St.Louis Business Journal
INFORMAL INFLUENCE CAN BE SOURCE OF POWER

By Anna Navarro May 2010  

Examples in this column are fictionalized to protect privacy.



Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you wanted to accomplish something at work but had no official power to make it happen? If so, you aren’t alone. In these days of flat organizations, many of us have to find other ways to reach our goals.

Charlie was having trouble getting support for a project he viewed as crucial. The idea had been shot down several times in team meetings. The loudest naysayer was Aileen, whose objections crystallized the opposition.

Charlie decided not to give up. He made an appointment with me to get advice about how to accomplish his goal.

I suggested he back off the project for a while, and instead concentrate on developing an alliance with Aileen. For the next few months he spoke up in favor of Aileen’s positions whenever he agreed with them. He didn’t compromise his integrity—he just vocalized his support for what he was comfortable with, instead of giving silent assent.

He began to feel a shift in Aileen’s attitude right away. It was almost as if she’d expected him to be disagreeable after her strong opposition to his proposal, and was a little puzzled by his openness to her ideas. Over the next few weeks, her puzzlement turned to cautious friendliness, and then to overt friendliness as Charlie continued supporting her.

A couple of month’s later, Charlie invited her to lunch, just to get to know her better. Over lunch they discovered each had a parent with Alzheimer’, and both were struggling to cope. They began building a deeper relationship.

A few weeks later Charlie told Aileen that he’d been giving some thought to how to re-work his earlier proposal in light of her constructive criticism, and asked if they could meet to talk about it. He modified some aspects of what he had in mind that weren’t central to what he was trying to accomplish, and they discussed the idea. Aileen indicated the changes dealt with her concerns.

Charlie re-introduced the idea in a staff meeting, and said he had modified it in light of the input Aileen and others had offered. That allowed Aileen to save face. This time the proposal sailed through.

The best part of what Charlie accomplished was that he and Aileen continued to be allies. Their alliance has given each of them more power, and has benefited the organization as a whole.

Agatha had made partner in a very large law firm on the strength of her hard work and technical skill as an estate attorney. But part of her compensation now depended on getting clients. She was a very shy person and was and worried about how she was going to market herself.

Once a client was assigned to her, she excelled at doing a great job for them, and they often referred their friends. But her sticking point was that initial attraction of clients.

I suggested she develop closer relationships with partners who specialized in other areas of the law and were good at client development. If she could get them to send her the estate planning work from clients whose other legal work they did, she could, in time, build her practice from those client’s referrals. The approach was appealing, but she was stumped about how to develop relationships with her rainmaker partners.

I asked if she could think of any favors she could do for them. At first she drew a blank, but then realized the firm had just installed a new software system that was giving many older partners and their support staffs fits. She was good at technology, and could offer help with the system.

It was time consuming, but within a few months, she’d helped eight partners wrestle with the software. She got to know them as she worked with them. They showed their gratitude by sending her estate planning work. Then she started getting referrals from the clients they’d sent. That was the beginning of her book of business.

Building alliances and doing favors are just two examples of informal ways to acquire power in the workplace. There are many others: being a charming, attractive person who everyone likes, having the boss’s ear, being a super-productive person who can churn out the work in an emergency, being articulate and persuasive in meetings. The list is endless. Some people have an instinct for cultivating these sources of power. All of us need to appreciate their importance in achieving our goals.

Anna Navarro is the founder of Work Transitions, a nationwide career consulting firm that works with clients on an individual basis to help them find more satisfaction and fulfillment in their work-lives. She can be reached by phone at (314) 367-0008 and her e-mail address is email@worktransitions.com. For more information visit the worktransitions.com website.

This column was originally published by the St. Louis Business Journal. The actual title of the column and date in which it appeared in the Business Journal may be slightly different from what appears on WorkTransitions.com.