E-NEWSLETTER | FEBRUARY 2008
Feature Article:

Influence

-- By Greg Baker, President and CEO, Advance Consulting

Influence is constantly at work in our business lives.  Influence is the power to affect what people think and do.  It can determine how things get done, or not done, in a company.  What is important to understand is that there are two kinds of influence – constructive influence and destructive influence – and what we choose to use will make all the difference in the quality of our personal lives, our experience at work, the performance of our companies, and the state of our world.

Destructive Influence:  We’ve all seen it.  We see it in strong-armed executives who rule with fear.  We see it in people who spin and manipulate the truth to make someone look bad and deflect responsibility.  We see it in alliances designed to protect the status quo at the expense of needed change and transformation.  And we see it in “victims” who use a defensive mask to aggressively manipulate and attack others.

This is the underbelly of our business world.  It is dark energy that drags down our people, our organizations, and our world.

In business school Nicolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince” was required reading.  It is from this book that the term “Machiavellian” emerged.  Machiavelli himself was not a bad man.  He was actually a very insightful observer of how politics worked.  This was a book on how to obtain and hold power over what he called principalities.  Today we might call them things like countries, companies, or departments within organizations.  Machiavelli told us you will be more successful ruling by fear than by love.

I had no idea at the time I read this that what he said would be the grain of sand around which my career would unfold.  I only remember how sad it was for me to see the truth of the political condition – how much pain it caused the world.  There must be an “antidote”, I mused.  Aren’t all the signs out there that it is time for us to evolve beyond this political condition?

Constructive Influence: One answer is for us as individuals to embrace and practice constructive influence.  Constructive influence is when we are working with people to get things done.  We are not doing things to them.  For those of you who have attended Workshop, you are ahead of the game.  is all about constructive influence.  Here are a few examples:

·      Expertise Statements: This is a tool for influencing others by succinctly articulating your expertise and its relevance to the situation and the other person.  This is not intimidation or coercion, it is sharing.

·      Peeling the Onion: Asking questions to get to the bottom of the issue or need is in itself a way to influence thinking.  In addition, it helps you make sure that when you do respond, you are influencing the client in a way that will help them solve the real issue.

·      Consultative Process: Any time you are doing things as a group, you can use the Consultative Process to constructively influence each other, your clients, and your stakeholders.  In this way you are finding win-wins, building group alignment throughout, and achieving optimum results.

Staying focused on constructive influence begins with each of us.  Advance Consulting helps organizations shift to a culture providing client-focused services based on a foundation of trust and commitment.  If we embrace and live constructive influence, others will follow . . . and that will make a difference.

For more information on how we can assist you, please contact us at (831) 372-9444 or email us at advanceinfo@advanceconsulting.com.

Skills Corner - PLOTing Organizations

Here at Advance Consulting, we talk a lot about , and the PLOT tool (Personality, Language, Opinion/Frame of Reference, Task Approach) with respect to the clients we serve and how best to work with them.  But the individual is only part of what must be considered in providing consultative services.  There is also the environment the individual operates within, and each company or organization also has a PLOT or culture of its own.

For example, some technology companies pay well, recruit young talent, have a culture of 60 hour work weeks, and abundant turnover.  Some nonprofits have a 35 hour work week, lower pay, and employee dedication to the cause.  In some companies, communication is not emphasized, but camaraderie is, with little expectation of trust or clarity among staff, but a pervasive sense of purpose and results orientation.

These are generalizations serving to illustrate that understanding an individual PLOT is only part of what a consultant must comprehend to best serve a client.  Culture determines styles of communication, decision making, and direction.  Recognizing how the individual client operates within the larger culture of an organization gives a consultant vital strategic footing.

When PLOT-ing an organization and developing your client interaction strategy, consider the following:

  • What is the culture of the organization and how can you incorporate cultural aspects into your strategy for working with clients?
  • What’s going on in the industry and in the leadership of the organization that can affect your approach?  For example, have they just had an acquisition or are they downsizing?
  • How does the organization make decisions?  Do they tend to require consensus or is there more of a siloed approach?
  • How does the organization communicate internally?  Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

The more we can be genuinely curious and seek to understand our clients’ environments, accept and appreciate them as they are, the more successful our consultancy. 

In This Issue:
Influence: Destructive or Constructive?

What’s New at Advance Consulting?

Competency Development – A Foundation for Strategic Growth

Over the last several months, a growing number of our clients have requested assistance in developing their consulting competencies specific to their line of business such as HR, IT, and Professional Services.  This trend tells us that organizations are placing greater emphasis on understanding the behaviors of top level consultants and the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA’s) of what’s needed to achieve these behaviors.

The foundation of accomplishing any change initiative or culture transformation begins with a clear understanding of the current state, desired state, and plan for achieving business goals.  Developing competencies can help you in these efforts by:

  • Creating a clear description of the desired behaviors at various position levels
  • Providing a framework for assessing the current state and measuring progress over time
  • Providing a way to articulate the vision of the desired end state and getting buy in from managers and senior leaders
  • Giving direction and structure to a plan for developing skills and behaviors to achieve the desired end state.

We have recently updated our competencies for business performance and consulting to reflect our latest thinking and the increasingly complex business environment.  We also provide a complete solution for customization and development of competencies for our clients.  For more information, please contact us at advanceinfo@advanceconsulting.com or call us at (831) 372-9444.

About Us

Advance Consulting Inc., a premier management consulting and professional development firm, serves corporate and government clients in the U.S. and abroad.  Established in 1990, Advance Consulting specializes in the transformation of people, teams, and organizations as they aspire to create their “Enterprises of the Future” with the ability to adapt and thrive in the turbulent and challenging global business environment.  We work with our clients to build aligned consultative cultures by addressing the organizational, operational, and individual issues that are integral to an organization’s success in achieving desired business results.
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