Do you have a brilliant idea or project, want to achieve certain goal or objective but fell limited or not strong enough to make an impact? Do you feel there will be resistance to your idea and you’ll be alone defending the cause? Does that thought already takes energy away and willingness to step up and defend what could be a great project? Fell too small? too weak? unimportant?
If you really believe in your idea and you’ve done all necessary checks on its potential, don’t drop it just because you’re not important in your organization. Use influencing strategies to get you through and uplift it so it can reach objective. A few hints and tips:
Don’ts:
- Don’t be vague or sound doubtful on the baseline, you risk to lose audience and credibility.
- Don’t present your idea as a given fact and recite information people wouldn’t be open to hear in first place (know your audience, grab their attention first)
- Don’t tell people what to do. People don’t jump in projects giving a positive contribution when they’re told to do so. If they’re forced to do it without belief, it won’t be successful enough.
- Don’t present the idea without covering the most critical aspects: (scope, what, why, when) and cover all possible blind spots.
- Don’t forget the roles, responsibilities, objectives and timeline.
Do’s
- Listen concerns and positions so you can properly address them.
- Share your vision: Be able to explain current status, your vision and how to get there.
- Have supportive influencer’s. From senior manager or well respected colleagues. This will give some credibility and may help to grab audience attention
- Show the benefits that could be obtained in terms of department, organization or people, directly and indirectly
- Empower people. Makes them feel part of the project
- If necessary have prepared concessions and exchange areas so you get support from the audience.
- From neutral to supporter. Find peers from the audience that you could pull to your side to convert him in as an ally of the project to influence the rest of them.
- Speaking Techniques/Body language. Everything must be aligned so you can grab audience attention, support and enthusiasm. A good project or idea must be presented with a proper speaking tone/tune/levels and a body language.
Bottom line, find allies, be gentle to people, debate, share your vision and be very clear on the communication as well as bringing up the benefit of the project for the wider audience/department, not as an individual win.
Do you have suggestions to add to this list? Grateful if you want share them, please drop me your thoughts in the contact tab