Your survival guide to project politics: Tactics to influence power - Part 2

We learnt that we need to adopt some tactics to influence power to survive in project projects. In the previous post we learnt about some effective tactics to influence power. In this post we will discuss some more tactics.

Ø Multi phase influence
When you cannot influence the main person directly you need to check persons who influence that person. After identification of such persons, make a direct request to those persons and ask them to forward your request to the main person. This method is used in most of the situations where the main person is inaccessible to you.

Ø Conduct a group meeting
Conveying the ideas by conducting a group meeting is a challenging task. In this method you can clearly discuss with all the people and can have their opinions. In a meeting it is necessary to handle people with different ideas. Display of power in appropriate manner is necessary in these situations.

Ø Converge their ideas to your idea
In this method of influencing power, you need to initiate the discussion in such a manner that their ideas are converged to your idea. In fact it is necessary to drive their ideas to your idea. This requires communication and management skills. This idea may not work when there are senior people with rigid ideas.

However, we need to understand that wielding power in appropriate manner avoids any misuse of power or politics in the work place. Assess your project situation and use ample power according to the situation to get the project tasks done successfully.

Your survival guide to project politics: Tactics to influence power – Part 1

After developing an understanding on the work allotted, you need to assess your work situation comparing with all other situations. Consider various methods adopted by different people in dealing these situations. Make an assessment on the resources allocated to you, the power allotted to you and the problems associated in wielding the power. Adopt a suitable tactic method which helps you best in dealing your project work.

Now that you made an assessment about the situations people face in their work. Try to understand different tactics to influence power.

Ø Making a direct request

Now that you know how to assess the people and the levels of the power they possess in the organization. In this method of direct request, you are suggested to go directly to the person who possesses power and helps you in giving the power you need for the project work. Communicate with that person directly without any mediators in between. Make use of communication methods like email, telephone or one to one meeting. Requesting directly helps you deal the power related issues easily.

Ø Negotiations

Negotiations work well when there is competition between two people on same issue. In the situations of competition, the interference of third person and resolving the problem as a group helps in most of the situations. Having a healthy discussion as a group helps you in solving the issues. This method is suggested my most of the managers as this solves the problems quickly.

Ø Voicing your objectives through others

Voicing your ideas from other influential people is another tactic of influencing power. In this method, instead of arguing your ideas, you ask influential persons of the group to support your idea. However this idea is successful only when the people who support your ideas are really influential.

Your survival guide to project politics: Understand the power sources

In this third post on survival guide to project politics we will understand about the power sources in an organization.

People and their influence
As a part of fulfillment of the project activities you need different levels of powers to be given from different people. To understand the sources of power and the persons to be contacted for that power transfer, you need complete understanding on the hierarchy of the organization roles.

Once you understand hierarchy…
Ø After developing understanding on the hierarchy of roles in the organization, identify the person who can give you power to accomplish the work assigned to you.
Ø Understand his ideas, working style and mindset. Try to adopt your working style with his work style and check how things work.
Ø Now, observe the type of people he trusts and has influence on him. Trust and respect on the people are the two factors which need to be emphasized during the project work process.
Ø Check if you can share your ideas about your work with them, if possible take their suggestions and this helps you in your work.

When you discuss your project ideas with these people, put forward actual work and its status. Present your arguments and facts about the work without any hypocrisy to get a proper feedback from those people.

Group Power
Project meetings are the best places to observe the power display of different team members. Most of the times we find that in the meetings some groups of people wield power in that meeting. When we observe carefully we find that it’s not the group but the individuals in that group display power. Those individuals are with good presentation skills and who use their power effectively to present their ideas. You need to understand different people and their power display.

Therefore, basic understanding on various power sources of organization helps you to survive well in the organization.

Your survival guide to project politics: Communicate with your manager

In this second post on survival guide to project politics we will understand the importance of communication with manager. We know that over 80% of effective project management time is spent on project related communication. Poor communications, lack of feedback and review have often been cited as leading factors of project failure. After developing clarity on the project tasks it is necessary to have a discussion with the manager on the project tasks assigned. The priority is to communicate right information to right people in right time.

What can be done?
To make the discussion helpful ensure that you cover the following concepts in the discussion:
Ø Expectations of the management on the work allocated to you
Ø Resources necessary for the accomplishment of the task
Ø The review process and the reporting method

This task helps you in making a proper estimation on the levels of the support you can expect from others and the quality of your deliverable.

Your survival guide to project politics: Have clarity on the work

Are your project goals defined? Do these goals motivate you in the achievement of your goals? If you have a negative answer for any one of these two questions then there is ample room for you to learn about your survival in project politics. People demand for more power with the increase in responsibility. In this new series of posts I would like to discuss the processes that help you in dealing the power related problems.

Develop clarity on the work allotted:
Before taking up any project task it is necessary to have clarity on the tasks allotted to you and the expectations of the management on your work. It is necessary to have proper clarity on the project tasks, the resources necessary for the accomplishment of those tasks and the methods to get those resources. Every team member should have clarity on the following:
Ø Project tasks assigned
Ø Resources like money, time , staff necessary for the accomplishment of that task
Ø Adjustment in your tasks goals to manage with other’s goals
Ø Point of contact for advice, support

In spite of having clarity on the goals, it is necessary to be flexible to the new ideas and the new developments in the project work.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Preventing misuse of power

In the series of posts we have explored some of the common reasons for the misuse of power, examine several cases where we see the ’misuse’ of power and different causes for the misuse of power. In this last post of the Use and abuse of ‘Power’ series, we will understand how we can prevent misuse of power.

For the development of the organizations, misuse of power should be reduced. Following are the factors that contribute to the growth of the organization, team members and the individual:

Ø Team members must be informed about the project goals and objectives.

Ø Team members should be well informed about the organization procedures.

Ø Ensure that standard procedures are in place in the project process. These standards bring certain discipline in the teams.

Ø Make sure that there is proper team discipline. Effective team discipline does not give any scope to politics or misuse of power.

Ø Ensure proper communication amongst team members and the management. This solves most of the problems regarding power misuse.

Ø Encourage healthy competition amongst project teams and project team members. This can be achieved by means of proper review procedures and communication.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Motivational causes for misuse of power

In the previous post we discussed about the ‘process causes for misuse of power’, in this post we will discuss in detail about the ’motivational causes for misuse of power’.

Almost all the human beings are self motivational. Any human tries to have proper recognition to his efforts. There are several factors related to human psychology, emotions which make the humans to indulge in politics.

Motivational causes for misuse of power:
Ø The urge to prove one’s smartness often makes the individual indulge in politics or misuse the power he is empowered with.

Ø Developments in life by means of promotions in the job, increase in the pay are the factors important to any individual. People who cannot develop in normal methods try to get those promotions by indulging in politics.

Ø Some people think that they are perfect and they don’t see any reason to change their methods or hear the suggestions of any other person. These types of people often misuse their power.

However, these causes are not evils if they are managed well. It is up to the efficiency of the organization management to deal with these causes and use them for the development of project and its team members.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Process causes for misuse of power

In earlier post we studied different situations in which power misuse happens. Next we will understand the causes for the misuse of power. We can classify the causes into two categories namely process causes and motivational causes.

Most of the times, the power misuse arises because of any one of the two causes or combination of both. In this post we will analyze the 'process causes for the misuse of power' in detail.

Process causes for misuse of power
Process causes are the reasons for power misuse which arise because of faulty processes of the project organization. These causes encourage all the team members to misuse the power.

Ø Spineless project goals often make the team members misuse their power. Weak project goals and improper implementation of the project goals may make the team members lose their confidence and interest in the project activities

Ø Lack of clarity on the decision making process in the team may lead to the misuse of the power by some of the team members. When the decision making process is made clear to the team members there is no chance of politics or misuse of power by any team members.

Ø Miscommunication is one of the key reasons of politics in the project teams. Teams which communicate well have transparency and there is no scope for miscommunication. If the communication is proper, the difference of opinions are well conveyed and well solved.

Ø Lack of accountability in the project works encourages politics. When the team members are not accountable for their mistakes there is ample scope for politics in the project. This misuse of power in terms of politics leads to mistrust among the team members. When there is no trust amongst team members they try to misuse power for self defense.