Influence and Impact

CHAPTER 3Discover the Essentials of Your Job: Collect the Data

 

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, should you live near one.”

—J. R. R. Tolkien

The first step in enhancing your influence and impact is to gather information so that you can say with confidence what you need to do and how you need to do it to demonstrate your value to the organization. This is a three-part repeatable process you can use throughout your career. First, identify the essential sources of information. Find out who are your stakeholders, collaborators, team members, and managers whose points of view contribute to your success. Second, collect what overt data you can by formal interviews, casual conversations, and requests for feedback. Third, observe those people and teams in the organization to understand the implicit behaviors, symbols, underlying assumptions, and fundamental beliefs. Watch what managers respond positively to, and what they ignore. Attend to who is successful, and who is not.

Your risk of having emotional reactions to the data you are collecting is less because it is not about you—it's about your organization or your job. The risk is still there, however. Your objective at this stage is to collect the data without judgment and without confirmation bias. As you collect the information, try to maintain your emotional balance, particularly when you disagree ...