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* This article is a modified version of Unit 5 of FEMA's Independent Study Course IS-240 Leadership and Influence.
In addition to building trust and facilitating change, an effective leader must be able to exert personal influence to achieve emergency management goals. In this article, we will focus on the important role of leader as influencer and the skills for effectively influencing others. We will also explore what is involved in being a politically savvy leader.
The ability to influence others is a key leadership competency. As a minimum, we use our influencing skills to get needed resources and set people on a particular course of direction. Personal influence is absolutely critical in emergency management. Every one of the tasks the emergency manager outlined in her action plan will require some measure of personal influence, and those tasks cover the entire emergency management spectrum: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
The emergency manager will need to exercise her influence in many directions:
When we talk about influencing other people, we generally mean getting them to do something or to think or behave in a certain way.
Three Types of Influence
In the workplace, you have three kinds of influence available to you:
position influence, domineering influence, and interpersonal influence.
Interpersonal influence is best used:
Even if you predominantly use one type of influence, you may use all three types with some individuals and groups or in some situations.
Effective Interpersonal Influence
Interpersonal influence is something you develop over time, as you build
relationships. It is also something that you develop as you gain knowledge and
experience in your job. The more you know about your organization, the better
equipped you are to positively influence those you need to.
Effective interpersonal influence involves three core elements: "I", "You," and "We." Each element reflects an attitude. When you adopt this attitude, you tend to act in a way that contributes to effective interpersonal influence.
The "I" element. This element reflects the attitude, "I am a trustworthy ally." It involves taking actions that demonstrate your personal reliability, competence, and commitment. People learn about you from what you say and how you act. They will determine whether you are trustworthy based on your actions, and they will notice quickly if your actions do not correspond with your words.
Examples of actions that can destroy your credibility include:
If people decide you are not trustworthy, a strong barrier will be created to building an influence relationship.
The "You" element. This element reflects the attitude, "You are a valuable resource." Actions that demonstrate this attitude show the other person that you value a working relationship with him or her. Examples include asking for their opinions and ideas and showing appreciation for their contributions.
The "We" element. This element reflects the attitude, "We can accomplish this together." The "I" and "We" elements together enable you to build an influence relationship. After you've done that, you can use the relationship to work together to solve problems and accomplish your goals (the "We" element).
We influence others through our leadership skills, through effective balancing of inquiry and advocacy, through trust-building behaviors, and by being able to communicate change effectively. Your ability to influence others is also enhanced by effective communication skills, including:
Negotiating Agreement
Another important skill area in building influence relationships is reacting
skills: the ability to react appropriately to another person's point of view
after you understand it. The ability to react effectively is important because
influence relationships develop when both parties feel that their ideas are
important to the other. Reacting effectively encourages open communication and
trust.
Typically, there are three gut reactions you may have to someone's idea or suggestion:
Agreeing. If you like the person's idea, say so. But make sure you state both what you like and why you like it. For example, you might say, "I like your idea of . . . because . . . ." By communicating the value the idea has for you (i.e., why you like it), you give the person additional reinforcement for offering the idea.
Constructive Disagreement. When people suggest ideas, they hope their ideas will be liked. But that isn't always the case. Sometimes the response is disagreement. However, people often find it difficult to state their disagreement. Either they don't want to hurt the person's feelings, or they don't like to say "no," or they don't know how to say "no" diplomatically.
The result is that they sometimes take inappropriate actions, such as postponing giving an answer, going along with an unacceptable idea, or implying that the disagreement stems from someone else (e.g., "I don't think they will let us do that"). However, if disagreement is not handled correctly, the person can become defensive or the possibility of future discussions may be dampened. The self-esteem of the person should be a major concern.
If your reaction is that you see value in the idea but have some reservations (agree with parts and disagree with others), use constructive disagreement. Here's how:
Building on Ideas. When your reaction to someone's suggestion is that it stimulates your thinking about the idea and ways to enhance it, you have an opportunity to build on ideas--to add value to the original idea. This does not mean just offering a new idea of your own. There are two steps in this process.
There are times when the ability to influence others is not enough, and a good rationale may not be sufficient to sway someone to your point of view. Something is missing. There is another important factor to consider when we are attempting to influence: political savvy
Political Savvy-- Dirty Word?
Many people have strong and contradictory feelings about being political. In
fact, strong negative feelings about politics often present the most significant
barrier to making the transition from Individual Contributor to Transactional
Manager.
However, the roots of the term political savvy indicate that our attention should be on others. Political comes from the Greek word meaning "the citizens" and savvy is from the French verb meaning "to understand." So political savvy is, at its core, the ability to know the people. Political savvy is a crucial leadership skill, and it can be employed in a positive way for positive ends.
Personal Interests vs. Organizational Interests
Below is a model--the Interest Grid--that illustrates what political savvy is
and what it is not. The Interest Grid contains four quadrants representing high
and low levels of self-interest and organizational interest.
As you read about each quadrant in the model, think about a leader you have known (personally or by reputation) who exemplifies this approach.
Who Benefits?
Using influence well can actually be a tremendous service to the
organization and to the people a leader manages. It can bring the leader's
particular unit or department visibility, stature, resources, and a voice in
shaping what happens.
On the other hand, lacking or misusing political skills can have very serious consequences to yourself, to your unit, and ultimately even to your ability to achieve emergency management goals in the future.
Building Blocks for Political Savvy
There are three critical building blocks that will help to strengthen your
own political skills:
The Alliance Mindset
Viewing others as potential allies is easier said than done. When trying to
influence others, you are most likely to see things from your own perspective
and remain focused on your own needs. And the more you care about an issue, the
more focused on yourself and your position you tend to become.
Yet failing to see others as allies or partners is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. It increases the likelihood that you will act in ways that may actually heighten others' resistance to your ideas.
Therefore, perhaps the most crucial building block of political savvy is your mindset. Leaders who are effective are able to view and treat the people around them as partners or potential partners.
The good news is that it is possible to shift from a mindset of seeing people who resist you as adversaries to a mindset of seeing them as potential allies.
The Rules of Alliance
There are four basic rules for interacting with people as your allies:
Rule 1: Assume that Mutual Respect Exists
Some people will lose your respect by repeatedly taking actions that are
boldly self-serving or unethical. But these people are usually the exception,
not the rule. More often, you will lose respect for others because of
misunderstandings.
Most people involved in emergency management are trying to do the very best they can in any given situation. By getting better at understanding another person's point of view, you will have a better chance of seeing what motivates them and the context in which they act.
Rule 1 simply challenges you to let yourself be surprised: to start over, suspend your judgment, and assume that respect exists between you. While it may sound idealistic, consider the alternative: when you assume a position of no respect, barriers go up and options shut down.
Rule 2: Trust the Other Person and Be Someone Who He or She Can
Trust
Trusting others means taking a risk and letting your guard down in the hope that
something more positive can emerge. Although sometimes it may not be worth the
risk, not taking that risk virtually assures that distrust will mount.
In addition to trusting others, being someone that others can trust is one of the most powerful ways to turn around a troubled relationship. This too involves a "calculated leap of faith"--a willingness to take the first step in building or rebuilding a relationship.
It is this kind of risk-taking that is the hallmark of a Transformational Leader, someone who breeds commitment and trust by being committed and trustworthy.
Rule 3: Be Open; Share Information
Like the other rules of alliance, this can be a difficult rule to put into
practice. Many of us believe that "knowledge is power." Yet power does
not necessarily equate with influence. You can have a lot of power by hoarding
information, but you may not be trusted or respected.
Ask yourself: Would you rather be powerful or effective? The traditionally powerful leader might "know it all," but the Transformational Leader who is open and who shares information is more likely to get things done in the long run because of the trust and commitment that he or she builds.
Push past your comfort zone and share more information than you think you can. See what happens.
Rule 4: Look for Mutual Benefits
You can look for mutual benefits by asking questions and trying to
understand the other person's frame of reference. Unfortunately, in typical
organizational life, this type of conversation doesn't happen as a matter of
course. We often fail to take the time to find out about another person's
interests or we fail to imagine that we might have interests in common.
But these are the prerequisites for finding solutions that are of mutual benefit: taking time to find out about the other person's interests and looking for common interests. Remember the advice from Unit 2: Inquiry before advocacy. Make sure you take time to really listen before you start selling your own ideas. You may find a lot of common ground on which to build.
Looking for mutual benefit is one of the best ways to become someone's ally, and to allow them to become yours.
Given the premise that we will be more effective with a mindset that others are our allies, we need to become smarter about who those allies are and what they care about. Another way of looking at the process of understanding your allies is simply this: You want to make it as easy as possible for them to say "Yes" to you.
This requires answers to three questions:
First Question: Who Are Your Allies?
If you are trying to get an idea accepted, your allies might include:
Allies include not only obvious supporters but those whose support you will need but may not have from the outset.
Second Question: What Are Your Allies' Concerns, Interests, and
Motivations?
Knowing who your potential allies are is the first step in understanding
them. Your next challenge is to
figure out how to influence them. One
of the best ways to influence others is to understand their world:
their pressures, concerns, and perspectives.
A good example of this, on a broad scale, is the need to understand cultural differences within your community. Cultural differences reflect internal beliefs and thought patterns that can cause people to react differently to the same situation. The same may be true of other special groupsūwhether defined by age, gender, language differences, special needs, or other characteristics. Their own concerns and interests may color how they interact with you.
To a large extent, the misunderstandings that occur involving people from different cultures or special interest groups have nothing to do with what was said-it's how it was said, what the speaker did while saying it, or even to whom it was said. Clearly, understanding the special needs within your community will enhance the strength of your personal influence.
Whether dealing with an individual or with a group, understanding your allies' interests and motivations is a vital component of political savvy. It is also one of the most under-practiced skills in organizational life, and the place where the process of influence often breaks down. We frequently become so intent on our own idea that we forget to present it in a way that makes it easier for the other person to accept it.
Third Question: How Does My Idea Relate to Their Concern?
First you identified your potential allies in relation to your situation. Next,
you focused on two of themūthe approver and an enabler--and tried to understand
more about what they care about. The third step is to relate your ideas to those
of your allies and to position your idea in a way that makes it easy for these
allies to say "Yes."
To complete this step, you need to answer two sets of questions:
The key point is this: Viewing people as allies opens up new possibilities of interacting with them in more positive, effective, and savvy ways.
We have talked about the importance of having an alliance mindset and of understanding your allies. The third building block for political savvy is to be an ally. Being an ally means invoking the principle of reciprocity
It is important to realize that this is NOT a "scratch my back and I'll scratch your back" approach. It is also not a tit-for-tat trade where, to get a specific idea through, you promise something in return.
Rather, it means being a friend to others in the organization because by helping others you will also be helping the organization and helping yourself.
Keep thinking of the metaphor of friendship: You are more willing to support a friend who has been there for you than to support someone who has never shown any particular kindness in the past. The same holds true for organizations. Being an ally means creating a web of good will in which others will be, in turn, more inclined to help you at a time when you need it.
On the other hand, this principle of reciprocity could sound like a plea just to be a nice person. And while that's true, the politically astute people have discovered that treating others well also turns out to be smart business.
Have you ever watched a cat negotiate with a mouse? The cat may allow the mouse some latitude in its actions, but always within the boundaries determined by the cat. Once in a while, the mouse will find a crack in the porch steps through which it escapes to achieve its goals.
In negotiations, do you feel like the cat or the mouse? Is there another way to negotiate?
There are several points to remember when striving for a "win-win" solution:
This article focused on the role of leader as a politically savvy influencer and the skills for effectively influencing others. To learn more about leadership and influence, review FEMA's Independent Study Course IS-240 Leadership and Influence available at: http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/IS/ .