INFLUENCING THROUGH OTHERS

Influencing through others can produce impressive results. If presented properly, a message delivered by someone other than yourself carries additional weight. Having someone else exert influence on your behalf is tricky to pull off because it requires understanding, and appealing to, not only the U Perspective· what someone else cares about· of a third person whom you do not have the opportunity to interact with directly but also that of the person who will be delivering the message for you. In addition to having to motivate the person delivering the message you have to make sure that the message they deliver is the one that you actually want to convey. Moreover because you are not there to gauge how people react, you are unable to adjust the message if it does not have the intended effect.

Sometimes you will want someone else to deliver your message because they have greater legitimacy with the person you are seeking to influence. For example, the Executive Director of a major Non-Governmental Organization ("NGO") was trying to make certain changes in the organization. One of the individuals whose support she needed while giving "lip service" to the proposed changes, she was not doing anything to implement them. The Executive Director did not have direct authority over this individual who was employed by a university that worked with the organization and, despite her best efforts, was unable to gain this person's support. So Barbara Jackson, a well respected consultant and executive coach, was brought into help.

Barbara was asked to create a strategy for implementing the proposed changes and to develop standards, against which to measure the progress that was being made. By bringing in an expert that had credibility with the organization to develop standards for those individuals working on the initiative, the Executive Director was able to get the resisting individual to do what was required of her. While this individual could ignore the Executive Director, she could not ignore a respected consultant retained with the approval orthe organization's Board of Directors.

Legitimacy is the aura of authority someone creates when they deliver their message. It adds credibility to the positions being advocated. Because people tend to defer to authority, individuals perceived to have legitimacy are better able to exert influence. Understanding that psychological imperative is critical to increasing one's ability to win people over. While there are a number or ways a person can enhance their legitimacy. It is easier, and often more effective. to use someone who already has a great deal of legitimacy with those you seek to influence. That is why experts are brought in to help persuade.

People with whom someone has had previous positive dealings, people in positions of power, people with recognized expertise, celebrities, as well as individuals perceived to have a certain status, all carry legitimacy. Selecting the right person to deliver your message can insure that it produces the desired results. In addition to using credible individuals to leverage the power or your message, sometimes you need to exert influence through someone else simply because you cannot be everywhere and do everything yourself. When you are busy or seeking to persuade someone that resides a great distance away it is often necessary to influence through someone else. Perhaps you will choose to do so through a person that works for you, a local agent or someone who works in your organization at a nearby location.

When you seek to substitute someone for you that has not been selected because they already have legitimacy, you need to provide a reason for people to want to work with that individual. If that person's position is the same level as yours or at a higher level, that will probably be sufficient. If not, however, you will need to promote your designee as an expert in some aspect of the transaction so as to confer sufficient status to encourage people to want to work with him or her. Otherwise they will wonder why you are not dealing with them directly. It is essential, moreover, that you keep checking in with your representative to ensure that he or she is proceeding in the right direction. Once you have conferred sufficient status on that person it is virtually impossible for them to change their position once they make a commitment without threatening the relationship.

Working through others is an approach to influencing that can be used with great success in a variety of different circumstances for an assortment of reasons. How best to exert influence through others, depends on the reason why you are doing so. Properly utilized, however, influencing through others is one of the tools that every executive should have in their arsenal.

Want to be Found; Create An Internet Presence

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Yogi Berra, former Yankee great and longtime Mont clair resident, once commented about a particularly popular restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." The same might be said of how the Internet is generally used to find jobs.

Most people use the Internet when they are actively seeking a new position by searching listed job openings or by posting their résumés on various job boards, such as Monster.com. Individuals do, in fact, find jobs that way.

Although, according to the Department of Labor, the number who do amount to less than 10 percent of job seekers, it doesn't hurt to use those job boards unless you are concerned your current employer might find out. Because Internet job postings usually result in employers having to sort through large numbers of responses from unqualified candidates just to find a few qualified individuals to consider, recruiters have started using the Internet in other ways.

Recruiters, like Jill Krumholz of Charleston Partners in Rumson, are using the Internet to identify the best candidates for open positions, including those who may not be looking for a job at the moment. Recently, for example, she was conducting a search for a senior benefits professional at a large global technology company.

"The first thing I did was to Google the term 'global benefits conference,'" Krumholz said. By looking at the conference presenters, she was able to identify several candidates for the position. After doing further research, she contacted a few of those individuals and was able to find a well-qualified candidate to present to her client.

To take advantage of these recruiting trends, savvy careerists are creating an Internet presence instead of just looking for a new job on the Internet. That means the next great job opportunity, and the people who can help them get it, will find them. In that way, their names will pop up when recruiters and prospective employers are looking to fill a position for which they would be appropriate, even when they are not actively in the market.

That Internet presence starts with an online profile, one that describes who you are professionally. Web sites such as myspa ce.com and facebook.com allow you to post profiles that are both social and professional, while oth ers like linkedin.com focus only on professional profiles. In addi tion to helping those seeking to fill positions discover you, having a professional profile online facilitates networking with other professionals.

Be certain that wherever someone finds you on the Internet, what they see portrays you in the way you want to be de picted.

"Employers are now routinely running Web searches of candi dates' names and all known e- mail addresses before they consider someone for a promotion or a new job," says Lena West, author of the e-book "The Blogos phere Cluebook" and chief strategist at XynoMedia Technology, a Westchester, N.Y., firm. "They want to see how you represent yourself online."

West advises: "While photos of your family are acceptable on social (but not on professional) net working sites, pictures of you drinking with your friends or with body paint at the Giants game are not."

There are a number of ways to increase your professional stature on the Internet beyond posting a profile:

Use the Web to develop a business network for yourself by joining professional organizations and participating in online discussions of topics on their Web sites. Offer insights on the impor tant issues facing your profession. Ask and answer questions. Offer help to others where appropriate.

Have something to say that is insightful about the industry online. Write a blog that comments on current issues facing your industry. If you don't have the time to write a blog, write comments on the blogs of others in your field. You can also answer industry-related questions on Web sites that post questions, such as "Yahoo! Answers."

Write reviews on Amazon.com about books being read by people in your field.

Laurie Murphy, chief executive of PeopleAreKey, an executive search firm in Cranford, says "passive candidate-recruiting techniques" are now commonly used by recruiters to identify job candidates. This includes using search engines like Zoomin fo.com, which pulls together information about individuals from Web sites across the Internet.

With companies reducing hir ing in anticipation of a tougher economic climate, it is even more important today to create a Web presence. Once the economy starts to improve, there will be a need to fill jobs quickly. Having your name appear where people doing the hiring are likely to look is important if you want to be found.

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of "UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want" and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a Web site devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@YourCareerDoctor s.com.

Read It and Weep: No Tears At Work

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Does Hillary Clinton's recent teary-eyed performance in New Hampshire send the wrong message to working women: that it's acceptable to cry at work?

For years, women have been told to avoid displays of emotion at the office for fear of looking weak. While crying in the workplace may be equally damaging to a man's rise in the business world, the issue is of greater importance to women because "women cry four times as often as men do," according to William Frey II, a biochemist doing research at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center and author of "Crying: The Mystery of Tears" (Winston PR, 1985).

The disparity in frequency arises not just because boys are conditioned while growing up not to cry, but also as a result of physical differences between men and women, Frey says. The "tear glands of men and women develop differently, resulting in a greater propensity for women to shed tears."

I asked several workplace experts if the Clinton episode made it acceptable to cry at work. The response was an unequivocal "No." Here is a sampling of the responses I received:

"It is simply not acceptable to cry at work, except perhaps if someone has passed away," says Colleen Rickenbacher, business etiquette expert and author of "Be on Your Best Business Behavior: How to Avoid Social And Professional Faux Pas" (Brown Books, $11.45).

"In this instance, Hillary Clinton's show of emotions worked in her favor, but that's politics, not the workplace," says Susan Shapiro Barash, a native of Beach Haven Park, who teaches gender studies at Sarah Lawrence College and is the author of "Tripping the Prom Queen: The Truth About Women and Rivalry" (Reed Business Information, $13.95).

"Never cry at work. It will not be forgotten the next time you are being considered for a promotion," says Jean Otte, who lives in Little Silver and is chief executive of Women Unlimited, a national organization dedicated to developing women as business leaders.

While turning on the tears may momentarily help you out of a difficult situation, it can have detrimental long-term consequences, as Christie Whitman, a personal empowerment coach in Philadelphia, learned when she was employed at Pepsi. (Whitman is no relation to the former New Jersey governor.)

Whitman said she worked for a difficult boss who assigned her near-impossible tasks and belittled her when she made even the smallest mistakes. One day, she "couldn't take it any more," and started to cry. Her boss immediately backed off and ceased being so tough on her.

His changed behavior, however, came at a heavy price. She said he shared the incident with her male co-workers, who, from that day forward, demeaned her and constantly made jokes about her crying. She wasn't able to overcome the loss of credibility until a new manager took over and dealt with the situation.

Crying continues to be viewed by most managers as a sign of weakness and lack of self-control. Although research suggests the only way to prevent crying on the job is through conditioning yourself not to do so over a long period of time, you can reduce the emotional triggers creating the urge to cry.

If you expect a situation is likely to become emotional and are prepared to respond, you are less likely to react emotionally. You can also reduce the likelihood of shedding tears by changing the topic, thinking about something else or by distancing yourself from your feelings. If you can't stop yourself from crying, though, don't do it in front of anyone. Don't just leave the room; leave the building.

Although much has changed in the workplace, crying continues to be a career-limiting move that has the potential to damage future prospects. To paraphrase the baseball coach portrayed by Tom Hanks in "A League of Their Own:" "There is no crying in business."

For those hoping Clinton's crying in New Hampshire had ushered in a new era of authentic leadership, where women are freer to show emotions at work, consider this: Her behavior, Frey says, was "typical of how a man, conditioned to hide his emotions, would react. Rather than tears running down her cheeks, Clinton's eyes moistened, her voice choked up and then she quickly regained her composure and got back to business."

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of "UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want," and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a Web site devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@

YourCareerDoctors.com.