Sometimes you find yourself having to manage people in the workplace but you don't have direct authority over those people. You don't control reward; you can't impose detriments, so you don't have authority (see Weber). But if you don't have authority then you have to use influence.
And there are only four kinds of influence that I know of.
The first one is what we call interpersonal influence. Don't make the mistake of trying to build interpersonal influence by building false rapport, by pretending to be friends if you're not. The best kind of interpersonal influence is authentic influence and that's by focusing on what you really have in common which is the work that needs to get done. And if you want to build interpersonal influence that means you have to conduct yourself in a business-like manner. It means you have to spell out expectations clearly, break things down and spell them out some more. It means you need to write things down and make sure that the folks you are dealing with know you are writing things down. It means you need to follow up, follow up, follow up. And keep track of whether the people you are dealing with are meeting the expectations you've spelled out together or not. And if you conduct yourself this way consistently, that's how you start building interpersonal influence with people in the workplace even if you don't have authority and that is a form of power.
The second kind of influence is persuasion. Persuasion is all about giving good reasons, convincing people to do things because there is good reason to do it.
The third kind of influence is what we call transactional influence and that's getting somebody to agree. If you say,
"Will you do this?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I'm writing this down. You're going do this goal by this deadline. Here are the guidelines and parameters. Do you agree?"
When somebody agrees to fulfill an expectation, there's a lot of pressure on that person to follow through with that agreement. That's a form of power.
The fourth kind of influence is what I call deputizing yourself. There are two ways to deputize yourself; one way is to invoke the authority of someone else. If you are dealing with a particular individual at work and you don't have authority over that person, that person has a boss somewhere. And if you can include that person's boss in meetings, if you can cc that person's boss on emails or memos, somehow if you invoke the authority of that person's boss, I call that deputizing yourself. Another way to deputize yourself is to give yourself a form of authority by documenting the transactions you're having with this individual and at the very least you can write the next chapter in this person's paper trail. And that is a form of power.
BONUS MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICE
Document employee performance every step of the way:
Try to come up with A SIMPLE SYSTEM THAT WILL WORK FOR YOU THAT YOU CAN SUSTAIN to help you track in writing the following key pieces of information in your regular one-on-ones with every direct-report:
- Expectations. Goals and requirements that were spelled out. Instructions given or to-do lists assigned. Standard operating procedures, rules, or guidelines reviewed. Deadlines set.
- Concrete actions. Write down observable facts only. What have you observed the employee doing while watching? What does the employee say when asked about his actual performance? What do his self-monitoring tools reveal? What does your ongoing review of work product tell you? What do you learn about the employee's actions when you ask around?
- Measurements. How are the actions matching up against the expectations? Has the employee met requirements? Did he follow instructions, standard operating procedures, and rules? Did he meet his goals on time?
