Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career

Analyze What Makes You Influential

Status is not the same as influence, and you need to learn what it is about you that makes you influential. This is essential if you are to move beyond simply relying on status to make things happen.

The good news is that you have been learning about influence all of your life. Since you were a child, you have been influencing your parents—and then later your teachers—in order to get what you want. True, getting what you want as a child is not on the same scale as getting your proposal for a new line of business accepted; but there is probably a lot about your style now that is the same as it was then. Over the years, you have refined your strategies and become more subtle and sophisticated, but your core skills and style are embedded.

To analyze what makes you influential, start by reviewing examples from your own personal experience. Identify situations where you influenced a successful outcome and reflect on what you were doing to get such a great result. Once you have an example in focus, ask yourself: What words did I use? How was I behaving? Did I use ideas or information to persuade? Perhaps you used the bigger picture or argued for the immediate needs? Change or tradition? Creativity or practicality? Did you highlight dangers or describe rewards? All of us are biased toward some criteria, and it is valuable to discover your biases.

This self-coaching approach is a productive way to bring a sharper awareness to success factors ...