Embrace Your Power,Influence Will Follow

Embrace Your Power,Influence Will Follow

Andrea L. Ames (@aames)IBM Senior Technical Staff Member andContent Experience Strategist/Architect/Designer

LavaCon (@LavaCon)21 October 2013

@aames @LavaCon

About Andrea

Technical communicator since 1983 Areas of expertise

Information experience design: Content strategy, information architecture, and interaction design for content display and delivery, within products and interactive information delivery systems

Architecture, design, and development of embedded assistance (content within or near the product user interface)

Information and product usability, from analysis through validation User-centered process for information development and

information experience design IBM Senior Technical Staff Member on corporate Total Information

Experience team in IBM CIO’s office University of CA Extension certificate coordinator and instructor STC Fellow, past president (2004-05), former member of

Board of Directors (1998-2006), and Intercom columnist (with Alyson Riley) of The Strategic IA

ACM Distinguished Engineer

22@aames @LavaCon

Today, we’re going to talk about…

Power

And influence

Your “innate” powerHow your power influences—consciously or not

Using your power and influence for good

@aames @LavaCon3

Why? If you can:

Design two UI panels Write three pages Create five icons Drive 10 marketing campaigns Track 45 project work items Write 90 lines of code

in a day, how many are accomplished when three people are driving, tracking, writing, designing, creating? 50? 500? 5,000?

Are you expert at every aspect of technical communication, marketing, support, strategy, project management, your product, etc.? If so, do you have the bandwidth to be a one-person show?

Most complex situations require multiple judgments, skills, and experiences

And most importantly…Have you ever had a great, innovative idea—like the need for a unified content

strategy??—and wanted it implemented in your organization?

4@aames @LavaCon

4

Soft skills, including

leadership, personal and

power management,

influence

SkillKnowledge

Necessary but not sufficient

Easier to seeand develop

Characteristicsfor greatersuccess

Harder to seeand develop

Technical skills and knowledgevs. soft skills

5@aames @LavaCon

POWER

@aames @LavaCon

Are you feeling powerful?

Please, quickly audit your body.

@aames @LavaCon7

Who is feelingpowerful?

Helpless

Depressed

Powerless

Submissive

Happy

Warrior

Elated

Enthusiastic

Energized

Leader

@aames @LavaCon8

Who is feelingpowerful?

Helpless Depressed Powerless Submissive

Happy Warrior Elated Enthusiastic Energized Leader

@aames @LavaCon9

@aames @LavaCon10

What makes us appear—and feel!—powerless? In our body language

Slumped shoulders Crossed arms or legs Lack of eye contact Touching hair or face

In our speech Hesitation: “Uh” or “um” Hedges: “Sort of,” “kind of,” or “I guess so” Tag questions: “This is …, don’t you think?” Disclaimers: “I don’t know everything about this

topic, but …”

@aames @LavaCon11

When it’s useful: Disclaimers

IF USED CAREFULLY… When you are perceived to be in a position

of power, to be non-threatening and get those in less powerful positions to speak up and contribute

When actually, or being perceived to, directly challenge those in power

@aames @LavaCon12

What makes us appear—and feel!—powerful? In our body language

Stand or sit with good posture Spread out; take up space Make appropriate eye contact

(within cultural norms) In our speech

Use strong words; avoid hesitation words Utilize voice inflection Speak loudly and clearly and with

a powerful tone Understand your audience

@aames @LavaCon13

We can learn a lot from animals, because power is primal.

Cesar Millan, Cesar’s Ruleshttp://books.google.com/books/about/Cesar_s_Rules.html?id=vpm6mpBvRGwC

Own the space.

@aames @LavaCon14

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/gorilla/behavior.htm

@cesarmillan

Amy Cuddy’s life hack@amyjcuddy

1. Stand up

2. Raise your arms above your head in a victory stance

Practice for two minutes prior to social or stressful situations

Amy Cuddy: “Your body language shapes who you are” TED talkhttp://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html @aames @LavaCon

15

Our bodies can change our minds! It’s not about being insincere!

This is our “innate” power!

Amy Cuddy: “Your body language shapes who you are” TED talkhttp://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html

Fake it until you become it!

@aames @LavaCon16

INFLUENCE

@aames @LavaCon

From Wikipedia, influence is…

Amount of influence you exert often determined by your confidence/self-esteem and perceived persona

Ability to influence also affected by your perceived expertise, or credibility—others’ trust of you and your knowledge or skill

Sometimes seen as persuasion, guiding people toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not always logical) means

18

When the actions or thoughts of individuals are changed

by another individual

18@aames @LavaCon

Black magic?

Is it… Charisma? Good looks? Money? A talent that you’re born with?

It can’t be learned, developed, refined, improved, right?

1919@aames @LavaCon

How I like to think of it

It’s something you acquire via your actions and attitude

Managing yourself and your attitude

Leadership—the ability to (from Tom Peters)

Inspire Liberate Achieve

Gaining respect and trust Leading in every direction

Setting and communicating a clear vision with enthusiasm

Inspiring enthusiasm in others

Getting things done through others that you could not achieve alone

It’s not black magic

2020@aames @LavaCon

What some experts say

John Maxwell James Kouzes and Barry Posner Joel Garfinkle

21@aames @LavaCon

Five levels of leadershipJohn Maxwell (@johncmaxwell), Developing theLeader within You

22@aames @LavaCon

Five ways to be InfluentialJoel Garfinkle (@workcoach4you), Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level

23@aames @LavaCon

Five practices of exemplary leadershipJames Kouzes (@Jim_Kouzes) and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

Model the wayGo first, set the example

Inspire a shared visionEnlist others in the vision, know constituents and speak their language

Challenge the processInnovate, grow, improve, experiment, take risks

Enable others to actFoster collaboration and build trust

Encourage the heartRecognize contributions, celebrate values and victories

24@aames @LavaCon

Five key themes

Credibility Trust Exemplar Enable others Inspire others

Self

Relationships

25@aames @LavaCon

Shoring up your power and influence Skills and knowledge

(necessary, but not sufficient)

Professionalism (“soft skills”)Goleman’s emotional intelligenceCovey’s seven habitsMaxwell’s approach to attitude

and 360-degree leadership

References at the end of this presentation@aames @LavaCon

26

USING POWER AND INFLUENCE RESPONSIBLY

@aames @LavaCon

Why we use our powerJay Hall and James Hawker, Power Management Inventory

Personalized: achievement of personal gain Socialized: need to influence others’ behavior for the

common good Affiliative: need to be liked by others

Effective use of power within the org is necessary Strong power motivation is essential to good leaders

(managers) Socialized power leads to more successful leadership

(management) than personalized power

28@aames @LavaCon

Once you embrace your power…

How do you use your influence?

Only for good, not evil.

29@aames @LavaCon

Influence model: ReciprocityAllan Cohen and David Bradford, Influence without Authority

Think in terms of currencies Inspiration-relatedTask-relatedPosition-

relatedPersonal

30@aames @LavaCon

Contextual forces shape behaviorAllan Cohen and David Bradford, Influence without Authority

31@aames @LavaCon

Questions?

3232@aames @LavaCon

Resources used/cited

Allan Cohen and DavidBradford, Influence without Authority

Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Amy Cuddy: “Your body language shapes who you are” TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html

Joel Garfinkle, Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level

Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence

Jay Hall and James Hawker, Power Management Inventory

James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

John Maxwell, Developing the Leader within You

John Maxwell, The 360-Degree Leader

John Maxwell, Attitude 101 Cesar Millan, Cesar’s Rules

3333@aames @LavaCon

Related resources

David Allen, Getting Things Done (GTD)

Amy Cuddy, Act Powerful, Be Powerful: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/28/opinion/cuddy-power-posing/

Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change

Phil Harkins, Powerful Conversations: How High Impact Leaders Communicate

3434@aames @LavaCon