Power and Influence for Lab Managers

Presented By: Ron Pickett

Ron PickettThe Lab Manager

May 15, 2013

*Define Power for Managers.

*Assess Personal Attitudes to Power.

*Describe the Sources of Power.

*Contrast Power and Influence.

*Describe Things Managers can do to Increase Influence and Become More Comfortable with Power.

* 1. Never Outshine the Master.* 3. Conceal Your Intentions.* 7. Get Others to do the Work for you but Always Take the Credit.* 11. Learn to Keep People Dependent on You.* 12. Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victim.* 13. When Asking For Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest,

Never to their Mercy or Gratitude.* 14. Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy.* 15. Crush your Enemy Totally.* 17. Keep Others in Suspended terror; Cultivate an Air of

Unpredictability.* 24. Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than Your

Mark.* 27.Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cult-like

Following.* 30. Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless.* 41. Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes.

*Define power in organizations.

*Where does it come from?

*Legitimate.

*Coercive.

*Reward.

*Information.

*Knowledge/Expert

*Referent.

*Association.

*Legitimate. Position

*Coercive. Position

*Reward. Position/Person

*Information. Position

*Knowledge/Expert. Person

*Referent. Person

*Association. Position/Person

*Personalized Power:

*Struggle to win out over an active adversary.

*Life Is seen as a “zero-sum-game.”

*The law of the jungle applies to all aspects of life.

*Tend to drink more.

*Collect prestige items.

*Use their power for self aggrandizement.

*Engage in impulsive actions.

*Want to dominate in most situations.

“Have impact for him or her self.”

Power used for personal benefit.

*Socialized power:

*Hesitant about expressing power in a direct interpersonal way.

*Make others feel strong, confident and competent.

*Exercise power for the benefit of others.

*Ambivalent about the exercise of personal strength.

*Realize that most victories must be carefully planned.

*Help to develop and demonstrate concern about group goals.

*“Have impact for the group.”

*Good impulse control.

*Power Exists.

*Power is Complex.

*Power is Dynamic

*Power is Neutral.

*Power is Situational.

*Power is a Two-edged Sword.

*Definition:

*Your most influential person.

*Trust

*Follow through

*Support

*Political awareness and skill

*Knowledgeable

*Others?

1. Rational persuasion—logical arguments and factual evidence.

2. Inspirational appeal—arousal of enthusiasm by appealing to values.

3. Consultation—seeking participation in planning.4. Ingratiation—getting someone in your debt.5. Exchange—offering an exchange of favors. 6. Personal appeal—appeals to feelings of loyalty

or friendship.7. Coalition—seeking the aid of others. 8. Legitimating—pointing to organizational policies,

rules practices, or traditions.9. Pressure—demands, threats, or persistent

reminders.From Yukl and Tracey (1992).

The Obedience to Authority Experiment

Stanley MilgramThe Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zambardo

*Power is at it’s best when it is used the least.

*Power can be seductive.

*Speak softly and carry a big stick.

*In a sellers market for skills and experience, the careful application of the appropriate level and personalized power base is incredibly important.

*Become comfortable with the power you have – learn to see it as an ally, a tool not as a necessary evil.

*Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. .—Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887

*Accept the necessity of power for management.

*Clarify your values.

*Identify your sources of power

*Test your actions.

*Monitor your results.

*Increase your influence and use your influence strategies.

*Build trust - extend trust.

“A firm faith in people prevents the development of the kind of cynicism that so often characterizes authoritarian leaders.”

References:

*McClelland, D Power The Inner Experience. NY:Irvington Publishers, 1975.

*Milgram, S Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View , NY:Perennial 1974.

*Ethical Organizational Politics*Marketing Lab Services*Becoming a Top Manager *Spot and Nurture: Identifying and

Growing Leaders*Resolving Conflict with Peers and

Colleagues*Dealing with Difficult People*Leading ChangeContact me at: Ronp70000@aol.com 619-

991-8790

The webinar video will be available atwww.labmanager.com/powerandinfluence

If you have a follow up question for Ron Pickett he can be reached at ronp70000@aol.com

Power and Influence for Lab Managers

*Find key elements of success.*Persuade people that change is important.*Recruit opinion leaders.*Convince people that the changes will make a difference, and*They can perform the behaviors.*Provide feedback on the results.

Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.Kerry Patterson, et al

The experiment began in July 1961, a year after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Milgram devised the experiment to answer the question "Could it be that Eichmann, and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"

The results of the study were made known in Milgram's Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (1974).

The "teachers" (who were actually the unknowing subjects of the experiment) were recruited by Milgram in response to a newspaper ad offering $4.50 for one hour's work. Individual subjects thus recruited turned up to take part in a Psychology experiment investigating memory and learning at Yale University's campus. He or she was introduced to a stern looking experimenter in a white coat and to a rather pleasant and friendly co-subject who was also presumably recruited via the newspaper ad. The experimenter explained that one subject would be assigned the role of "teacher" and the other would be assigned the role of "learner."

• Two slips of paper marked "teacher" were handed to the subject and to the co-subject. The co-subject was actually an actor who, in posing as a subject to the experiment, subsequently claimed that his slip said "learner" such that the unknowing subject was inevitably led to believe that his role as "teacher" had been chosen randomly.

• Both learner and teacher were then given a sample 45-volt electric shock from an apparatus attached to a chair into which the "actor-learner" was to be strapped. The fictitious story given to the "teachers" was that the experiment was intended to explore the effects of punishment for incorrect responses on learning behavior.

A succession of subjects in their roles as teacher were given simple memory tasks in the form of reading lists of two word pairs and asking the "learner" to read them back and were instructed to administer a shock by pressing a button each time the learner made a mistake. It was understood that the electric shocks were to be of increased by 15 volts in intensity for each mistake the "learner" made during the experiment. The shock generator that the "teacher" was told to operate had 30 switches in 15 volt increments, each switch was labeled with a voltage ranging from 15 up to 450 volts. Each switch also had a rating, ranging from "slight shock" to "danger: severe shock". The final two switches were labeled "XXX". The "learner" was in another room but the "teacher" was made aware of the "actor-learner's" discomfort by poundings on the wall and by recordings of screams. No further shocks were actually delivered - the "teacher" was not aware that the "learner" in the study was actually an actor who was intended, by the requirements of the experiment, to use his talents to indicate increasing levels of discomfort as the "teacher" administered increasingly severe electric shocks in response to the mistakes made by the "learner".

The experimenter was in the same room as the "teacher" and whenever "teachers" asked whether increased shocks should be given he or she was verbally encouraged by the experimenter to continue. In this scenario 65% of the "teachers" obeyed orders to punish the learner to the very end of the 450-volt scale! No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts!

At times, the worried "teachers" questioned the experimenter, asking who was responsible for any harmful effects resulting from shocking the learner at such a high level. Upon receiving the answer that the experimenter assumed full responsibility, teachers seemed to accept the response and continue shocking, even though some were obviously extremely uncomfortable in doing so.

• What does this have to do with me – my people will hardly do what I plead for? For a surprising number of us, the compulsion to comply with the demands of an authority figure can supersede our moral judgments. (While the analyses of the experiment don’t discuss this point, it is my belief that the compliance of a staff member tends to override the internal moral qualms that a manager may have.)

• (For more information Google Milgram or read the article on Wikipedia.com)