Influencing Without Authority For Leaders

Leaders in complex matrixed organizations need to be able to influence without authority.

The silo belongs on the farm, not the modern corporation! The only path to success today is creating value for customers, and that can only be done when everyone collaborates to meet customer demands. Whether your organization is officially “matrixed” or simply trying to get everyone to work collaboratively, leaders must be skilled at influencing across functions and business units. Everyone’s job performance depends on someone else getting his or her job done. Interconnectedness is the new lifeline for successful organizations.

Getting someone else to do something – when you have no authority to command action – is one of the most challenging aspects of leading and managing.  Our research shows that the common practices of trying to influence by piling on data and logic, or by using carrots and sticks, doesn’t work.  We’ve learned that people will tell you how to influence them if you know what to ask and how to listen.

Influencing Without Authority develops the essential set of skills required in these critically important interactions.  Your organization gains the following benefits:

• Greater buy-in for business direction across functions and business units
• Greater collaboration to create customer value
• Less time and energy wasted dealing with infighting between functions and business units
• Greater efficiencies as a result of collaboration and partnering
• Greater initiative to offer to support and collaboration
• A broader focus on placing the customer first

Influencing Without Authority Training highlights:

• The influencing skill set: what every leader needs to know
• Influencing vs. Authority: a different set of leadership skills
• Why people resist efforts to get them to do things
• The psychology of influencing: unfreezing resistance
• How to find out what will influence people
• How to have conversations that generate a new perspective and shift mindsets
• How to influence by focusing on their underlying interests
• How strategic influencing works in a matrixed organization
• Influencing different personalities: matching your influencing style to their personalities
• Skill building: how to apply the influencing tools and techniques in real life situations

Influencing Without Authority Methodology

Leaders in Influencing Without Authority spend most of their workshop time in practices with coaching and feedback in P2P Videolabs^™ – AlexanderHancock’s trademarked process for rapid development of business communication skills. They bring their own real situations to use in the practice sessions.

Influencing Without Authority Customized Solutions

To ensure that training is not just an “event,” but instead produces enduring results, we customize Influencing Without Authority to fit your unique situation, business strategy, culture, and people.  After discussion with you and other experts within your organization, we select the emphasis, specific skills to be developed, key learning points, exercises, and case studies for practice to create a solution tailored just for you.

Influencing Without Authority Applications

The following are some of the ways our clients have used custom versions of Influencing Without Authority:

• To support a reorganization to cross-functional customer account teams
• To strengthen the skills of professionals in a shared services organization
• To support an enterprise-wide initiative to change the culture to be more innovative and  nimble through reducing bureaucracy and increasing collaboration
• To ensure that staff groups have a strong customer focus

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