Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community, 3rd Edition

Chapter 21Influencing Your TeamFrom One to Many

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Expanding Your Influence Impact

Teams (as well as families or other close groups) are, by their nature, influence organizations. In today's organizations, teams, both co-located and virtual, are usually made up of people with different professional skills, a different set of information and ideas, and with different formal reporting relationships. As a result, the direct use of power is seldom an option. Whether you're a team leader or a team member, you'll need to influence others on your team to agree on goals and milestones, provide information, resolve problems or conflicts, offer or share resources, take on added responsibilities, and implement ideas or proposals. Team projects can't be completed without agreements, yet innovation and excellence will only result from a free flow of ideas and active influencing in all directions. Influencing a team involves all the skills required for one-to-one influence but is a more complex and multi-layered process.

Establish a Climate for Influence

The process of team influence begins with the formation of the team. Among the first things a team needs to accomplish are to

• Create a team vision of success.
• Articulate the values upon which they will base decisions.
• Establish goals and milestones for projects.
• Agree on norms or ground rules for how the team will operate. ...