embrace your power, influence will follow
TRANSCRIPT
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
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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
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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?
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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
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POWER
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Are you feeling powerful?
Please, quickly audit your body.
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Who is feelingpowerful?
Helpless
Depressed
Powerless
Submissive
Happy
Warrior
Elated
Enthusiastic
Energized
Leader
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Who is feelingpowerful?
Helpless Depressed Powerless Submissive
Happy Warrior Elated Enthusiastic Energized Leader
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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 …”
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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!
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INFLUENCE
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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
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When the actions or thoughts of individuals are changed
by another individual
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Black magic?
Is it… Charisma? Good looks? Money? A talent that you’re born with?
It can’t be learned, developed, refined, improved, right?
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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
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What some experts say
John Maxwell James Kouzes and Barry Posner Joel Garfinkle
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Five levels of leadershipJohn Maxwell (@johncmaxwell), Developing theLeader within You
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Five ways to be InfluentialJoel Garfinkle (@workcoach4you), Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level
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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
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Five key themes
Credibility Trust Exemplar Enable others Inspire others
Self
Relationships
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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
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USING POWER AND INFLUENCE RESPONSIBLY
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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
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Once you embrace your power…
How do you use your influence?
Only for good, not evil.
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Influence model: ReciprocityAllan Cohen and David Bradford, Influence without Authority
Think in terms of currencies Inspiration-relatedTask-relatedPosition-
relatedPersonal
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Contextual forces shape behaviorAllan Cohen and David Bradford, Influence without Authority
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Questions?
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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
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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
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