Second Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Cohen, Allan R.
Influence without authority / Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-471-46330-2 (cloth)
1. Organizational effectiveness. 2. Executive ability. 3. Interpersonal relations. I. Bradford, David L. II. Title.
HD58.9.C64 2005
658.4′09—dc22
2004027078
To our wives, Joyce and Eva, who, as our toughest and most supportive colleagues, have taught us the essence of mutual influence in strategic alliances.
Many people have influenced us in positive ways, and we are deeply indebted to them. A number of colleagues read portions of the manuscript in draft form and made helpful suggestions, including J.B. Kassarjian, Lynne Rosansky, Les Livingstone, Jan Jaferian, Farshad Rafii, and Roy Lewicki. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Barry Stein, Richard Pascale, Jerry Porras, and Jean Kirsch provided useful stimulation over many years. National Training Laboratories gave us the opportunity to develop and test our ideas in a series of workshops for managers. Many wonderful friends and clients provided the rich examples we have used, but regrettably, most must remain anonymous to preserve confidentiality. We thank former students Tom Greenfield, Marianne McLaughlin, Spencer Lovette, and James Wiegel, and good friend Leslie Charm, for their contributions. In addition, our students and clients have been a continuous source of learning. Our editor, John Mahaney, went far beyond the call of duty in helping to shape this book, and we’re almost sorry for all the grief we give him. We very much appreciate the perspective he brought. Sydney Craft Rozen and Louann Werksma buffed our prose, and Nancy Marcus Land’s cheerful wisdom made the production process more than bearable. Tom Hart gave us valuable advice on contract issues. We want to thank Sydney Cohen for preparing the index.
We are very grateful to Babson’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Gordon Prichett, the faculty nominating committee, and Ex-President Bill Dill, for choosing Allan to be the first occupant of the Walter H. Carpenter Chair. The selection was perfectly timed to permit concentrated writing effort just when the book needed it, and we literally couldn’t have finished without this opportunity. Although the miracles of word processors let us do most of the typing ourselves, several people at Babson were incredibly helpful in producing draft after draft of the manuscript; for their support we thank Margie Kurtzman, Jim Murphy, Sheila Faherty, as well as George Recck and his angels of computer mercy, Ara Heghinian, Scott Andersen, and especially John Walker, who promptly and patiently rescued lost files and answered countless questions. The Graduate School of Business at Stanford also provided valuable support.
Our extended families have also played an important part in helping us, not only by their encouragement but also by the lessons on influence they teach as we interact with them. For their contributions to our ongoing education, we are forever grateful to our wives, children, parents, brothers, inlaws, aunts, uncles, and cousins—a veritable army of informal instructors.
We are grateful to an additional group of colleagues and managers who have provided us with feedback and examples. Andrea Corney, Anne Donnellon, PJ Guinan, David Hennessey, James Hunt, Martha Lanning, Carole Robin, Phyllis Schlesinger, Mike Smith, Neal Thornberry, and Yelena Shayenzon have built our ideas and helped with the manuscript. Eric Arcese, Timlynn Babitsky, Suzanne Currey, Brian Duerk, David Garabedian, Mary Garrett, Doug Giuliana, Mike Glass, Tony Greco, Fran Grigsby, Jan Jefarian, Sandi Medeiros, Akihiro Nakamura, Efren Olivares, Dan Perlman, Ethan Platt, Carole Robin, Nettie Seabrooks, Scott Timmins, Jim Salmons, Paul Westbrook, all contributed examples in one form or another. We are also deeply appreciative to the hundreds of managers with whom we have worked, who provide criticism, hard-nosed assessment of the utility of our ideas, and wonderful examples of how they struggle with or use influence at work.
The vagaries of publishing have brought us several Wiley editors since the first edition, all of whom we enjoyed, but we worked most closely with Paula Sinnott, Richard Narramore, and Emily Conway. We thank them for forcing us to make the manuscript ever more accessible and useful.
Alas, despite our profound gratitude to a lengthy list of helpful influencers, we can not escape final accountability for the results of their splendid efforts. Only we had the authority to complete this book, and we are responsible for its contents.
A. R. C.
D. L. B.
One of the biggest challenges facing us in UBS-IB (UBS Investment Bank) is the ability to influence others over whom we have no direct authority. Flatter structures, globalization, and cross-functional teams have brought fresh challenges and having to influence people who have different styles or views makes the task even harder.
Being able to influence one’s boss, peers, or top management is often quoted as a key reason for the success or failure of individuals. We all know what we want to achieve, yet are often unsure how to go about it or even who are the key people needing to be influenced.
—Rationale for Course on Strategies for Influencing and Persuasion, MAST, UBS-IB
This is a book about influence—the power to get your work done. You need to influence those in other departments and divisions, that is, people you can’t order and control. You need to influence your manager and others above you, and you certainly can’t order and control them!
But you are not alone: Nobody has the formal authority to achieve what is necessary, not even with those who report to them. It is an illusion that once upon a time managers could make their direct reports do whatever was needed. Nobody has ever had enough authority—they never have and never will. Organizational life is too complicated for that.
Yet, it is possible to have enough influence to make things happen—and this book will tell you how.
You will learn how to move others in order to accomplish important objectives, in a way that benefits them as well as you and the organization. We build on a way of working that you already know, though it is easy to lose sight of how to create win-win trades when you are in difficult situations, or have to deal with difficult individuals, groups, or organizations in order to be effective. The book teaches you how to stop doing the things that get in the way of influence, and how to do what’s required in these tough situations. It can dramatically increase your ability to get things done.
When we first started writing about influence in the 1980s, we had to justify why we thought this was important to people at all levels of organizations. The leadership and managerial focus was on how to command better, how to give clear directions and ensure compliance. But the world was changing, and there was greater need for managing laterally and up-ward—along with less ability to just give orders downward. Today, we meet no one who works in an organization larger than 10 people who does not understand that gaining cooperation through influence is the lifeblood of contemporary work life. Anyone who has ever been charged with coordinating the efforts of many others knows the importance of influence and just how maddening it can be to need others to get work done, but not be able to move them. We have lost count of the people who hear the title of this book, Influence without Authority, and instantly say, “That’s my life.”
Do you recognize your organizational life in any of these challenges?
As these examples (and the endless number of others like them) illustrate, the organizational world is getting increasingly complex. (See Table 1.1 for the forces causing the greater need for influence.) Few people can get anything of significance done alone; as in the Tennessee Williams play, we are all “dependent on the kindness of strangers” [and colleagues]. This requires influence in three directions. Along with death and taxes, an inevitable certainty of organizational life is that everyone has a boss. In a flat organization, the boss may be a distant and benevolent resource and, in a more hierarchical one, the boss may be breathing down your neck: but no one escapes having a person officially responsible for him or her. Even CEOs have a Board and one or more sources of financing they must influence, not to mention the financial markets, the press, and other organizations needed to create or sell company products.
Table 1.1 Forces Increasing the Need for Influence Skills
The increasing rapidity of technological change and shortening of product cycles. |
More competition (including internationally). |
Complex problems require smarter employees, more input from specialists and more need for integration. This makes it difficult to command excellence. |
More information is needed, and more is accessible via information technology. |
Lower organizational slack due to downsizing and cost-cutting, so more use of all employees needed. |
Greater emphasis on quality and service, so “getting by” doesn’t get by. |
Fewer middle managers as a result of technology and downsizing. |
Fewer traditional hierarchies, more lateral organizational forms, including product-based, geographical, customer-focused, matrix, virtual, and networked organizations. |
Similarly, virtually everyone in organizations has peers to deal with. There are very few jobs where a person works completely solo. Most are dependent upon, and important to, a variety of colleagues.
Finally, some people also have responsibility as supervisors of others—the bosses to all those subordinates just mentioned. These managers are expected to utilize the talents of their subordinates to see that the work their area is assigned gets done.
Therefore, those who keep their heads down and only work within their immediate areas will slowly become extinct. Whatever your job, you are expected to join your colleagues in doing important work, which will lead you to influence and be influenced. You will need to know how to sell important projects, persuade colleagues to provide needed resources, create satisfactory working relationships with them and their managers, insist that your boss respond to issues that may not appear important to him or her, and, in turn, give thoughtful responses to requests associates make of you. The person asking something of you today may be the very one you’ll need next week.
With so much interdependence required, wielding influence becomes a test of skill (Table 1.1). Going hat in hand to throw yourself at a colleague’s mercy with a request is seldom a powerful or very effective option. Of course, trying to bull your way through by sheer nerve and aggressiveness can be costly as well. Antagonizing crucial peers or superiors is a dangerous strategy, since they can so easily come back to haunt you.
When you already know how to get needed cooperation, just do it. But if you are stuck, or frustrated, or want to be sure how best to approach someone, then this book has a universal model that can be applied in any organization, to any person or group, in any direction, to get results.
What we have to teach you is based on a few core premises. These are not exotic or unfamiliar, though we have seen hundreds of people abandon what they know when they get stuck, or turned down too often:
You already know a lot more about influence than you realize. Some of the time, you can just ask for what you need, and if the other person or group can respond, they will. Sometimes you have to work a little harder to figure out how to get what you want. You may not think about it, but you instinctively understand that when someone helps you, you are expected sooner or later to somehow pay them back, in some reasonable way. This kind of give and take—formally called exchange—is a core part of all human interaction, and the lubricant that makes organizations able to function at all.
Although the concept of give and take is in many ways simple and straightforward, the process of exchange is more complicated. When you already have a good relationship, you don’t need conscious diagnosis, careful planning of your approach, or subtlety of implementation. Like the person who discovered that after all these years he was unknowingly speaking “prose,” you probably already are instinctively doing much of what we describe here, especially when things are going well.
Table 1.2 Barriers to Influence
External | Internal |
Power differential too big | Lack of knowledge about how to influence |
Different goals and objectives, priorities | Blinding attitudes |
Incompatible measures and rewards | Fear of reactions |
Rivalry, competitiveness, jealousy | Inability to focus on own needs and benefits to others |
Remember, an influence model—including careful diagnosis of the other’s interests, assessment of what currencies you command, attention to the relationship—is only necessary when:
But look at all the times when these are the conditions you are facing, so that your natural understanding of give and take leaves you stuck. Despite your enthusiasm for what you are trying to accomplish, the harder you push the more you are met with resistance.
We’re going to show you how to get out of this kind of maddening bind, how to step back and figure out a way that will work.
So why is it so hard to get influence at those times when your natural instincts and knowledge of how things work leave you stuck? (See Table 1.2 for a summary.)
Some of what blocks influence is external to you, for example:
These are objective reasons why it can be hard to get what you need for doing the good work you want to do. Occasionally, you can’t overcome these barriers, no matter how skilled an influencer you are. However, we have discovered that far more often, the barriers are inside the influencer. You may not have the needed knowledge of the situation and skills to move the resistant person, or may not have the required attitudes and courage.
These internal barriers include:
Can you get past these kinds of barriers? We are going to help you step back and use some new guidelines. The challenge will be to overcome your own feelings and reactions, so that you do a better diagnosis of just what is called for, and learn to get past the fears and misconceptions that block you. In the next chapter we introduce the Cohen-Bradford Influence without Authority model, and build your learning from there.
The model starts from the observation that all influence is about the person being influenced getting something valued in return (or avoiding something disliked) for willingness to give what is requested. This kind of trading—formal or informal—can be examined systematically, so that you can better figure out what others want, clarify exactly what you want, identify what you have to offer, and build a mutually influential relationship to produce win-win trades. The price of admissions is doing good work. That is basic because it creates trust that you are a dependable performer. But that is seldom enough; you also need to have a wide set of good relationships, often way before you draw on them, and enough self-awareness to avoid the many self-traps that can keep you from effective influence.
This may sound calculating—and it is. But it is deliberate planning about how to get work done; not calculation for your own personal benefit. If people perceive you as interested only in your own advancement or success, they will be wary, resistant, or go underground to retaliate later. In this way, influence in organizations over time goes to the sincere, those genuinely interested in the welfare of others, those who make lots of connections and often engage in mutually profitable exchanges. Machiavellian, calculating, self-seeking behavior may work for a short time, but eventually, it creates enemies, or lack of interest in being helpful, and renders you ineffective. When someone wants to get you, they can trade negative actions for your behavior, and this kind of payback can be unpleasant. If you are in an organization that has developed a negative culture where only self-seeking gets rewarded, it eventually suffers and declines. People who care about the organization’s objectives get disenchanted and leave as soon as they can, and those who stay spread bitterness.
Here’s how we do it. This chapter has introduced the need for influence, and the benefits of learning a more systematic way of thinking about how to get it. Chapter 2 spells out the core influence model, and Chapters 3 through 7 go into more detail about each stage of the model. Then in a series of Practical Application chapters, we use the influence model in familiar situations to demonstrate how to get what you need to do good work. You may want to read selectively among these chapters to fit your current situation, and then return later as you move into other, more complex settings.
In addition, we offer on our web site seven extended examples of people who had to go through many obstacles to acquire influence (http://www.influencewithoutauthority.com). (For more detail about these examples and the lessons we draw from them, see Appendix A on pages 291–295.)
We show how Nettie Seabrooks, an African American who started as a librarian in the 1960s, slowly gained influence during her long career at General Motors.
You can read about Warren Peters, a manager who thought he was following procedures, yet gets into and out of a tangle with a more senior manager who gives him a hard time about a person Warren wants as an employee.
Or look closely at how Anne Austin, a low level sales forecaster at a Fortune 100 consumer goods company, figured out how to get her product idea accepted, and as a result, managed to cross the usually impenetrable marketing department barrier into a product manager’s job.
You can hear from Monica Ashley how she tackled a complex matrix organization and a powerful but negative senior researcher to introduce a revolutionary new product—and ended up being removed from her product management role even though she was eventually proven right.
If you want to see how a lone person managed to work in a new community to build interest in and support for a radical idea like wind power, we have included the saga of a minor miracle in Montana.
For a good example of using influence to make change, we include the story of Will Wood, a training and development person who learned to speak the language of finance in order to gain support for expensive software needed for innovative online training.
And Fran Grigsby tells how she managed to navigate the political waters at Commuco to end a pet project of an important manager without ruffling too many feathers.
These extended examples allow for a more complete telling and situational analysis if you like to learn from that kind of comprehensive opportunity. Again, you can find all of them at http://www.influencewithoutauthority.com.
This is a book that can help you get ahead, by showing you how to make good things happen for the organization and for those you will be dealing with. More power to you.
I have done enough for you, Apollo; now it’s your turn to do something for me.
—Rough translation of inscription on a Greek statue of the God Apollo, 700–675 B.C., demonstrating ancient understanding of the concept of reciprocity.1
It is not always evident when you are going to make a withdrawal from the favor bank of politics, … but it is always obvious you are making a deposit.
—From “Giuliani Plays Major Role on Bush Campaign Trail,” Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times (August 12, 2004), p. A1, demonstrating contemporary understanding of reciprocity.
To address the kinds of challenges we have described in Chapter 1, how can you influence those over whom you have no authority? The short answer is that to have influence, you need resources that other people want, so that you can trade for what you want. This key to influence is based on a principle that underlies all human interaction, the Law of Reciprocity.
Reciprocity is the almost universal belief that people should be paid back for what they do—that one good (or bad) turn deserves another.2 This belief about behavior, evident in primitive and not-so-primitive societies all around the world, carries over into organizational life. One form it takes in work settings is, “an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.”
People generally expect that, over time, those people they have done things for “owe them,” and will roughly balance the ledger and repay costly acts with equally valuable ones. This underlying belief in how things are supposed to work allows people in difficult organizational situations to gain cooperation. A classic study of prison guards found that the guards could not control prisoners, who greatly outnumbered them, by threats and punishments alone.3 The guards did many favors for the prisoners, such as overlooking small rule infractions, providing cigarettes, and the like, in return for cooperation from prisoners in keeping order. All the formal authority in the world can’t keep rebellious prisoners in line; they exchange their cooperation for favors that make their confinement more tolerable, not out of respect for “the rules.”
Even at much higher levels of organizations, little gets done without similar give and take. One manager alerts her colleague that their CEO is on a rampage and should be avoided today. Eventually, the grateful colleague repays the favor by telling the manager what he learned at a conference about a competitor’s IT strategy. Soon after, the manager hears about a potential new customer who she refers to the colleague; when the colleague has the chance, he initiates a joint project that can cut several steps out of the billing process and save the manager considerable money. The give and take of their relationship makes organizational life better for both.
Give and take can also be negative. The trade can be a loss of a benefit for lack of cooperation, or a cost that results from an undesirable response. Negative trades can be expressed as threats about what will happen in the future, or can result in both parties losing.
There are numerous ways of categorizing influence behavior. You can influence people by methods such as rational persuasion, inspirational appeal, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeal, forming a coalition, or relentless pressure.4
Although it is tempting to think of each of these methods as a separate tactic, we believe that exchange—trading something valued for what you want—is actually the basis for all of them. In every form of influence, reciprocity is at work and something is being exchanged.5 For example, rational persuasion works because the person persuaded sees benefits from going along with the argument; inspirational appeal works because the person gets to feel part of a cause, or that something good will result; ingratiation works because the person receives liking and closeness for willingness to be influenced, and so on. None of these tactics succeed, however, if the receiver does not perceive benefit of some kind, a payment in a valued “currency.” It is valuable to have a wide repertoire of ways of trying to influence others. You should use those tactics that will work in a given situation; the underlying principle is giving something valued by the other(s) in return for what you want or need (or withholding something the other values—or giving them something they don’t want—if you don’t get what you need).
Table 2.1 Examples of Reciprocity at Work
You Give | You Get |
Work that job description calls for | Standard pay and benefits |
Willingness to work on weekend to complete project | Boss praises you, mentions extra effort to higher-ups, suggests you extend vacation |
Support for a colleague’s project at a key meeting | Colleague gives you first shot at project results |
A difficult analysis requested by colleague not in your area | Colleague tells your boss how terrific you are |
This kind of reciprocity is constantly taking place in organizational life. People do things and get something in return (Table 2.1).
Although the concept of exchange in many ways is simple and straightforward, the process of exchange is more complicated. When you already have a good relationship with another person, there is no need for such conscious diagnosis of the situation and thinking through the appropriate approach. You just ask, and if the colleague can respond, he or she will. This doesn’t mean that our model doesn’t apply. It does; it just means you are instinctively using it.
But there are other times when it is not so easy to influence the other person, and a more deliberate and conscious approach is needed. That is why this influence model—a careful diagnosis of the other’s interests, assessment of what resources you possess, and attention to the relationship— can be so valuable. Table 2.2 on page 19 lists the conditions that require a more systematic way of diagnosing your influence approach.
Table 2.2 Conditions Requiring Conscious Use of an Influence Model
Use an influence model when faced with one or more of the following conditions: |
• The other person is known to be resistant. |
• You don’t know the other person or group and are asking for something that might be costly to them. |
• You have a poor relationship (or are part of a group that has a poor relationship with the group the other person belongs to). |
• You might not get another chance. |
• You have tried everything you can think of but the other person still refuses what you want. |
Figure 2.16