Influence without Authority, Second Edition

Book description

In organizations today, getting work done requires political and collaborative skills. That's why the first edition of this book has been widely adopted as a guide for consultants, project leaders, staff experts, and anyone else who does not have direct authority but who is nevertheless accountable for results. In this revised edition, leadership gurus Allan Cohen and David Bradford explain how to get cooperation from those over whom you have no official authority by offering them help in the form of the "currencies" they value. This classic work, now revised and updated, gives you powerful techniques for cutting through interpersonal and interdepartmental barriers, and motivating people to lend you their support, time, and resources.

Table of contents

  1. Acknowledgments
    1. From the First Edition
    2. Additional Acknowledgments to the Second Edition
  2. I. Introduction
    1. 1. Why Influence: What You Will Get from This Book
      1. 1.1. Why an Influence Model?
      2. 1.2. Barriers to Influence
      3. 1.3. Overcome the Barriers: Use an Influence Model to Guide You
      4. 1.4. The Book's Organization
  3. II. The Influence Model
    1. 2. The Influence Model: Trading What They Want for What You've Got (Using Reciprocity and Exchange)
      1. 2.1. Ignore the Law of Reciprocityat Your Peril
      2. 2.2. Exchange: The Art of Give and Take That Permeates All Influence Tactics
        1. 2.2.1. Why an Influence Model?
        2. 2.2.2. Assume All—the Other Person or Group—Are Potential Allies
        3. 2.2.3. Clarify Your Goals and Priorities
        4. 2.2.4. Diagnose the Ally's World: Organizational Forces Likely to Shape Goals, Concerns, and Needs
        5. 2.2.5. Identify Relevant Currencies (What Is Valued):The Ally's and Yours
        6. 2.2.6. Dealing with Relationships
        7. 2.2.7. Determine Your Trading Approach: Make Exchanges
        8. 2.2.8. Outcomes of Exchange: Task and Relationship Are Both Important
        9. 2.2.9. Exchanges Can Be Positive or Negative
      3. 2.3. Self-Created Barriersto Influencing
    2. 3. Goods and Services: The Currencies of Exchange
      1. 3.1. Coin of the Realm: The Concept of Currencies
      2. 3.2. Frequently Valued Currencies
        1. 3.2.1. Inspiration-Related Currencies
        2. 3.2.2. Task-Related Currencies
        3. 3.2.3. Position-Related Currencies
        4. 3.2.4. Relationship-Related Currencies
        5. 3.2.5. Personal Currencies
        6. 3.2.6. Negative Currencies
      3. 3.3. Using Currencies: Complexities and Restrictions
        1. 3.3.1. Establishing Currency Exchange Rates: How to Equate Apples and Oranges
        2. 3.3.2. Different Strokes: Few Universal Currencies
        3. 3.3.3. One Act: Multiple Currencies, Multiple Forms of Payment
        4. 3.3.4. Currencies Can Be Organizational, Not Just Personal
        5. 3.3.5. Reframing: Fit the Language to the Culture
        6. 3.3.6. Make Long-Term Investments
      4. 3.4. Self-Traps in Using Currencies
        1. 3.4.1. Underestimating What You Have to Offer
        2. 3.4.2. Pay in the Currency of Other Values, Not Just What You Would Value
        3. 3.4.3. Resenting Having to Go Out of the Way
        4. 3.4.4. A Word of Warning: Beware False Advertising
        5. 3.4.5. Last Word: Some Currencies Really Are Not Convertible
    3. 4. How To Know What They Want: Understandingtheir Worlds (And Theforces Acting On Them)
      1. 4.1. Two Forces That Can Explain All Behavior
      2. 4.2. How to Know What Might Be Important to the Other Person
        1. 4.2.1. The Potential Ally's Job Tasks
        2. 4.2.2. The Potential Ally's Environment
        3. 4.2.3. Task Uncertainties
        4. 4.2.4. Who's Counting? Measurement and Reward Systems
        5. 4.2.5. Unit and Organizational Culture
        6. 4.2.6. Major Forces Outside the Organization
      3. 4.3. Where Are They Headed? Career Aspirations and Personal Background
        1. 4.3.1. The Potential Ally's Worries
        2. 4.3.2. How the Potential Ally Defines the World
      4. 4.4. Gathering Real-Time Data about the World of Others
        1. 4.4.1. What Did You Say? Language as a Clue to Valued Currencies
        2. 4.4.2. Expressed Concerns as Clues
        3. 4.4.3. Other Sources of Data
        4. 4.4.4. Just Ask Directly
        5. 4.4.5. Just Because It Waddles and Quacks Like a Duck Doesn't Mean It's a Duck: The Dangers of Stereotyping
      5. 4.5. Barriers to Acting on Knowledge of the Worlds of Important Stakeholders
        1. 4.5.1. The Negative Attribution Cycle
        2. 4.5.2. Distancing Difficult People
        3. 4.5.3. Assuming Motives and Intentions: The Presumption of Evil
        4. 4.5.4. Further Decreases in Interaction
      6. 4.6. Alternatives to Creating Distance and Limiting Influence
      7. 4.7. I Thought You'd Never Ask: Using Direct Inquiry as an Alternative
        1. 4.7.1. The Benefits of Asking
        2. 4.7.2. If You Think You Know the Motive
      8. 4.8. Barriers to Directness
        1. 4.8.1. Accusation, Not Inquiry
        2. 4.8.2. Confusion between Understanding and Agreement
    4. 5. You Have More to Offer Than You Think if You Know Your Goals, Priorities, and Resources (The Dirty Little Secret about Power)
      1. 5.1. Power Sources: You Are Plugged In
      2. 5.2. What Do You Want Anyway? Gaining Clarity on Your Objectives
        1. 5.2.1. What Are Your Primary Goals?
        2. 5.2.2. Personal Factors That Get in the Way
        3. 5.2.3. Be Flexible about Achieving Goals
        4. 5.2.4. Adjust Expectations of Your Role and Your Ally's Role
      3. 5.3. You Can Influence Even Your Boss
      4. 5.4. Know Your Needs and Desires, but Don't Forget the Person You Want to Influence
      5. 5.5. Self-Traps: Power Outages in Making Exchanges
        1. 5.5.1. Reluctance to Assert Legitimate Claims
        2. 5.5.2. Reluctance to Demand What You Need
        3. 5.5.3. Knowing the Appropriate Currency—But Being Uncomfortable Using It
        4. 5.5.4. Knowing the Appropriate Currency—But Not Wanting to Satisfy the Other Person
      6. 5.6. Monitor Your Self-Awareness
    5. 6. Building Effective Relationships: The Art of Finding and Developing Your Allies
      1. 6.1. Relationships Matter
      2. 6.2. Adapt to the Preferred Work Style of the Other Person or Group
      3. 6.3. Action Plan
      4. 6.4. For Every Season: Increasing Your Work Style Repertoire
      5. 6.5. Other Approaches When the Relationship Is Bad, Yet Needs to Improve
        1. 6.5.1. Are You Part of the Problem?
        2. 6.5.2. Assess the World of the Other Person to Understand the Causes of the Offending Behavior
        3. 6.5.3. Choosing a Task- or Relationship-Centered Improvement Strategy
        4. 6.5.4. Downplay Personal Feelings and Start to Work
        5. 6.5.5. Speak Directly about the Relationship Problems
        6. 6.5.6. When to Proceed with a Task or Initiate a Direct Discussion to Improve a Relationship
      6. 6.6. Using Exchange Principles to Address Relationship Problems
        1. 6.6.1. Know Yourself
        2. 6.6.2. Say What You Want
        3. 6.6.3. Estimate the Cost of the Poor Relationship
        4. 6.6.4. Leave Your Negative Assumptions at Home
        5. 6.6.5. Ask the Person the Causes of the Exact Behavior You Don't Like
        6. 6.6.6. Moving to Joint Problem Solving—But Some Sticky Issues
      7. 6.7. Reaching Agreement
        1. 6.7.1. Self-Traps in Finding and Developing Allies
      8. 6.8. Conclusion
    6. 7. Strategies for Making Mutually Profitable Trades
      1. 7.1. Planning Your Strategies for Exchange
        1. 7.1.1. Free-Market Trades: Clear Mutual Gain
        2. 7.1.2. Showing How Cooperation Helps the Potential Ally Achieve Goals
        3. 7.1.3. Uncovering—and Trading For—Hidden Value
        4. 7.1.4. Compensated Costs
        5. 7.1.5. How to Make Hidden Costs Visible
      2. 7.2. Strategies That Use the Time Value of Currency
        1. 7.2.1. Building Credit: Saving for a Rainy Day
        2. 7.2.2. Sleaze Alert
        3. 7.2.3. Calling in Past Debts
        4. 7.2.4. What Can You Do When Others Won't Admit What They Owe?
        5. 7.2.5. What If Currency Payment Isn't Valued? (I Know You Said You Love Me, but You Never Bring Me Flowers)
        6. 7.2.6. Borrowing on Credit: Deferred Payment/Collateral
      3. 7.3. Other Strategic Considerations: Who and Where?
        1. 7.3.1. Deciding with Whom to Attempt Exchanges
        2. 7.3.2. Your Place or Mine? Choosing a Setting
      4. 7.4. Five Dilemmas to Be Managed during Exchanges
        1. 7.4.1. Escalate or Back Off?
        2. 7.4.2. Openness or Partial Truth?
        3. 7.4.3. Stick to Plan or React to the Moment?
        4. 7.4.4. Plan to Drop Your Approach
        5. 7.4.5. Positive or Negative Exchange Arguments?
        6. 7.4.6. Stick to Task or Work the Relationship?
      5. 7.5. Starting and Stopping the Exchange Process
      6. 7.6. After the Trading: The Cooling-Out Process
      7. 7.7. Making Satisfactory Exchanges and Avoiding Self-Traps
  4. III. Practical Applications of Influence
    1. 8. Influencing Your Boss
      1. 8.1. The Approach
        1. 8.1.1. Influence Strategy
        2. 8.1.2. Typical Issues with Bosses
        3. 8.1.3. Utilizing Partnership to Gain Responsibility/Greater Scope for Your Job
        4. 8.1.4. Improving the Superior-Subordinate Work Relationship
        5. 8.1.5. A Tool for Using a Business Approach: Cost-Benefit Analysis
        6. 8.1.6. Disagreeing without Being Insubordinate
        7. 8.1.7. True Grit: Being a Worthy Partner
    2. 9. Influencing Difficult Subordinates
      1. 9.1. Core Influence Concepts
        1. 9.1.1. Can We See Subordinates as Potential Allies?
        2. 9.1.2. Know the Subordinate's World and Currencies
        3. 9.1.3. Influence Strategies
      2. 9.2. Feedback as Exchange
      3. 9.3. Potential Problem Situations
      4. 9.4. Final Advice
    3. 10. Working Cross Functionally: Leading and Influencing a Team, Task Force, or Committee
      1. 10.1. The Challenge of Gaining Commitment
      2. 10.2. Selection of Members
      3. 10.3. Understanding What Mattersto Members
      4. 10.4. Increasing the Attractiveness of the Project
        1. 10.4.1. Dealing with the Charter
        2. 10.4.2. Bringing in the Sponsoring Senior Executive
        3. 10.4.3. Linking Member Goals with Team Objectives: Paying in Currencies Each Member Cares About
      5. 10.5. Using Vision, a Valuable Common Currency
      6. 10.6. Your Management Style
      7. 10.7. Selling Solutions before Formally Presenting Them
    4. 11. Influencing Organizational Groups, Departments, and Divisions
      1. 11.1. How to Go about Gaining Influence: Applying the Model
        1. 11.1.1. Step 1: Seeing the Other Group as a Potential Ally
        2. 11.1.2. Step 2: Understanding Their World
        3. 11.1.3. Step 3: Understanding What You Need from the Other Group
        4. 11.1.4. Step 4: Dealing with the Relationship
      2. 11.2. Be Persistent: Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
      3. 11.3. Ways People Self-Limit Their Influence
      4. 11.4. Final Advice
    5. 12. Influencing Colleagues
      1. 12.1. Key Concepts for Dealing with Any Colleagues
      2. 12.2. Influencing Colleagues from Your Department
        1. 12.2.1. Friendly Competitors; "Co-Opetition"
      3. 12.3. Influencing External Colleagues by Using a "Selling Customers" Mind-Set
      4. 12.4. Knowing the Customer's World
        1. 12.4.1. Overcoming Mistrust
        2. 12.4.2. Dealing with Hard Bargainers
        3. 12.4.3. Treat Everybody as a Long-Term Customer
        4. 12.4.4. Paying in the Currency of Involvement
        5. 12.4.5. Start with the Client's Definition of the Problem
        6. 12.4.6. Relationship Really Counts
      5. 12.5. Be Aware of the Larger System
        1. 12.5.1. You Can't Win 'Em All
      6. 12.6. Escalating Up the Hierarchy
        1. 12.6.1. Dealing with Colleague Behavior That Is Annoying or Worse
        2. 12.6.2. The Interconnection of Job-Related and Interpersonal Issues
    6. 13. Initiating or Leading Major Change
      1. 13.1. The Importance of Vision
      2. 13.2. Manage Tension
      3. 13.3. Identify Key Stakeholders Who Must Be Influenced
      4. 13.4. How to Influence Distant Stakeholders Who Are Decision Makers
        1. 13.4.1. Is Your Elevator Pitch Ready?
        2. 13.4.2. Influence the Influencers They Listen To
      5. 13.5. What Do You Have to Offer?
      6. 13.6. Diagnose and Enhancethe Relationship
      7. 13.7. Develop Your Exchange Strategy
      8. 13.8. Change Roles: Moving among Different-Size Groups
      9. 13.9. Planning versus Calculation
      10. 13.10. Further Ideas about Change
    7. 14. Indirect Influence
      1. 14.1. Understanding Their World for Likely Concerns, Sensitivities
        1. 14.1.1. Collecting Information from a Distance
        2. 14.1.2. Impact of Organizational Systems
        3. 14.1.3. Who Influences Them?
        4. 14.1.4. Educational Systems
        5. 14.1.5. Mobilizing External Forces
    8. 15. Understanding And Overcoming organizational Politics
      1. 15.1. The Nature of Organizations
      2. 15.2. Culture Determines the Way Politics Are Played
        1. 15.2.1. Get the Lay of the Land
        2. 15.2.2. Seek Help
      3. 15.3. Diagnose Stakeholders
      4. 15.4. Know Yourself—And How You Will Protect Yourself
      5. 15.5. Lessons from Fran Grigsby's Political Experiences
    9. 16. Hardball: Escalating to Tougher Strategies When You Can No Longer Catch Flies with Honey
      1. 16.1. Raising Your Ally's Costs—Gradually
      2. 16.2. When Your Boss Is the Difficult Colleague
      3. 16.3. Who Has the Power?—Recognizing Your Power, Increasing It, and Using It Appropriately
      4. 16.4. The Ultimate Escalation:Betting Your Job
      5. 16.5. Into Every Life Some Rain Must Fall: Rotten Apples and Hardball
        1. 16.5.1. The Calculated Confrontation
        2. 16.5.2. Spread a Little Sunshine
        3. 16.5.3. Influence, Not Manipulation
        4. 16.5.4. Be Careful of Assuming Malevolence
      6. 16.6. Conclusions
  5. A. Extended Case Examples Available on the Web
    1. A.1. The Career of Nettie Seabrooks: Influence against All Odds
    2. A.2. Warren Peters Navigates a Complex, Multistaged Exchange Process: Working within Organizational Realities
    3. A.3. Anne Austin Crosses Over: Selling a New Product Idea, and Gaining Access to an Out-of-Reach Job
    4. A.4. Lessons from a Determined Influencer: The Rise, Fall—and Eventual Resurrection of Monica Ashley, Revolutionary Product Manager
    5. A.5. Making a Minor Miracle in Montana: Using Influence to Change People and Groups Outside Your Organization
    6. A.6. Will Wood Sells E-Learning for Training: A Case of Successful Change Implementation
    7. A.7. Fran Grigsby Kills the $100 Million Project of a Well-Liked Senior Peer: Careful Navigation of Organizational Politics
  6. B. Additional Resources
    1. B.1. A. Training Programs
    2. B.2. B. Speeches
    3. B.3. C. Survey
    4. B.4. D. Cases on Influence
  7. Notes
    1. Chapter 2
    2. Chapter 3
    3. Chapter 4
    4. Chapter 5
    5. Chapter 7
    6. Chapter 8
    7. Chapter 9
    8. Chapter 11
    9. Chapter 12
    10. Chapter 13

Product information

  • Title: Influence without Authority, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Allan R. Cohen, David L. Bradford
  • Release date: March 2005
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780471463306