To view any of these examples in full, go to http://www.influencewithoutauthority.com. All examples are listed on the right under Cases and Other Materials. These are rich, detailed descriptions, many with analysis, of action on many organizational levels.
As an African American and a woman, Nettie Seabrooks had more than her share of hurdles to leap to acquire influence—especially at General Motors, where her career began. Her remarkable story of gaining influence offers invaluable lessons on the importance of:
In trying to replace a direct report at his insurance company, Warren Peters ran into conflict with that direct report's more senior manager. Warren had to decide whether to fight for his choice, and once he did, find a way to preserve his relationship while getting the desired result. Warren's story illustrates these crucial principles of influence:
Anne Austin had trouble making herself heard when she spotted a new product opportunity from her market analyst's job at a Fortune 500 consumer goods company. But by incredible persistence and deft application of influence skills, she conducted a strong internal campaign to get her product idea accepted and land the job she wanted. Her story shows the importance of:
This complicated example reveals many layers of challenges over several years and demonstrates how a project management job requires determining key players, figuring out what matters to them, and using a full palette of influence skills to bring a major strategic project to fruition. Monica Ashley, facing the deep resistance of a powerful technical guru, finally won the arguments about going outside for needed technology, but because of her approach she was removed from the product development project and spent a year in “the penalty box.” If your job brings you into contact with multiple stakeholders you must win over, you will find the attention required to understand the situation to be well worth your time.
Some of the lessons from Monica's experience include:
Timlynn Babitsky and Jim Salomon saw the enormous potential of wind power in Montana, but the locals, unfamiliar with their organization, were skittish. By partnering with several government-sponsored groups and landing some well-placed publicity, they could start a grassroots movement that taps into a powerful existing resource and improves people's lives. Important elements of their influence campaign include:
After being promoted to head of a messy division, Will Wood used careful change planning, considerable influence skill, and some calculated maneuvering to implement e-learning, a more effective training tool. But to succeed, he had to overcome skepticism and tight budgets. Some of the principles he practiced include:
In this example, a manager is completely frustrated by a colleague's behavior, despite his best efforts to change it. We show that because he failed to consider what the colleague valued, the manager could not gain the kind of influence he wanted.
Trying to bring together pro- and anti-charter school groups, each with very strong beliefs about its views and the other side, was an extremely difficult influence challenge. This is a teaching case, with many open questions to resolve and lessons about how they were tackled.
This is an influence example of overcoming poor departmental history and negative feelings, making it very difficult to collaborate on what was supposed to be a joint project. (Note the effort to understand and deal with the feelings of the most “difficult” person from one department and its positive impact.)
Miguel (Mike) Garcia is a member of the marketing team for software in Latin America at a Fortune 500 computer company. As a member of a headquarters function, he must gain the cooperation of country managers and others who resist anything from the central office and have their own ideas about what might be valuable to them. He invests considerable energy in making relationships with the country managers, listening to their concerns, treating them as partners, and framing his requests in terms of currencies they value.
This complete chapter covers how to deal with subordinates who are direct reports yet are not easy to influence. It looks closely at how to tune into what matters to different subordinates and how to use their currencies to gain their cooperation, including how to give powerful feedback that helps them learn and grow.
While an MBA student, Terry Wheeler did his summer internship at Healthy Bites, a growing health food company. To his surprise, he was soon asked to run a critical high-level product development project that required managing and coordinating over 20 individuals throughout all levels and functions of the organization. The product was expected to generate several million dollars in revenue in year one and provide a critical defensive position against competitive offerings. He scoped out the players and their currencies, dealt with a “nosy” colleague others considered difficult, got people to pull together, and succeeded.
Lucia works in supply chain management at a very large global company, (called Grandetech in this disguised example), mostly virtually, and seldom has her own subordinates to manage. In this instance, she was asked to lead an important cross-divisional team whose members came from divisions with differing goals and objectives. She had to use all her influence skills to help them make a sensible decision for the company.
This extends the discussion in Chapter 9 with more examples.
This is a sad, but not so unusual example of smart colleagues, each using unsophisticated ideas about influence. As a result, they enter a downward spiral, developing untested assumptions that produce a series of negative mutually reinforcing actions that eventually ruin their relationship.
Using the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model isn't always easy, especially when strong emotions as well as negative (untested) assumptions are present. And two people hooked in a dysfunctional cycle cannot always pull themselves out of it. This case illustrates the difficulties, the importance of “sticking in there” to work it out, and the value of an objective third party.
A wonderful example of using personal interests outside of work to promote an important initiative comes from Paul Westbrook, then a project manager of worldwide construction at Texas Instruments. Paul is passionate about sustainable practices in companies out of concern for environmental degradation and waste. A modest movement was growing in the United States around these concerns, but many enthusiasts within companies had trouble getting those in power to respond. Texas Instruments had a significant number of environmental and sustainability efforts at its facilities around the globe, but Paul wanted to move the company to the next level. Meanwhile, his passion caused him to use green techniques in his house, which used passive and active solar energy.
Chris Hammond, a sales trainee, was unusually successful in developing leads and closing high-ticket sales. But she was being held back in favor of her boss and a male favorite. After trying to get fair opportunities, she threatened to leave and take her best leads with her. This example details how she went about getting the opportunity she believed she earned and deserved.
This example shows how selling, often seen as somehow unpleasant, can create positive transformations, even when dealing with internal colleagues.