reason not to start. We are living in a period of time rich with the flow of information and ideas, and I’m excited to help all of us gain just a little bit more insight and context from great management thinkers for use in our professional and personal lives.
I look forward to sharing with you via the interviews. Enjoy!
Art Interviews Bob Sutton About Good Boss, Bad Boss
Art Petty Interviews Bob Sutton on Good Boss, Bad Boss [33:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Art Petty Interviews Bob Sutton on Good Boss, Bad Boss [33:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadGood Boss, Bad Boss by Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D.
Just about everyone is familiar with Bob’s prior work, The No A**Hole Rule! Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn’t. That great read talked about what many of us have been thinking, and even made the “A” word acceptable business meeting and cocktail party discussion fodder (in the context of the book, of course!).
Bob is back with a tremendous new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss-How to Be the Best and Learn from the Worst, available for pre-order from major booksellers now, with a scheduled publication date of September 7th.
His emphasis in his latest work is on describing the good habits of great bosses, and once again, Bob is saying what many of us are thinking or, living through in our working lives. In this era of the seemingly “disposable worker,” and after a decade of corporate scandals and a great number of bosses doing the “perp walk,” Bob focuses squarely on what the best bosses do day-in and day-out. He contrasts the great habits of good bosses with the equivalent lousy habits and approaches of bad bosses, providing anecdotes and vignettes that we can relate to or anguish over. We all know a few of the bad bosses. Let’s hope that our good boss experiences outweigh those others.
I had the great fortune to connect with Bob recently on a phone call/interview, and our scheduled 10-15 minutes turned into 30 minutes of fascinating insights about the book, and about Bob’s work as a professor and consultant. He was a delight to interview and I sincerely believe that you will find his insights and anecdotes as fascinating as I did. Enjoy the interview and enjoy the book!
And finally, this section from the preface of his book sets the tone well:
“The best bosses don’t ride into town, save the day with a bold move or two, declare victory, and then rest on their laurels. There is no final victory. The main reward for success is usually that you get to keep doing a damn hard (but often satisfying) job for a while longer. Despite the horseshit spewed out by too many management gurus, there are no magic bullets, instant cures or easy shortcuts to becoming a great boss. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. The best bosses succeed because they keep chipping away at a huge pile of dull, interesting, fun, rewarding, trivial, frustrating, and often ridiculous chores. …Devoting relentless attention to doing one good thing after another-however small-is the only path I know to becoming and remaining a great boss.“
Nine chapters of pure boss gold! Thanks, Bob!
Note from Art: Bob supplied me with a pre-release copy of his book for this interview.
Leadership Caffeine: 5 Ideas for Infusing Fun Into the Workplace
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Life and Business, Management Education, Middle Management, Performance, Professional Growth, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
You heard it here first. It’s OK to Have Some Fun as a Leader.
Most of the popular press on leading and leadership focuses on the challenges, strain and pains of leading, leaving one to assume that signing on for the role is akin to a vow of chastity or at least a vow of silence.
You don’t often hear the “F” (for fun) word used in sentences with the words, leader, leading or leadership. And while I’ll encourage you to keep the red noses and floppy shoes and squirting flowers safely at home for your own use at birthday parties, I’m going to step out on a limb and encourage you to not make this a miserable experience for you or your team members.
And let’s face it, there’s not been much fun to go around in the world for at least a few years. Just be really, really careful what your definition of the word fun is, or, you’re liable to feel like you took a vow of poverty once you and your floppy shoes get bounced out of the show for inappropriate actions.
5 Ways to Infuse Fun Safely into Your Workplace:
1. Start by smiling a lot more. Smiles are contagious and that’s more than just popular lore. Our mirror neurons fire when we observe someone engaging in a particular behavior, and the positive act of smiling is one that all of us appreciate. Your smile as the leader will have an uplifting impact on everyone that you encounter. Of course, choosing to grin during a crisis will have the opposite effect. Use this technique liberally when the seas are calm and the wind is at your back.
2. Improve the quality and frequency of your positive feedback delivery. Effective positive feedback reinforces the right behaviors, offers encouragement and provides motivation for the receiver and for observers. Avoid calling out “Atta boys” for trivial reasons. “Way to make that pot of coffee this morning, Smith.” Be specific, link the feedback to business issues and dispense the positive encouragement in a ratio in excess of 1:1 versus constructive feedback.
3. Celebrate the right victories. If your team or organization is in crisis, celebrate the small victories that help propel you in the right direction. Depending upon your role or level, some of these small victories might seem insignificant, but each success strengthens the foundation for future successes. Spring for pizza or, at least take a few minutes to thank everyone. Remember to provide visibility to the teams that drove the results and then drive home with a smile on your face, knowing that this was the right thing to do. Remember to adapt your definition of the “victories to celebrate” as conditions improve or worsen.
4. Ensure that people know that their work is important. There’s almost no stronger motivational technique than ensuring that your team members understand that what they are working on is important. Whether it’s important to internal customers or external customers doesn’t matter, as long as they have context for the value of their work. Working on something important makes work relevant and yes, even fun.
5. Increase involvement. There are individuals laboring in all sections of firms that have ideas of value to offer, but have no outlet for those ideas. When is the last time that you invited someone from Accounting to one of your team’s brainstorming session? Mix things up, break down some walls and get people involved!
The Bottom-Line for Now:
OK, so my definition of “fun” might be a little more mundane than many others. It’s unlikely that I’ll be invited to choreograph any big Fun Fairs soon. However, if nothing else, take away from this post the reality that you as the leader have a tremendous impact on the working atmosphere at your place of business. Apply some or all of the 5 simple ideas above, and you’re likely to see a palpable increase in enthusiasm, motivation, performance and yes, even smiling and occasional light conversation. And you’ll have a lot more fun in the process.
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Updates:
-The August Management Excellence Newsletter is out on Tuesday, August 17th. Sign up to receive this newsletter (I guard your e-mail address with an unrivaled ferocity!), and you’ll be on the receiving end of subscriber-only content. Register at Management Excellence or Building Better Leaders (far right column).
-Look for the Management Excellence Book Series to launch this week with my podcast interview with Bob Sutton on his new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss!
The Pursuit of Power and the Misguided Leadership Literature
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Life and Business, Management Education, Middle Management, Performance, Professional Growth
Jeffrey Pfeffer’s article, Power Play, in the July-August Harvard Business Review (fee) is interesting and relevant for everyone working inside organizations as well as for those individuals actively engaged in the development of leadership literature and course-work.
Pfeffer tackles the important topic of power. How to gain it, how to wield it, and in his opinion, why those that actively cultivate power are more effective at driving change and implementing a new strategy. He also suggests that the leadership literature is soft-selling or ignoring this very real and important part of organizational life.
First, the organizational issues. Anyone that has been around the block for more than a few minutes recognizes that the flow of power (formal and informal) is what makes organizations move. Power manifests itself in many ways that don’t involve revolution or underhanded activities. Consider the ability of one manager to consistently secure plum projects and top performers for her teams. Or, another manager’s track record at pushing his new programs through the various approval channels and gaining investment support. Both individuals have cultivated and used power for practical, productive purposes.
I’m refreshed to see the term “Power” in a positive and pro-active light. It’s often not talked about except in the context of “abuses of.” Much like politics in the organization, power is a very real and palpable source of performance fuel. It is also something that is actively sought by some that see it as a way forward and upward, while it is eschewed by others that view at as noble to avoid the perceived games and grabs.
Good, relevant content for anyone laboring inside an organization or working on a team.
And while I like what Pfeffer has to see, he most definitely is knocking the chip off of the shoulders of those in the leadership community with his second of three barriers that preclude many people from assembling a power base.
From the article:
Barrier 2: The Leadership Literature: ”Most books by well-known executives and many lectures and courses about leadership should be stamped “Caution: This material can be hazardous to your organizational survival.” That’s because many leaders touting their careers as models to be emulated gloss over the power plays they used to get to the top. The teaching on leadership is filled with prescriptions about following your inner compass, being truthful, letting your feelings show, being modest and self-effacing, not behaving in bullying or abusive ways—in short, prescriptions that reflect how people wish those in positions of power behaved. There is no doubt that the world would be a much better place if people were always authentic, modest, truthful and concerned about others, instead of simply pursuing their own aims. But wishing that’s how people behaved won’t make it so.”
I take issue with this one just a bit. While I don’t claim to have read all of the contemporary literature on leading, I’ve rarely tripped across anything from a substantive leader or writer that spews just the overly sweet and syrupy content the Pfeffer describes in his quote. The issues of building accountability, earning respect and growing credibility as a means of influence (power), making tough calls that affect firms and people (uses of power), and driving results (to gain more credibility, influence and power) are standard fare. I’m not certain what books or articles that Mr. Pfeffer is reading, but perhaps he should broaden his reach just a bit.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
I like the open discussion on “Power” and its relevance to individuals and organizations. We’ll have more discussions here on that content. Mr. Pfeffer definitely gets my nod for drawing it out and even for his well intended (I suspect) but slightly off-target shot at the leadership community. If nothing else, he offers all of us pursuing the development of the next generation of effective leaders, a valuable reminder that we must know and deal with the facts of organizational life.
Leadership Caffeine: Quit Managing Reduced Expectations
Filed under: Career, Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leading Change, Life and Business, Making Decisions, Management Education, Management Innovation, Organizational Transformation, Professional Growth
Note from Art: Sometimes we all need a kick in the seat of the pants.
A great friend and talented product manager once offered in a moment of frustration that he viewed his principal job as one of “managing reduced expectations.”
This brilliant, but depressing turn of words reflected bigger business problems, including a logjam in development that effectively precluded us from doing anything to enhance the competitiveness of our products in a timeframe shorter than something that you might find on a geologic time-scale. .
The “managing reduced expectations” theme seems to be prevalent in our society right now, and it is a dangerous mind-set. Spiraling debt, a never-ending string of mortgage defaults, long-lingering unemployment, embattled and embittered government, corruption, a seeming shift of the balance of economic and productive power away from North America, and a potentially unsolvable morass in Afghanistan are all contributors to this collective mood referenced in the media and heard on the street daily. Throw in a good old-fashioned ecological disaster and some remarkable leadership letdowns at BP (unconscionable) and HP (Huh? We all thought that this guy was brilliant!) and the process of managing reduced expectations is now epidemic.
It’s remarkably easy to let the broader environmental factors and forces dictate our personal emotions and before we know it, an attitude of blind resignation sets in and dominates our thinking and our actions.
Just a few phrases that I’ve heard recently:
“We see a huge opportunity for our new product, but corporate is telling us that we can’t invest in the brainpower that we need to take advantage of the opportunity.”
“Times are tough and we’re not going to pursue this project this year.”
“We’re not running leadership training anymore. We killed that in this year’s budget planning.”
What the Hell Are You Thinking?
Sorry for the strong title on this section, but again, “What the hell?”
You’re telling me that you are going to take it lying down while your future is decided by someone wielding the expense-cutting sword to hit arbitrary targets?
You’re not pursuing a project that will define your future and perhaps change the course of your firm, because no one is working hard enough to cull the portfolio or find the money.
And you gave up developing your people because why?
The Bottom-Line for Now:
In the imitable words of the character, Red Foreman, on The 70’s Show: “Dumb Asses.”
It’s time to quit managing reduced expectations. There’s a big, troubled world out there filled with emerging markets and emerging consumers hungry for basics and then eventually luxuries. Of course, to seize opportunities here and abroad, you’ve got to jettison old ways, take risks that might have seemed incomprehensible yesterday, and work unceasingly on surrounding yourself with people that can-do and don’t take no for dumb-ass reasons.
Redouble your efforts to invest in key future projects. Sacrifice sacred cows in company-wide barbecues to fund critical new investments. Streamline decision-making processes. Jettison your 1970’s era management structure and approach. Fight hard to hire the right talent and for crying out loud, redouble your efforts to develop the talent that you need to survive, sustain and grow.
Long ago, Deming called for a Transformation in management practices and thinking. It hasn’t happened yet. Now would be a good time.
As a starter, why not try reinventing yourself instead of taking it and letting the era roll you over. The change starts with you on your team. Start managing towards high-expectations and find every way possible to reinforce this behavior, reward successes and build enthusiasm.
The alternative is that your career and your firm will be locked in irons. Let’s not create a “lost era” here in America. It’s completely unacceptable.
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