Management Today Book Series

Understanding Influence for Leaders at all Levels

Preface

Leader as influencer is one of the key roles that managers today must play …so say the world's leading management and business commentators… as does the Australian Institute of Management.

Never before has there been a greater need to get things done by influencing. In a world full of ‘noise' and overloaded with signals, the ability to influence others is now a skill that is central to job function and role responsibility for leaders at all levels.

Influence is the subject of this book, which is the sixth in the Management Today Series. Like the earlier titles in this best selling business book series, it pulls apart what it means to be an effective leader in today's business world.

Some time ago, Carolyn Barker, Co-Series Editor, was invited to lunch with a group of interesting and articulate leaders. The inevitable topic of ‘people' dominated the conversation, especially how to manage the context in which people work, live and play. From there, the conversation turned to the concepts of persuasion, power and influence, and how these were now the skills that make for better leadership.

Afterwards, it dawned upon us that this would be a fascinating direction for our next book…an examination of what it means to have influence and to be influential, and the role that personal influence and power play in workplace leadership.

Simply defined, power is the ability to change the behaviour, attitudes and beliefs of others. Influence is the exercise of that power. In other words, power is something that you may have or strive for; influence is what you do with it.

In our initial research for this book, we discovered two things. First, when people think about power and influence, they are unused to consciously considering the subject. ‘The political entity, the organisation, the company or someone else (who is bigger, faster, stronger or wealthier) has power and influence…not me.' It seems that there is a general belief that power and influence cannot be possessed or exercised by ordinary individuals in their everyday environments.

Second, for many people, power and influence are negative words. Even those who have formal leadership positions or hierarchical authority often cringe if their power and influence over others is articulated (especially if that articulation links leadership aspirations with the drive for power). Influence, whether it is over others or over the organisational agenda, has been associated with deceitful, covert behaviour---the realm of Machiavelli and political backroom boys and girls.

And yet, in today's organisation, leaders must know how to influence others.

‘Command and control' is being replaced by ‘collaboration and consensus', dramatically affecting the way leaders go about getting things done. In the modern management environment, influence and leadership are inextricably combined.

The Australian Institute of Management has a strong philosophical view that leadership is not the exclusive mantle of the formally anointed---the one at the top, the executive class. Rather, leadership is the engagement of followers in the pursuit of shared goals. Implicit in this simple but elegant definition is that leadership occurs at every tier of the organisation.

Like leadership, influence starts from an intrinsically neutral position. Whether it is good or bad depends on how you use it. However, one of the underpinning contentions of this book is that influence is more effective when exercised within an ethical framework and deployed with a working knowledge of emotional intelligence. It is for this reason that each of the chapters provides advice for leaders who wish to be influential without destroying the trust of their peers or followers.

This book is an unashamedly eclectic collection of chapters on the role of influence. It is not a neat and tidy ‘textbook'; rather, it is a cluster of the thoughts and writings of nine Australian management commentators. Although there are several themes common to all of the chapters, each reflects the contributors' deeply held views on how leaders and managers can use and increase their influence, yet act with integrity and a clear conscience.

The opening chapter sets the scene by examining the nature of power, influence and leadership within organisations. The following four chapters examine some tools or strategies that leaders can use for increasing personal influence; namely persuasion, charisma, spin and networks. The authors provide guidelines so that leaders can master each of these strategies and achieve their organisational goals. Influencing, like every other skill, can be learned.

We have chosen to group the most challenging chapters in the second half of the book. They concentrate on strategies for leaders who wish to influence fundamental changes in the direction, culture and behaviour of their organisations. Why are these chapters challenging? Because they each address the question most frequently asked of our leaders today: ‘Why won't you change your behaviour to match what you are telling us to do?' Regardless of how much money, time and effort an organisation spends on major reform and change programs, unless the leader or the leadership team can demonstrate a change in their own belief structures, they will not have any real or sustainable influence on the organisation's desired reforms.

Understanding Influence is true to the philosophy of the Management Today Series, in that each chapter combines background theory with real world application, challenging and thought provoking concepts with practical guidance, and intellectual rigour with passionate opinion.

In total, AIM's Management Today Series has presented the work of almost 50 authors and has explored over 70 management and leadership topics. The feedback that we get from people throughout Australasia and beyond usually takes the shape of comments on their favourite chapter in their favourite book, and the reasons why it struck a chord with them. Many have also remarked that as time has gone on and their roles have changed, so too has their ‘favourite' chapter. We think this reflects the depth of the collection and the strength of the multi-authored approach.

We hope you enjoy this book and, as always, we look forward to your feedback. If you wish to provide comment on this book or any of the others in the Management Today Series, please email us at editor@aim.com.au or visit www.aim.com.au.

Carolyn Barker, FAIM and Robyn Coy, AIMM
Series Editors

Australian Institute of Management