Chaudhary|1

Arbind Chaudhary

Professor Cynthia Garza

TELS 3340

November 15, 2016

Exercising Influence

All influential managers have power, but not all powerful managers have influence.

Professor Linda A. Hill has quoted this in her article Exercising Influence and she has talked

about how to convert the power into influence. In order to do so a manager must be willing and

be able to empower those he/she is dependent on. Similarly, he/she must be able to cultivate and

network mutually beneficial repaltisohip with those he/she is dependent on.

What does it mean to be be a manager? First time managers often think it to be as the

rights and privileges associated with the managerial roles. Thy are often drawn towards the idea

of how to smoothly run an organization, how to exercise their new found powers and authority

and gain control over the people who works under them. But, this is not the correct approach. To

be a manager means to understand the duties and obligations the manager should have.

First time manager often believe that they can rely on their authority to influence others as they

consider their position to be as of a boss. They do so because they are solely focused on getting

results. This makes their daily life hectic, pressured, and fragmented. This is when they realize
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the realities of management and find themselves tangled in a web of people who make them

seem like ambiguous and conflicting. This is how they learn that authority does not

automatically guarantee influence. Instead, they have to develop the capacity to exercise power

and influence effectively without relaying solely on their formal authority. And before they can

influence they have to establish the trust and credibility with their subordinates. So, a manager

should realize that ignored to be influential they have to gain the commitment of the people they

are working with. In order to do so sharing power is the most important thing.

Sharing power in the first place may sound odd. But, it actually increases the power of

manager and their control over the people they are working with. Sharing power is basically the

process by which enough room is left for those who are closest to the action to improvise and

adopt local agencies and unexpected events. When a power is shared, the people working for the

manager has the full authority and responsibility to define how they will accomplish the task

assigned to them. This increase the sense of responsibility among the people who shares the

power. This increases the respect and trust of the manager among the people working for him.

Thus, we can say empowerment promotes trust, and increases the managers ability to exercise

influence. This will help the managers to build connections with other and motivate and inspire

them to pursue the goals they have set. In order to sum it up better we can quote David

McClellands saying If a leader wants to have a far reaching influence he must make his

followers fill powerful an able to accomplish things on their own.

Excessive use of power often leads to abuse of power and it often diminishes a persons

ability to influence. This will erode the capacity of a person to influence others. So, the ideas of
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empowerment seems to be effective in order to influence others. This brings the managers to two

sets of responsibilities. They are agenda-setting and network-building.

Agenda setting is a responsibility of a manager to set a framework within which they can make

strategic decisions to commit the unit to significant course of action. They also have the

responsibility to balance and manage inevitable trade offs and negotiate their units interest with

those of others. This requires a good technical knowledge and interpersonal and group

dimensional skill. All this is important for a manager and these can be implemented by effective

network-building.

Network building is a very important aspect of being a manager to become competitive in

the global market. Networking is mutually beneficial alliance based on reciprocity. Companies

are forming global relationship with different companies and organizations, breaking all

traditional boundaries. All these group come to work together on different initiatives but same

semipermesbalp basis. This is the reason why network building skill and cultivating the network

is a must for being an influential manager.

In exercising influence the first thing to do is to identify the people whom you are

dependent on. It is very important to do so because overestimating dependencies is always better

than underestimating. In order to do so we ask ourself the following questions.

1. Whose cooperation do i need?

2. Whose compliance do i need?

3. Whose opposition would keep me from accomplishing my work?

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These questions will help us find out whom we are dependent on. And we can put ourself

in the position of these people and visualize the ideas from their perspective. It is often a good

practice to do so because once we put ourselves in other peoples shoes we are able able to think

more vividly on other peoples view. This will help us appreciate and value what other have to

offer and a mutually beneficial relationship is more likely to be build. In order to do so we can

ask the following questions to ourself.

1. What differences exist between myself and the people on whom i am dependent?

2. What are the underlying forces that have credited those differences?

3. What source of power do you have relative to those whom you are dependent?

Similarly, trust and credibility are important aspects to influence others. If you are trust

worthy people are more likely to get influenced by you over your face value. They will require

less proof and will assume you will deliver whatever you have promised. But you will have to be

patience with building trust and credibility as it cannot be build overnight. It takes time to earn

someone's trust. So, we should check ourself by asking the following questions to see where we

stand on earning others trust.

1. What are your relationship with them like?

2. Do you share mutual trust and credibility?

These are important because many people are influential or have influence but cannot be

trusted. They are often seen as political animal. This is a drawback and not a good sign of being

influential and trustworthy. This will affect the relationship with the people we count to depend
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on. This it is important to maintain the network of relationship. And the best time to build these

relationship is before we really need them. In order to do so it is very important to find a

common ground. It is easier to develop a relationship once a common ground is met because it is

easy to share background, values, interest and work style.

Along with building and cultivating network it is important to safeguard against the abuse

of power and influence. This is because with too much influence leads to too much power and

and too much power can lead to power abuse. Here are some of the rules to avoid the abuse of

power:

1. Think in terms of building long term relationships. We should think not only about achieving

the objective but also about improving the relationship.

2. We should avoid reliance on formal authority and rely on expertise as source of power.

3. Foster a system of checks or constraints on your power.

4. Use power and influence to accomplish ends that are not entirely self-serving

5. realize that ends do not always justify the means.

Thus we can conclude that exercising influence begins with how you think about it. It is

sensible to build a partnership than make a deal. We should value the perspectives different

people bring together while working as a team. While working as a team we bring different

problems together but at the same time we fight together to prevent such problems and

communicate with each other on how we are proceeding ahead. By saying this it means that to be

influential means to offer something other can value too.

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Works Cited

Linda A. Hill Exercising Influence May 31, 1994, Harvard Business Review.