An Unusual Ingredient in Stakeholder Management

Most models of stakeholder management ask you to consider your stakeholders' power and interest. From our standpoint that is okay, but it carries a significant danger that it will deprioritise the human element and also overly focus on your own objectives. When managing stakeholders, it is extremely important to remember at all times that they are not names on a white board, but real people with their own agendas.

That is why, over the last ten years, we have been using a slightly different approach which puts the main emphasis on relationships when analysing stakeholders. There are three elements to the stakeholder relationship we train clients to consider...

• Trust. This is the most important part and seeks to determine the extent to which trust exists within the relationship with the stakeholder. This is a two-way consideration — trust needs to be present in both sides otherwise there could be trouble ahead.
• Openness. This reflects the way each party volunteers information. It is one thing to have trust, but this does not necessarily mean that they will go out of their way to alert the other party to problems.
• Frequency. Both trust and openness can exist in a relationship; but if there is little contact of engagement between the two sides, the relationship will struggle to survive.

By considering the stakeholder's position, we are able to easily work on generating ideas to increase the quality of the relationship. Implementing these helps the stakeholder to feel understood, valued and it is more likely that the teams will proactively address their concerns rather than simply try to overcome the objections (or avoid them).

We have seen some quite incredible improvements and results by using this approach. One example a major company was able to avoid industrial action which would have cost them millions.

If you would like to learn more about how we apply this in our training and coaching, please get in touch.

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Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Pundits with eruite speeches and compelling articles continue to espouse the importance of great leadership skills and qualities. The researched-based evidence is building as academics amass huge volumes of data and logical leadership models. Yet, as you look around your organisation, where are all the leaders? Many people I talk to struggle to recognise real leadership qualities in 1 out of 10 of those who hold leadership positions in their organisations.

Take another angle. If all these leadership qualities are so important, why don't we see more of them in practice? They say that being an inspirational leader gets results. Since business is so hungry for results, why don't we get more inspiration from our leadership? It is said that empowering followers, giving responsibility and releasing talent is vital to organisational survival and growth. Instead, we see so much micro-management, controls and measures which all conspire to stifle even the most energetic talent. And please don't get me started on trust!

So, where have all the leaders gone?

They are right under your nose, in your meetings and sadly, breathing down your neck looking for that next report. They are right there with you. The problem is they never get time to do all that fine leadership work. They probably could do it if they wanted to, or rather, had the time. And this is where we hit the root cause of the lack of great leadership.

The problem with leadership today is that it doesn't have the time to do leadership. The pressures that are thrown at leaders are extreme and only the most capable minority are able to handle it well enough to turn their attention and time to leading people. Yes, the case is clear, in the medium term leadership gets results; the problem is that people don't have enough time to invest in getting there.

One sure fire way of addressing this is to focus more leadership development effort on helping people in leadership positions to influence. Of course we have a vested interest since we have been focusing on developing influencing capability for the last 10 years, yet we know from experience that those who get really good at influence are able to handle the pressures of the current workplace far more effectively. They are able to focus their time on making the right things happen, and delegate their influence to their teams.

And it is not just me taking this line. John Maxwell is clear: leadership is influence! Personally I believe that there is more to leadership than influence; however, being highly influential enables you to work on all the other aspects of leadership too.

If you would like to talk to us about how our influence training could help you, your team, or your organisation, just get in touch. Help to allow your leadership to shine is just a phone call away.

Email us today +44 (0) 20 7788 7647

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What an Influence Coach Can Do for You

We believe that becoming more influential is one of the key priorities for leaders today.

Unless you are effective at influencing, how wlll you find the time to demonstrate all those other fantastic leadership attributes you possess? If all the time you are struggling to get things done, trying to persuade, cajole and force people to do what you need them to do, you will remain just like most of the other leaders. You will have the position, but not the enthusiastic following.

Which is where an influence coach can help. In particular, one of our specialist coaches will help you to...

• Prioritise what you need to make happen fast to clear your desk and start being a real leader.
• Focus on the things you need to influence, and the people you need to influence, to enable you to free up your time.
• Empower others to do your influencing for you.
• Ensure that you deliver on what is necessary to the powerful people above you, so you can do the things you really want to do, like being a leader for your team!
• Learn simple and effective ways to influence those around you.
• Create a more deliberate and positive impression to your stakeholders.
• Shine as a leader in your organisation.

Of course, the exact way in which a Gautrey Group Influence Coach can help you depends on where you are right now, what your priorities are and what will give you the biggest step forward possible in the shortest amount of time. We don't like to waste your time or ours, so we will make sure to get the focus right for you!

If you would like to talk to an influence coach about the challenges you are facing right now, just get in touch and we will connect you within 24 hours to one of our experts.

Email an Influence Coach | +44 (0) 20 7788 7647

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An Influence Coach

When it comes to helping people to become more influential, having the support and encouragement of an influence coach will be difficult to beat. Our influence coaches are very experienced at helping people to discover how to get even better results through the development of influencing skills.

We do not believe in quick fixes, or dubious techniques, but what an influence coach from The Gautrey Group will do, is help you to get focused quickly on...

1. Exactly what you want to influence.
2. Who you need to influence to achieve your goal.
3. How to build a practical strategy to gain the influence you need.

It doesn't end there. One of the key objectives of an influence coach is to help you to replicate the success on your own. Of course we love to keep working with clients, but we also recognise that real success is helping the individual being coached to implement their learning and assume full responsibility for their performance.

And it doesn't even end there. The vast majority of our clients also continue to receive insight from our online resources, including Colin's Influence Blog. These little ideas and tips keep people learning and getting stronger in their influence.

If you would like to talk to an influence coach about the challenges you are facing right now, just get in touch and we will connect you within 24 hours to one of our experts.

Email an Influence Coach | +44 (0) 20 7788 7647

We'd love to hear what you think about this. Please email us or post on our new Facebook Wall.