This document contains slides from a presentation on influencing without authority. It discusses developing organizational intelligence and personal impact. Some key points covered include different influencing styles, identifying key players, spheres of influence, and ways to improve influencing abilities. Different techniques are explored such as priming, organizational network analysis, and using language tailored to different learning styles. The presenter is Sarah Coleman, an author and director of an organization that helps improve business performance.

1. © 2016 www.businessevolution.co All rights reserved. Helping organizations improve performance
Slide: 1
Influencing without authority:
developing organizational intelligence and personal impact
Sarah Coleman
Director, Business Evolution Ltd
Fellow and former NED, Association for Project Management
Chartered Fellow, Chartered Management Institute
Author “Project Leadership” (Gower, 2015)
“Organizational Change Explained” (Kogan Page, 2017)

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Slide: 2
“….. why should I be interested?”

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….. is the ability to alter or sway an individual’s or a group’s thoughts,
beliefs, or actions
…… the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or
behaviour of someone or something.

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born to influence?

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Traditional:
 Power is based on position within
the hierarchy in the organization
 Legitimate authority and delegated
power
 The “right to command”
The new reality:
 Increasing demands to become
leaner (downsizing, restructuring,
reducing levels of hierarchy)
 New rules of engagement
 More reliance on influencing,
networking, collaboration, etc.
traditional vs the new reality …..

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Slide: 7
what’s your influencing style?
Style Demonstrated by
Asserting Do you rely on your personal confidence, rules, law, and authority to influence others? Do
you insist that your ideas are heard and considered, even when others disagree? Do you
challenge the ideas of others when they don’t agree with yours? Do you debate with or
pressure others to get them to see your point of view?
Convincing/
Rationalizing
Do you use logic, facts, and reasoning to present your ideas? Do you leverage your facts,
logic, expertise, and experience to persuade others?
Negotiating Do you look for compromises and make concessions in order to reach an outcome that
satisfies your greater interest? Do you make trade-offs and exchanges in order to meet your
larger interests? If necessary, will you delay the discussion until a more opportune time?
Bridging Do you attempt to influence outcomes by uniting or connecting with others? Do you rely on
reciprocity, engaging superior support, consultation, building coalitions, and using personal
relationships to get people to agree with your position?
Inspiring Do you encourage others toward your position by communicating a sense of shared mission
and exciting possibility? Do you use inspirational appeals, stories, and metaphors to
encourage a shared sense of purpose and exciting possibilities?

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identifying key players …..
• Influence: how much are they
able to affect the behaviours and
actions of others to impact you?
• Attitude: are they a supporter,
neutral or a detractor?
• Power: is their ability to get
what they want done significant
or relatively limited?
• Interest: are they paying close
attention, or are you an
unwelcome distraction?
• Proximity: are they closely
associated with you/your work or
relatively remote?
• Urgency: are they prepared to
go to any length to achieve their
outcomes? In their eyes, how
critical and time-urgent are you
or what you are doing?

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Slide: 9
project dynamics …..
Project
Procrastinator
par excellence
Too pushy by
half
Aggressive
shaper
Solutions Architect
Despondent
monitor-evaluator
New to the project
Part-time on the project
Not read any progress
reports
Secret crush
Supports
same football
team
Old score to settle
Afraid of
Political naive
Admires
Owes a favour to
Risk Manager
Jealous of promotion
Knows the history
Christmas party fall-out
Play golf together
ESTJReflector

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Slide: 10
spheres of influence …..
Sphere of direct
influence
Sphere of
control
Sphere of indirect influence

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Extraverts: talk it out?
o Appeal to their preference for action and interaction
o Use: consulting, build alliances, appealing to friendship, exchanging?
influencing different types ……
Introverts: think it through?
o Appeal to their preference for introspection and deliberation
o Give them time to think and reflect
o Use: appealing to friendship, exchanging?
Feelers: so, the impact on people will be …..
o Be personable and friendly
o Explain how others will benefit
o Use: consulting, modelling, socializing, build alliances, appealing to friendship
Thinkers: the logical implications are ….
o Be logical, analytical, objective
o State the principles involved, list the costs and benefits
o Use: logical persuasion

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Slide: 12
how can I improve my ability to influence
and personal impact?
The law of reciprocity: If you give something to people,
they feel compelled to return the favour
The law of authority: We are more likely to comply with
someone who is (or resembles) an authority
The law of liking: We are more inclined to follow the lead
of someone who is similar to us rather than someone who is
dissimilar
The law of social proof: We view a behaviour as more
likely to be correct, the more we see others performing it
The law of commitment and consistency: We value
commitment and consistency since they are associated with
strength, honesty, stability and logic.

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Slide: 13
“….. emotional entrainment is the heart of
influence…..”
“… being persuasive and managing the emotions of
others by sensing their emotions and responding
carefully”
“… finding just the right appeal for a given listener
and knowing how to build buy-in from key people and
a network of support for an initiative.”
(Source: Goleman, 2006)
Daniel Goleman
World Economic Forum 2011

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Slide: 14
IQ: 140 EQ: 0

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the basics: winning friends and influencing
people
Emphasizing the “people” skills:
Help people to like us
•Be genuinely interested
•Talk in terms of their interests
•Let them talk
•Listen well
•Remember their name
•Show respect
•Smile!
Win people over
•Understand their point of view
•……..
Avoid offending them
•Ask questions instead of directing
•……..
Source: Carnegie (1936)
“Influencing skills are generally
associated with workplace
success”

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Slide: 16
– nurture relationships based on
mutual agreement and trust
– focus is on interpersonal
communication skills and
relationships.
ways to influence ….. Logical persuasion
Stating
Blackmailing
Legitimising
Exchanging
Reasoning
Manipulating
Appealing to values
Consulting
Avoiding
Threatening
Bargaining
Being assertive
Embarrassing
Socialising
Appealing to friendship
Intimidating
Modelling
Alliance building
Visioning.
When might you use each of these?
When have these been used on you?

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positive, negative, with integrity …..
 Positive influence:
o Reason, friendliness, assertiveness, higher
authority, mutuality
 Negative or coercive influence:
o manipulation, avoidance, intimidation,
threats, blackmail, embarrassment
 With integrity:
o appealing to values, visioning, logical
persuasion.

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Slide: 18
how can I improve my ability to influence and
personal impact?
Identify and develop authority and expertise:
 Expert: having knowledge, experience, judgement,
technical ability
 Referent: wanting to be like or associated with you,
value your networks and contacts
 Information: possesses or has access to particular and
necessary information needed by others
 Connection: who you know – vertically and horizontally,
inside or outside the organization
 Reward: ability to reward desirable behaviour in others
 Coercive: ability to punish, sanction or prevent
 Process: control over methods of production and
analysis.

19. © 2016 www.businessevolution.co All rights reserved. Helping organizations improve performance
Slide: 19
 Understanding your own influencing
style:
o assert, convince, negotiate, bridge or inspire
 Personal style
 Key influencers’ styles.
how can I improve my ability to influence and
personal impact?

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Slide: 20
vak: use of language …..

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vak: use of language …..
Use of language:
•Influences what we remember and how we remember it
•Impacts our emotions
•Revives experiences and memories.

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Slide: 22
Words:
imagine
see
show
colourful
illustrate
insight
picture
look
Phrases:
I see what you mean
Looks good to me
I get the picture
What does the big picture look like?
I don't see your point
Let me show you what I mean
Can you see this in your mind’s eye?

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Slide: 23
Words:
talk over
listen
tune in
loud
call
resonate
hear
sound
Phrases:
I hear you
It rings a bell
That clicks with me
Music to my ears
I've tuned you out
Lets talk it over
Does this resonate with you?

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Slide: 24
Words:
walk through
heavy
pass over
touch upon
get a hold of
feel
numb
touch upon
Phrases:
It feels right to me
I can't grasp the point
I catch your drift
I don’t feel good about this
Are there some symbols that pop to mind
I can’t get a handle on this
What you're suggesting doesn't feel right to me
Let's touch upon the points another way

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Slide: 25
• ONA is used to map relationships across the
organization: understanding circles of influence,
knowledge sharing, collaboration, etc.
• Helps identify key influencers by understanding
patterns of interactions, highlighting key individuals
who are in the core of the network as well as those
who are less well connected
• Helps identify highly peripheral people representing
untapped expertise and under-utilized resources
• Views interactions in terms of nodes and ties
• Particularly useful for transformation or technology
adoption: used to identify those individuals who
might be selected to lead pilot projects, be
advocates or champions, etc.
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) …..

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Slide: 26
Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) …..
Sample questions:
•To whom do you turn for information to get
your work done?
•How frequently do you interact with this
person?
•How likely are you to receive or share new
ideas with this person?
•How well do you know what the other
person’s area(s) of expertise are?
•Who displays the desired behaviours or
qualities within the organization?
•Who do you see as a key influencer within
the organization?

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Slide: 27
further ideas in influencing …..
 Priming is not restricted to concepts and
words
 Activation spreads through the vast network of
associated ideas and memory
 “… you must accept the alien idea that your
actions and your emotions can be primed by
events of which you are not even aware”
“Demonstrated that prior exposure to contextual factors can prime or activate
certain product attributes in consumers' knowledge structure and subsequently
increase the likelihood that they interpret ambiguous product information in terms
of these activated attributes, thereby affecting the overall impact of the ad.”
Youjae Yi (1991) ,"The Influence of Contextual Priming on Advertising Effects", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 18, eds.
Rebecca H. Holman and Michael R. Solomon, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 417-425
Priming: an implicit memory effect in which
exposure to one stimulus influences the response
to another stimulus

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Slide: 28
Contact …..
Sarah Coleman
Business Evolution
+44 (0)1636 893716 ext 302
+44 (0)7999 879870
sarah.coleman@businessevolution.co
www.businessevolution.co
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sjcoleman
@business_evolve