Influencing Others

Introduction

The question asked most often in JISC infoNet Project Management sessions is 'How can I get people to do things when I have no direct control over them?' It is a question faced by almost all project managers, particularly in the education sector, and especially when a major change is involved. There's no magic answer but here are some tips as to how you might go about developing your personal influencing skills.

Influencing another person - especially influencing them to change their behaviour - doesn't happen overnight. You need to lay the groundwork and create the right conditions for them to be influenced by your proposal.

All too often when we try to influence somebody we focus on our objective - what we want - not what's in it for the other party. Influence is very different to manipulation. Let's look at the characteristics of each:

Once somebody has been manipulated they feel very negative about it afterwards. The ideal is to influence somebody yet preserve the relationship.