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Gaining Power and Influence
This chapter thoroughly discussed various factors that work towards gaining power and influence. It began with self-evaluative skill assessments that determine how individuals use their power and how they influence others. It then created a baseline of what power means, both the negative and positive perspectives of people on power. Culture can be responsible for how people view power. Some cultures view power as something that can exploit others, while other cultures view power as something that can influence others to do something good. This means that power belongs to a spectrum ranging from inadequate power to excessive power. If one has sufficient power, then he can be empowered to perform at his peak. This is the point that people with power should strive for.
Power is defined in the chapter as the potential to influence behavior. It has gained a more multidimensional meaning considering the changes in organizations today. For example, since more organizations tend to be less hierarchical or flatter, power is not relegated to just the superiors but is shared with the workers. Boundaries within and between organizations have become blurred, that the nature of authority relationships have also changed. This implies that the bottom line is that one should develop personal power, so he is able to influence others towards his and the organization’s goals. Sources of personal power include one’s expertise or work-related knowledge and capabilities, attraction or charisma; effort or one’s personal commitment or motivation; and legitimacy or one’s credibility. At the same time, one should also learn to develop positional power, which comes from organizational centrality, flexibility, visibility, and relevance.
Once one has achieved power, it should be used to gain influence. The three R’s in turning power into influence are retribution, reciprocity, and reason. Fear of retribution is a strong factor in influencing others to behave according to the desired goal of the person in power. Often, the person being influenced accedes to the preferences of the person in power unwillingly because of the coercion and intimidation used by the powerful person. With reciprocity, there is the satisfaction of mutual self-interest that it seems the relationship between the person in power and the person being influenced is transactional. Finally, the use of reason is persuading the other party to do something by explaining the benefits of compliance.
The influence strategies can be neutralized to make the person being influenced feel empowered instead of ordered around. This is usually done by being assertive in pushing for what one thinks should be done without being offensive to the other party. This assertiveness is actually a great part of one’s personal power.
The chapter gives direct guidelines that are easily applicable to the workplace. It also provides a case study that demonstrates the use of power and influence and an exercise to test one’s learning about power and influence. Finally, the chapter provides recommended activities and tests for readers to apply such learning from the chapter.
Motivating Others
This chapter also begins with a self-assessment test to check how motivation is used in one’s life. Managers need to learn how to motivate their workers so that their performance improves. This then translates to organizational success. The chapter examines how to work problems arise, and it has been found that workers’ performance is equivalent to the worker’s ability and motivational level. Hence, managers need to work on increasing the workers’ motivation towards work while equipping them with skills to enable them to perform better, which leads to their own satisfaction at work. This entails investigating their goal-setting strategies and if it matches their worker’s. This is a crucial step because goals are associated with workers’ enhanced performance because goals encourage them to exert effort, provide attention, persist, and develop strategies to succeed.
Workers’ goals are influenced by their own motivations as well as the managers’ reinforcement strategies. The use of rewards and punishment should be used with discerning so that it is not abused. The chapter discussed various theoretical frameworks on motivation as well as presented models to show the process of motivation that determines one’s performance at work and if the achievement of extrinsic/intrinsic motivators leads to their satisfaction. Although the provision of extrinsic rewards for good performance is common and acceptable to companies, it is recommended that developing intrinsic motivation is encouraged. That way, one does not rely on what others may reward workers with, but being satisfied with one’s work becomes intrinsic motivation enough.
Empowering and Delegating
Empowering and delegating are management skills that are valued in organizations. Empowering is providing people the freedom to do things with their own style without the manager’s controls, constraints, and boundaries. This gives workers a feeling of self-fulfillment, which is intrinsically motivating. One way of empowering workers is through delegating or assigning tasks to them to let them know that their performance in the task means they are trusted enough to be delegated with it. The chapter enumerated the dimensions of empowerment as self-efficacy or being competent in one’s work, self-determination or being able to make decisions and stand by them, personal consequences, meaning being accountable for one’s own doing, meaning or value of what one does and trust or being reliable without fail. When people have all these, then they are more likely to work better.
In order to empower people, one needs to provide a clear vision and goals that everyone can work for. This ensures individuals that they have a direction to tread instead of being lost in the process. Setting goals should follow the SMART framework, which is the acronym for Specific, Measureable, Aligned, Realistic, and Time-bound goals. Fostering personal mastery experiences also empowers them. When small gains are celebrated, people feel that they are capable of even bigger successes, so they are motivated to work towards that. Managers should also be able to model correct behaviors to their workers. If workers are exposed to models who achieve success, they are empowered to follow suit.
Empowered workers are provided with social and emotional support. It is like there are people that cheer them on towards their progress or success. They are also emotionally aroused, meaning they replace negative emotions with positive, empowering ones so that they have a good disposition for work. They are also provided adequate information about the tasks they are given and resources to use for their tasks. They also get to own their work as they identify with it and finally develop the confidence to carry out such tasks.
Building Effective Teams and Teamwork
Because teamwork has been found to contribute to organizational performance, managers should be able to foster positive team camaraderie and synergy. Effective teams work together harmoniously and hurdle challenges together. The phases a team goes through are known as “forming, norming, storming and performing.” In the forming stage, team members get to know each other since they come from different backgrounds. The “norming” (sic) stage is when the members develop a sense of a team. The rules and norms of the group are discussed for everyone to understand from the beginning. The storming stage is when differences come out, causing conflicts between members. Finally, the performing stage is when they develop harmony to work together towards their goals.
Conducting Meetings
This chapter discussed the five P’s of effective meetings. The first one is the purpose, which declares what the meeting is for. All members should be guided accordingly with the purpose of the meeting so that all adhere to it. The next is the participants, or the people attending the meeting, which customizes the language, etc., so that everyone understands the meeting. The plan or the preparation for the agenda of the meeting envisions the sequence and inserts where the highlights of the meeting should be to keep members interested. The participation or the meeting proper is how everyone takes part in the meeting. Finally, perspective is how everyone evaluates the meeting, if it has addressed all concerns and if it has been managed effectively. Supplement C also provides specific guidelines to follow for each “P.”
Although only a part of the book has been summarized, the discussed chapters exhausted a variety of material to help managers be more efficient in handling their workers and lead them to achieve organizational goals. The whole book is a valuable resource in developing the necessary management skills in contemporary businesses and organizations.
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