Influence at Work
Hey!
Welcome back to another week of musings.
This week was very busy. The org observed Juneteenth, creating a gap in my weekly schedule. But always grateful for the time to rest and reflect.
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Things I discovered in the past week
- I started reading Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar, which is interesting reading about what it means to be Latino in the US.
- Minimum Viable Product Revisited by Kent Beck: A short post from Kent Beck about minimum viable product (MVP) and learning from each iteration will inform the next iteration.
I recently was in a skip-level meeting, and I was asking about improving influence, among other topics.
I described my "approach" to influencing other teams to allocate or complete projects. In general, my approach was very unintentional, which meant that my "hit rate" was low or harder to reproduce consistently.
Then, we had a conversation where I walked through a recent project I was working on.
At a high level, I was doing well in some aspects. I was building connections to reach the right people with my project ideas. I also used the right language, calling trade-offs, possible revenue, or savings.
But what I've been doing wrong that makes my approach inconsistent?
Well, I'm not exactly wrong, but I hadn't exactly been listening to the team's needs to further inform my project's requirements or message.
Another aspect that surfaced was that I wasn't leveraging leadership in cases where top-down guidance was a better approach.
In other cases, while some teams might agree with the need I was trying to fulfill, the projects would not progress without formal planning and teammate allocation. I took on some initial tasks to move things forward and "force" the organization to take over once the momentum was there.
What I'm trying next?
I have a few more projects coming down the pike, and I'll implement these learnings.
- Document the project, trade-offs, options
- Sell the idea to not only teammates but also Leadership team
- Having everyone onboard means that formal program management can be leveraged
- Delegate project management to appropriate people
All these learnings and conversations are still very recent in my mind. I'll let you know how it goes in the future.
Your turn!
Do you have an intentional approach to influence at work? Have you ever considered how much influence you have on those around you? Or how "far" is your reach? Let me know by replying to this email!
Happy coding!
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