Step outside your project and see what needs to be influence
From the An Influential Project Manager Blog
by Colin Gautrey
Today, more than ever, a project manager needs to be an influencer.
The purpose of this blog is to stimulate your journey towards greater influence. With influence, you can overcome the roadblocks thrown in your way, overcome opposition, align stakeholders and, enjoy your role even more.
However, since I know you are busy, the posts here will be short (about a minute), thought provoking and also drive you towards action.
Feel free to connect with me, ask me questions, and share what's good here.
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When projects hit the buffers, it is natural to bear down on the plan, look at what is not happening, and begin to push harder. That often results in resources being pressured to do what they cannot do.
Sitting back and looking for the root causes of the problems is essential, and the chances are high that the ultimate cause lies in the political backdrop.
If you are stuck:
- What are the most important problems that you need to address?
- What could be causing each of these problems?
- What political influences are making a contribution?
- Who benefits from the existence of the problem?
Having thought these through, what do you need to influence to enable the solution to take shape?
Posted on: March 07, 2017 01:17 PM |
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Comments (4)
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Ruth Pearce
Attorney, Author, and Coach | Guardian Ad Litem in North Carolina| A Lever Long Enough (ALLE LLC)
Durham, Nc, United States
Very interesting.
Another component in this situation is to look at what is working. Our negativity bias tends to make us focus on the problems, but this actually makes us less creative, as it engages the parts of our brain that deal with survival.
In order to capitalize on our solution creating brains, we need to engage the parts of the brain that cause us to thrive.
As Tal Ben-Shahar says, "when we appreciate the good, the good appreciates". By starting with things that work, we can often find ways to adapt those things to tackle the problems. And it is often easier to influence people with a positive - inviting them to create more of the successful activities - than to engage them in pushing back on a negative.
Colin Gautrey
Author, Executive Coach and Trainer| The Gautrey Group
United Kingdom
Excellent point Ruth. Reminds me of Appreciative Inquiry process which begins, what is working? why is that working? what would we ideally want to happen here? etc. Well worth investigating if you've not come across it before, or even if you have, for a reminder of its potential.
Vincent Guerard
Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance
Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Very good
In order to influence understanding the actual reasons for the situation . Part of the who benefit.
Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Ruth mentioned a very important point - Sometimes you need to looks at what is working to resolve what is no working.
In terms of what you need to influence, it all depends on the situation. The list could be endless.
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