Page 42 - engage workbook

Power and Influence

The power that an individual has within an organization is dictated by their position.
For example, a CEO has higher power than the COO. The HR Manager has more power
than the HR Assistant. The power remains the same regardless of who is in the position video
therefore understanding the power of the people with whom you have relationships is a
fairly straightforward exercise.

Less straightforward is the personal influence that each individual possesses. Influence
is a personal attribute and is not always obvious. It therefore becomes harder to identify
than power. Also, influence often operates without correlation to authority-derived power;
we can all identify senior people with little influence and junior staff members with great
influence.

Influence is often a combination of someone’s credibility, intelligence, self-confidence,
decisiveness, integrity, and self-motivation. Be aware that our subconscious (and
sometimes wrong) interpretation of the above factors can lead us to place undue emphasis
on certain people whilst ignoring others. For more on this cognitive bias, known as the
Halo Effect, see section 6 - Bias.

The ideal situation is to have strong relationships with people of high power and high
influence.

It is also useful to consider the degree of power and influence that attaches to each
stakeholder. This gives an indication of the potential impact a person may have on a
project, a decision, or on colleagues.

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