Influencing Without Authority For Staff Professionals

The most important skill for staff professionals is influencing without authority.

Staff professionals often feel they’re caught in a no-win situation. They are expected to get all the line managers and employees to comply with legal requirements, or GAAP rules, or HR policy, or technology guidelines… but they have no authority to command anyone to do anything.  Often these professionals in HR, Finance, Legal, Technology, Finance, and Risk Management are tasked with building the structure to support a new policy, business initiative, a turnaround, or a merger and can succeed only if they get the rest of the organization to voluntarily get on board.

Given these demands and constraints, is it any wonder these staff functions sometimes fall back on being the “police” to get people in line? Other common strategies for trying to influence include piling on data and logic, or using carrots and sticks. Our research shows that none of these tactics really 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 by staff professionals in these critically important interactions.  Your organization gains the following benefits:

• Greater buy-in for business direction across functions and business units
• Faster, smoother transitions during organizational change (merger, reorganization, etc.)
• Greater collaboration to create customer value
• Less time and energy wasted dealing with infighting between functions and business units
• Better business decisions as a result of collaboration and partnering between staff professionals and business unit leaders
• Stronger partnerships between line and staff functions
• The expertise of staff professionals is sought after and valued
• A broader focus on placing the customer first

Influencing without Authority Training highlights:

• The influencing skill set: what every professional needs to know
• 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 ask – they will tell you)
• How to have conversations that generate a new perspective and shift mindsets
• How to influence by focusing on their underlying interests
• Influencing different personalities: matching your influencing style to their personalities
• How to present a business case they can say yes to
• How to respond when they disagree
• Skill building: how to apply the influencing tools and techniques in real life situations

Influencing without Authority Methodology

Participants 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. They gain insight and skills through customized exercises and case studies.

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 equip HR, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk Management, and IT professionals to play a more strategic role and transition from being technical/transactional experts to full business partners
• To help staff groups to be sought after for their expertise and insights rather than be avoided as obstacles in the business process
• To equip staff professionals for the work of implementing organizational initiatives, mergers, turnarounds, reorganizations, and other transitions
• To support a major initiative  such as a change in compensation or benefits

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