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Political Skills for Leaders: How To Influence For Success · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good political skills for leaders and senior managers is knowing how to navigate office politics ethically, to get support, resources, visibility and build influence so you can get things done quickly.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is avoiding mistakes, blockers, damage to relationships or other negative consequences of your actions.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Getting short-term wins that create longer-term pains and problems do not help you become more successful.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Good political skills in management leave the other person feeling positive and valued, not manipulated or rolled over.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This improves longer-term relationships and increases your influence substantially, both keys to success at senior levels.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I personally have sat on multiple boards as a director of businesses with millions to hundreds of millions in sales, and I have coached many senior managers and directors to significantly greater levels of personal and team success in all sizes of business.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Successfully navigating office politics in a positive and honest way is needed for short-term and long-term success at senior levels.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sharing seven key approaches or tactics to help you improve your success.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, office politics is the barrier to success no one talks about.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever delivered a strong business case only to have it ignored?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Have you suffered resources that you needed being given to a less valuable project?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Put forward great ideas that were not used.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or realize too late that a key stakeholder was quietly blocking your initiative.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: We have all been on the receiving end of political mistakes.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Make too many political blunders, and what you and your team can deliver is significantly reduced.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or even worse, these political actions block good opportunities to make the business more successful, which impacts everyone.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: The best ideas rarely win.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is the best supported ideas, initiatives or projects that wins.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: These can be very different.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Building support is a key political skill.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: To gain that support, relationships and influence play a massive part.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Put in the work to help others, to build strong and influential relationships, and barriers to success won't impact you as much as your peers.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training provides resources, courses, and coaching for you to build management expertise and confidence to lead any team to their best performance.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Successfully navigating the political landscape of your organization is a key leadership skill to be really successful as a senior manager or board director.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: To improve your political skills and improve the performance of your team and business, I invite you to visit us at enhance.training, select coaching from the menu, and take a look at the different coaching options available to improve your effectiveness and performance.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Next, some of the painful mistakes leaders make navigating office politics.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the most painful mistakes are assuming good work speaks for itself, or data wins arguments, or results creates real influence.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They can all be used to amplify influence.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, people are not very logical in what they support.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: People support what they help create.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: People support those they know, like and trust.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Individuals support those that have helped them be successful.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Colleagues support those they have good relationships with.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Support is very emotionally driven rather than rationally considered.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: As a result, influence often supersedes authority.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: The more people that know you, trust you, and advocate for you, the greater your influence and power.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: When you're invited into conversations before key decisions are made, you'll find it much easier to shape your success.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Focus on emotional ties rather than logical arguments to build lasting influence.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Third, understand the real power map, the heart of political skills for leaders.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Don't focus on organizational charts to understand the real power than organizations.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, find out who are the real decision makers, who are the key influencers that shape decisions, who might be the gatekeepers that control access or resources, and those informal leaders that everyone listens to.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Examples of the ways you can find out these people.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, observing the dynamics and meetings, who is deferential to whom, and which people are listened to by everyone.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, listening carefully to pick up on whose input is valued and acted upon.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Third, which people are sought out for advice and input.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, which people are asked into which meetings.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, observe who asks who for help.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Find out and take note of the people who hold the real influence and power within your business.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is vital in how to develop political skills.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: These are the people to build relationships with first.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, why people block great ideas, initiatives and projects, which is part of the company politics.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Many managers assume blockers of their ideas, initiatives and projects are difficult people or they have something against them personally.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Usually this is not the case.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: When people block something you want to do, it is usually because they are protecting something they value.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: It might be their reputation, their budget, their team, their workload, their priorities, resources they need, and so on.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: When you come up against blockers or those that dismiss your ideas, initiatives and projects, ask what are they protecting?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: How quickly you can find out their concerns and remove those concerns is directly related to the strength of your political skills.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them directly why they are blocking your proposals.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ask their team members what they are working on and what resources they need.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Speak to stakeholders, find out the why and then work on how you can help the blocking person retain what they value while still helping you.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Help them first and then ask them for their support in return.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great way to build real lasting influence and a key part of how to handle office politics.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, the actions to build lasting influence throughout organizations.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Here are four essential actions to practice as consistently as possible to build real lasting influence throughout an organization and improve your political skills.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, build true expertise in what you do so you are in a really good position to help others.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, work to build relationships with bosses, peers, team members, and stakeholders throughout the organization.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: People help those they know, like and trust first.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Third, make the time to intelligently help bosses, peers and colleagues with advice, direction, visibility, knowledge, experience, etc.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Try to avoid doing their work for them or helping those that don't help you in return.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, systematically communicate the value that you are providing to your colleagues so they understand what you do for them without coming across as self-promoting.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Reciprocity is a powerful social force.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Help others so they feel obliged to help you in return when you ask.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: This approach is brilliant for building political influence and your ability to get things done quickly.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, dependability creates trust and influence.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Stop surprising stakeholders.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Dependability is powerful.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you had the choice of going to two people for help.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: One you know would help you as quickly as practical, deliver when promised, and do a good job.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: The other would do just as good a job, but you are never quite sure when you would actually get their help.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Which one would you trust more, be more reliant on, and therefore work harder to stay in their good books?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully this makes the power of dependability clear and is very useful in building political capital.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Work hard to create trust and predictability with those that rely on you.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: This creates a lot of influence with them in return.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: A great example of political skills at work.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Think through everything you do and ask yourself before you take action, am I creating trust, dependability, and influence with this behavior, action, decision, or result?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Those working to improve their political skills think through the people's impacts before taking action.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh, protect your reputation for how to influence others at work.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Your reputation arrives before you do.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: The reputation you have influences other people's in terms of how they think of you, approach you, trust you, help you and more.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: When you have a good positive reputation built on thinking of others, helping others and being good at what you do, people are predisposed to like and trust you.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: A positive reputation means you get help quicker, you face less resistance, you are more credible, people are more likely to want to follow you, you get less challenge.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: All of which means you and your team can deliver a lot more in the same time frame compared to others, i.e.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: you are a lot more successful.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself, if you are not in the room, how would colleagues describe you?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is that description something you're proud of, or do you still have work to do to improve your reputation?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Reputations are built in drips and damaged in buckets.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Work hard to build and protect your reputation.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Think through everything you do before you do it and consider how it will impact others and your reputation.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Taking the easiest route in the short term can mean creating longer-term problems and damage to your reputation and influence.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Political skills are so important for middle managers to board directors, so keep working on how to improve political skills and invest the time to build political capital.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: In summary, political skills are the skills you need to employ to influence people and build support.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Without these political skills, you are not likely to create the impact on teams and businesses needed to continue progressing your career into senior management and onto boards.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: The higher you climb, the more important good political skills become.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Successfully navigating the political landscape of your organisation is a key leadership skill to be really successful as a senior manager or board director.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: To improve your political skills and improve the performance of your team and business, I invite you to visit us at enhance.training, select coaching from the menu, and take a look at the different coaching options available to improve your effectiveness and performance.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, the seven areas for how to improve political skills are.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, be very aware of office politics, which is often a barrier to success that no one talks about.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, know about the painful mistakes managers make navigating office politics and avoid them.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Third, understand the real power map.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, this is really at the heart of political skills for leaders.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, why people block great ideas, initiatives and projects and how to overcome this.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: For fifth, think about the actions to build influence throughout organisations that we've talked about.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, dependability creates influence, so stop surprising stakeholders.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Seventh, protect your reputation.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: A great reputation is really important to build and it gives you so many benefits.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on political skills for leaders, how to influence for success, please email me at support at enhanced.