How to start to influence upwards by h2h Growth Manager, Sarah Tiffany
When you join an organisation there is a lot to learn about the business – how it functions, who everyone is and what the key priorities are. You may have some new ideas and suggestions that you would like to take forward but are possibly not too sure how to communicate these to your more senior or more experienced colleagues. You may even encounter some resistance to your ideas and the changes these may bring about or there may be some multi-generational challenges to overcome. So, how do you begin to start to influence upwards and build a strong professional relationship with the other members of your team and line managers.
Here are our Top 5 Tips to try to start to do this more effectively:
- Understand The Other Person’s Priorities
Your line manager may have a very different set of priorities, deadlines and challenges to face on a daily basis. Our first tip is to spend a bit of time listening and observing and try to work out what their key goals are – essentially, what motivates them? Is it productivity and efficiency, cost savings and budget or innovation? Whatever it is – if you can align your ideas with their key priorities and show how your suggestions can help them to work towards these, then you stand a much better chance of being heard.
- Build Up Credibility & Trust
We all like ideas and suggestion from trusted colleagues that can make our jobs easier, give us more time and make our working day more straightforward. If you can consistently complete the tasks assigned to you to deliver results – then you start to build up your professional reputation and establish yourself as a reliable voice with value-adding expertise. Then, when it comes to presenting a new idea or process, your team will be keen to hear what you have to say.
- Communicate With Clarity & Confidence
People have busy working lives and line managers, in particular, can be very short on time; as such it is often better to be succinct when first explaining your idea. Get to the point quickly but make sure that you cover the basics– what that the problem is, how your idea can help them solve it/or solve it more efficiently and what the benefits will potentially be. There will be time to present further details later.
If you know how they like to receive information then you can adapt your communication style and include – a concise overview, visuals, graphs, bullet points or clear outcome- focused data as appropriate.
- Anticipate & Address Concerns
It is always worthwhile trying to think a few steps ahead and look at the proposal from the other person’s perspective — what risks or objections might they have? If you anticipate any potential concerns or issues with your idea, then you can have a readymade response to these already in your back pocket.
Even better if you have a small set of data and evidence to support your ideas. If your line manager responds particularly well to data and results it may all be an idea to run a small test or simulation and collect the evidence to back up your new concept.
- Be Patient & Build Up Relationships First
Pick your moment wisely, be patient and avoid approaching your manager when they are under pressure or distracted. Also, with reference back to our Top Tip #2, it is a good idea to call upon the professional relationships you are building and sound out an colleague who you trust and who may support your idea. If there are one or two team members who also can see the value in your suggestion, then this helps to reinforce your arguments.
It is useful to remember that in it does take time for people to accept change to their ways of working and sometimes managers may be a little hesitant at first. It is ok to stay professional and persistent and try again when appropriate.
These are just some of the ways that you can start to influence upward. Give them a try and see how it goes. What have you got to lose?
At h2h we offer Personal Influence and Impact workshops that are fully interactive, experiential and positioned in the context of emotional intelligence. In these sessions we address day-to-day issues and take participants on a journey of self-awareness, appreciation of difference and growth in capability to positively impact interactions with others.
If you would like to find out more about how h2h can support you and your people then take an in depth look at our Leadership Development Portfolio or contact us at enquiries@h2h.uk.com
