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From Novice to Maestro: Enhancing Your Personal Influence

Becky Winant, Jerry Weinberg

"Man's spiritual creativity is not manifested by his philosophies, creeds, theological dogmas, or political systems, not in his wisdom, nor in his foolishness; it is manifested by the way he affects and transforms the world." - from the I Ching

Many of us hope to influence the world around us. In organizations, we propose projects and hope that they will be funded. In project teams, we advocate approaches and hope that they will be adopted. Each of us hopes to see our actions influence events to achieve a desired goal. Some of us call ourselves consultants and attempt to help others do this. Others of us do this and have titles that reflect organizational roles. In fact the consultant's skills belong to every effective person. This session is about amplifying our effectiveness in influencing the world around us. It explores our native and learned skills, and our individual strategies for fostering our personal evolution from novice to maestro.

Here are Jerry and my initial design ideas for this session:
Desired outcome:

1. Participants becoming aware of how to better give and get advice.
2. Participants becoming aware of how their advice is valued and how to associate a value to it.

Topics:
- Intent and timing -- When to give advice.
- How is value associated with advice?
- Influence & authority -- Is authority important to consulting?
- Measuring your growth as a consultant

Structure:
- We'll do some demonstrations with participants. People will form groups to practice getting and giving advice. Nynke just contributed to the value exercise and we'll have to have people bring some quarters. An exercise on authority can have groups testing how this makes a difference. The exercise on measuring your growth is a way for people to establish personal guidelines once the workshop ends.

As I apply my Shiatsu lessons I experience this, and I am a novice. When my hands rest on a person we are connected. My intent to do good is in my focus of how I envision say, back muscles being stretched and moved. I can ask that person "What is happening for you?" to confirm my sense and assure my desire to do no harm. What you are there to do comes through and while you may not transform as a master might, you do no harm and may do some good. If you're interested you can read my article on the Shiatsu-Consulting relationship. Its on the AYE Articles and Essays web page (ayeconference.com).

I hear in your words a sense of knowing through touch -- feeltrace. This seems to be a ways you connect to your truth. Your strength.

Authority scares to me, too. If someone calls me an authority, my inner voice says - well, I really don't know as much as x, and I still have a LOT I can learn. If someone is presented to me as an authority, it sounds like I am expected to defer -- something I don't do well, because a challenge can be fun. Then the defer and the challenge reaction create a deadlock.

Authority suggests power and mastery. When I have met people who are truly powerful masters, I have been affected by what I perceive as their almost imperceptible touch. It seems a form of magic. A dance.

Ron, my Shiatsu guy said to me recently - Have you noticed how much gentler I've gotten? I said I hadn't. He said - Oh yes, over the past two years I can accomplish something with much less force. But, two years ago he was effective for me, his client!

I think we each affect the world every day. It is different today, right? You already affect the world. Please don't panic! - BeckyWinant

Becky,

Thank you for your reply. With what you wrote (and my recent communications with Jerry) I think I can untangle a part of my I Ching sentence ununderstanding

I use "feeltracing" to figure out my ??? when reading Words. For ununderstanding Images I use "dimensionjumping", and find myself looking at or traversing spaces/connections/flows ... And I feeltrace while I am doing this.

It's at the tip of my memory and when I look, it's gone? Early attempt: Dreamer states and Body states share/have common substates?? By the time I "get it" I'll probably realize something has been "staring me in the face" ;-)

The Authority thing possibly has to do with a "created/fixed" reference system vs my "being/floating" version.

I think this session is going to be fun and full of ununderstandings for me! Great!! - Nynke

1. There's always a problem.
2. It's always a people problem.
3. You get paid by the hour.

In the description of the session I see:
Desired outcome: Participants becoming aware of how to better give and get advice. Participants becoming aware of how their advice is valued and how to associate a value to it.

(associate value ... aha!)

As "outside" facilitators Becky and Jerry may guide me through the haystack much quicker than I could alone. Both are (good) facilitators, and in order for me to get the best from that "function" I have to share some parts of these processes, to provide them with information for feeling/seeing/hearing where I am.

And to someone else, such initial communication may look like "getting quite far afield from". I see it more as an "initial divergence" to get an overview and from there in work situations I can be like a hawk and, depending on the actual context, converge and apply what I have learned, capturing that one mouse hiding in the haystack ...

(and diverge again (for association of value and further learning!) when it doesn't seem to have the desired effect ;-)

And I am only taking up a little bit of space on this forum, for my interest in learning about Authority and Money incentives/responses in my consulting.

At AYE we want the participants to be involved. And, as you probably know through your own work, the people you work with help, along with you, solve their problems. This wiki exchange will be helpful to Jerry and me when we next meet to work on our session design. So thank you!

Interesting question: why would someone seek to be a consultant if they are uncomfortable giving advice? I've heard people say that they want to help others by using expertise they have or that they want to work independent of a system that requires a code of behavior they don't agree with. Or both. Discomfort may arise from making a change from doer to advisor or from employee to independent. Many, like Nynke, many express a fear of doing the wrong thing. Some, like Wayne meeting Alice Cooper (in the movie Wayne's World), feel unworthy to be given a position of esteem. There are as many other reasons and feelings as there are people interested in this topic. I'd guess anyone seeking the path of consultant is also seeking information, advice, reassurance and more experience.

Here's my take on authority: Certainly, authority in the sense of expertise and experience is important. Here's a question back: How much do you think is needed? -- BeckyWinant

I am not certain that I correctly identified that inner conflict about advice relates to tools and techniques for becoming an effective consultant. I did say that they may not necessarily be mutually exclusive. I think that most of us dealt with this "before" we decided to become consultants and not "while" we are attempting to consult.

I am sure that you also recognize that not everyone who works independently or on contract is a consultant. As you point out in the intro to this session, many of the same potential conflicts arise when moving from doer to manager in an organization. By my definition, consultants are retained by clients largely because of what they know, they are recognized experts or "authorities" in some area. Contractors, on the other hand, are retained for what they can do, and normally do not have consultative or advisory responsibilities.

As far as authority goes, I think we are talking about different meanings in the same context, that is, being recognized as "an authority" as opposed to exercising authority in a consulting or managerial context. When I teach a seminar on project management, I talk about something I call the "dimensions of authority," only one dimension being the formal authority vested in a person by virtue of his or her position in an organization. In truth, project managers and consultants almost always have far more authority than they really need to accomplish their mission - provided they understand and appreciate the sources of that authority and how to apply it.

To create a perspective I think this session is about advisory roles and also about personal influence in a broader sense. It isn't primarily about inner conflict. As you may have noticed there could be overlaps in the discussions for many session in this conference.

I agree with your statement that managers and consultants often have more authority than they need to accomplish their mission. I'm curious about your opinion on the relationship between authority and personal influence. Do you see the two as always related...or not? Do you expect that project managers or "wizards behind the curtain" (as in OZ) would be in this session?

Also what responsibilities lie with the consultant?--BeckyWinant

I don't see much demand for "wizards behind the curtain." We do have to get paid for what we do, after all, but maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "wizards." As for project managers, one of the things I am wrestling with is whether as a project manager I am acting as a consultant or as a contract employee. Project management just happens to be one of the roles I play quite frequently, as I assume you do as well.

As for your last question about responsibilities of the consultant, I don't think I grasp your intent so I can't really respond.

My reference to the wizard behind the curtain was a suggestion that some people are given the role (or assume it) of influencing without assuming explicit credit.

I think any role any of us plays might fit under the umbrella of consulting.

The discussion of consulting and contracting is a whole other interesting path. What are differentiating aspects? Are they significant from the point of view of the client or of producing results? What potential pitfalls and strengths do you associate with each? -- BeckyWinant

Consultants, on the other hand, are usually brought in to address specific issues or problems. Assignments are normally of shorter duration and, I would think, carry significantly higher billing rates than contract assignments (at least that's been my experience). Assignments usually end with submission of a report and/or presentation containing advice and recommendations to management. Consultants do not usually work under the immediate direction of client management (at the task level) but have a broader charter and manage their own work. Again, to oversimplify, these persons are retained mainly for what they know, not what they can do. In fact, they usually don't perform specific tasks for the client.

Many contractors, both independent and employees of firms, call themselves consultants, but, as a famous person once said, "You can put a cat in the oven, [but that] don't make it a biscuit." On the other hand, maybe we're all talking about the same thing, with only differences in semantics. I'd like to hear JerryWeinberg's take on all of this. JamesWard

1. By showing how particular situations can be handled - real situations that the participants bring up.
   
   
2. By modelling how consulting can be done - as we consult with the participants.

Next a question that jumped out when I read: "In my last management position, I had 32 contractors on staff and considered none of them to be consultants. " In the context of your interest in discovering how to be a consultant (by your terms) instead of a contractor (by your terms) - why, when you were a manager, did you not hire a consultant (or two) instead? -- BeckyWinant

Obviously a consultant might bill higher rates and work shorter jobs, but is the main difference in your mind the part about giving advice and recommendations? If so, what stops someone from rewriting their promo material to say: I can advise you in these areas, as opposed to saying: I can do these things for you? (I'm really not trying to be dense here, just exploring boundaries and barriers). BeckyWinant

I think the main difference is that when working as a contractor I find that I am taking project level or task level direction from client management. I usually work on or manage projects. As a consultant, I am expected to manage my own work and generally do not perform project work. I am trying to address a problem - and, of course, it is always a people problem and I get paid by the hour. Again, we may be just talking semantics here but I do think there is a difference between contract employees and consultants. JamesWard

This doesn't mean we know everything, but we do have a pretty good idea of what we don't know, and what's important, and where to go for important things we don't know. - JerryWeinberg

What also interests me is the effects based on my advice that can occur beyond my control (having just read JerryWeinberg's "Secrets of Consulting" I am clued to leaving my ego at the door). For example, I have just been working on a project where I made recommendations which by the time they were implemented had taken on a different life, but the terminology stayed the same. What was disturbing in this instance was that the terminolgy was being used incorrectly but has now become part of the client's culture. I'd like to figure out how to prevent this from happening next time or at least make it more difficult. So, I am hoping to find some helpful discussion that will spark an epiphany of sorts about influence, when and how. -- AnnaAllison

If you're not there, you haven't a prayer.

IOW, unless you arrange follow-on consulting to monitor your recommendations, there's no chance that they'll actually follow them in the way you intended. So, this is first of all a contracting problem. After that, we'll discuss the rest, but if you're not going to be there, you can't do it by intertial guidance. - JerryWeinberg

If you're not there, you haven't a prayer.

little did I know that before long, she wouldn't be there for us much longer.

I think we still have a lot to learn from Anna's sacrifice. Life is too short to let anything stand in the way of your becoming your own Maestro. Please say a prayer for Anna, then say one for yourself - and get on with the job of making a wonderful person and transforming this to a better world. We need you.