{"id":1043,"date":"2011-03-01T07:43:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T13:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2022-11-30T12:56:54","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T18:56:54","slug":"influencing-takes-patience-planning-and-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/influencing-takes-patience-planning-and-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"Influencing takes Patience, Planning, and Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patience_Planning_Perspective\"<\/a>The ability to influence without authority<\/a> is a skill coveted by any project manager. Even if a project manager has complete authority over project team members (which is seldom the case), there are still other stakeholders over whom they have no control and who need to make decisions, review or approve deliverables, or provide resources for the project.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the crux of our job, really, to get people to do things for the benefit of the project.<\/p>\n

What does it take to be influential? If you look around at people who are really good at it, what do they do or say that makes them so effective? As students in my training classes have asked, what’s the\u00a0repertoire of one-liners we can use in meetings with high-level executives to get them to do what we need them to do?<\/p>\n

If only it were that easy. Of course, it\u2019s not. It\u2019s a skill to be developed, one that takes patience, planning, and perspective.<\/p>\n

Patience<\/h2>\n

The ability to influence requires an investment of time. It isn\u2019t necessarily a single moment in which your influencing efforts will bear fruit. It\u2019s a process. It takes time to understand people\u2019s preferred currencies or things of value that you can offer so they appreciate the \u201cWhat\u2019s in it for me\u201d factor. It takes time to understand how people make decisions, interact with others, what makes them \u201ctick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planning<\/h2>\n

Influencing also requires planning. This idea is sometimes troublesome to people. If I actually plan to influence someone, how is that different than manipulation? The difference is intent. A plan to influence others for the benefit of the project and the organization is entirely different than influencing others at someone\u2019s expense or for personal gain.<\/p>\n

Perspective<\/h2>\n

Perspective and self-awareness are also essential. We have to know ourselves well enough to make sure we don\u2019t bring our cultural, personal, and professional baggage to the task of influencing. We\u2019ll never know influencing success if we can\u2019t see things from perspectives other than our own. For example, I\u2019m going to have a hard time getting what I need from you for my wonderful \u201cbusiness process improvement\u201d project if you see it as the \u201ccost-me-half-my-staff\u201d project.<\/p>\n

The influencing toolbox includes more than one-liners. Influencing, like any professional skill, has to be developed with patience, planning, and perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ability to influence without authority is a skill coveted by any project manager. Even if a project manager has complete authority over project team members (which is seldom the case), there are still other stakeholders over whom they have no control and who need to make decisions, review or approve deliverables, or provide resources […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,211,1],"tags":[51,58,22],"coauthors":[140],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-influencing-and-consulting","category-project-management","category-watermark-learning","tag-communication","tag-influencing","tag-project-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11135,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/11135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}