Managing Power and Influence

Kathleen was stunned when she got the position as vice president for direct mail at a midsized financial services firm. She hardly could believe that she’d gotten as far as she had without a degree in marketing.

Over the years Kathleen learned through experience — the school of hard knocks — in a variety of positions, but she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to “learn by doing” at this higher level of responsibility.

She was excited when she took the job, justifiably proud of her achievement. But secretly she was unsure. She wondered, “Will I be found out?”

Feeling shaky, she unconsciously carried out the one model of authority she had learned from childhood: Demand what you want. It had been effective at the smaller companies she’d worked for.

When she wasn’t making bold demands of her staff, Kathleen often would begin a request to people outside her department with the comment, “The president asked that we do (such and such).” This was seldom questioned or challenged, and it enabled her to “borrow authority” in order to get things done.

Well, we might argue, that is the way to get things done! But in fact, there are many problems for any company or individual that utilizes this hierarchical style of authority.

Most of us need the cooperation of others who don’t fall within our direct chain of command in order to do our job and meet objectives. Kathleen soon ran into a brick wall of resistance from the graphics, communications and finance departments — and even the mailroom.

Her projects were a low priority for everyone. It may or may not have been the group’s conscious effort to sabotage her, but in fact, she had a hard time making deadlines without tremendous effort, checking and double-checking that assignments were moving along, and often frustratingly needing to give the same instructions over again.

Eventually, she lost her job. Her boss noted, “Kathleen was extraordinarily talented, was great on the computer, and was really on top of the numbers. But she was not a brilliant leader. She was brutally acerbic, socially awkward, had no social graces or even a social life. She had no one in the organization she was close to, no friends. She worked all the time but couldn’t get the cooperation of others. That’s why I fired her.”

The appropriate use of power — knowing when to choose your battles, so to speak — is a valuable resource for any manager. If it’s not used carefully, it can make or break one’s ability to win on important issues.

While some people, like Kathleen, abuse their authority by being hierarchical, many people are uncomfortable about using power and influence at all. They’d rather avoid making decisions if they need to broker cooperation and manage people’s disappointments.

• For example, let’s say a major database management company reviewed a consultant’s report on its need to reorganize certain functions. It was recommended that the database firm bring its marketing and public relations departments together and create a new unit focused on lead generation. At least in theory, this might increase the company’s ability to manage its brand image while keeping a focus on getting more leads and closing sales.

  A senior vice president with the authority to bring about such change avoided doing so for over a year. He was uncomfortable opening up political issues among department heads about who would be in control and who would gain and lose space in the office. In the end, his inappropriate use of power and inability to foster cooperation lost the company untold millions in sales by keeping the departments in their comfortable old silos.

  “Every organization has its own invisible nervous system of connection and influence. Some people are oblivious to this below-the-radar world, while others have it fully on their own screen. Skill at reading the currents that influence the real decision makers depends on the ability to empathize on an organizational level, not just an interpersonal one,” notes Daniel Goleman in his book, “Working With Emotional Intelligence.”

  Having a concern for others’ feelings and being able to understand different points of view, combined with an ability to read emotional cues and carry on social interactions, are critical skills for a direct marketing manager who intends to develop and maintain influence. Yet surprisingly, these skills often are ignored.

• Bill was an imperious leader of a leading software development company. He often imposed his ideas on his employees rather than trying to build consensus. As a result, more than half of his ideas failed whenever they were tried.

• Carl was a senior manager who thrived in a politically oriented international consumer goods company. He was effective managing upward, in dealing with peers and his supervisors, but poor at managing downward, because he really didn’t care about his people. He was self-centered, didn’t like people and felt an obligation only to himself, not to the organization. Although he had charm and social polish, which he could bring out at board functions and meetings with major clients, these attributes did not translate to competence at influencing others.

His social skill was in service to himself and to the detriment of the group as a whole. It took some time, but Carl’s boss and other members of the senior management team began to see through his Machiavellian drive for personal success at all costs.

When a major division needed to replace its president, Carl was in the running. But the search committee passed over him as he unwittingly revealed his pursuit of his own status, prestige and power at the expense of others and the company.

In today’s DM firms, things generally don’t get done just because the boss issues an order. We work in socially intricate organizations where we need the help not only of subordinates but of colleagues, superiors and outsiders to accomplish our goals.

We heard about this principle in kindergarten: Be nice. Play fair. Cooperate.

But how many of us ever really learned it?

CONNIE LaMOTTA is president of Workplace Strategies Associates, a business coaching consultancy in Upper Nyack, NY.