A Team of Influencers

  Career Development   New Practitioners   ProjectsAtWork  

Do you have an idea to improve your organization or department that you want your executive management to adopt? Do you feel like an underdog with little hope of influencing a meaningful change? If, so you probably need “connected converts” to improve your chances of success.

It’s a given that it takes a team or coalition of people to effect change. Research on successful “underdog” influencers shows that virtually all of them recruited a team of people to help them move their cause or idea forward. However, they were not satisfied with just any warm body. There is a distinct pattern to the pack members of successful underdog teams. When you are trying to sell an idea to management, you need a team of people on your side.

Here are some tips on how to develop a team that can help you succeed:

Find the “right” people. For an effective underdog persuasion pack, the key — as the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks said as he was assembling his 1980 Olympic hockey team — is not necessarily getting the best people on your team, but the right people. When it comes to underdog influence, the “right” people are connected converts. 

Engage the connected. Be a human chauvinist connected to people both offline and online.While this may represent heresy to some, “connected” here does …

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