The Financial Times Guide to Leadership

8

The art of influence

‘The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and to influence their actions.’

John Hancock, American politician

This chapter covers:

• what influence is and how it relates to power and authority
• the attributes of influential leaders
• group dynamics, alphas and the underestimated power of body language
• the importance of stakeholders and how to manage them efficiently to reach desirable outcomes
• the importance of multiple and diverse networks to sustaining performance and creating value for the company.

Rasputin and Olympes de Gouges

Gregory Rasputin was a nineteenth-century Russian mystic. The self-proclaimed holy man schmoozed his way into the Romanov Court at a time when both the empire and the Church ...