Influencing Up—Working with Non-Creative Decision-makers

There are times when work is just a four-letter word. I’m sure you’ll agree, there are those moments when being effective and productive is more painful than stubbing your toe on the bed post.

However, what’s really challenging is being a creative professional working in a non-creative industry for non-creative decision-makers. How do you do it? Well, that’s part of the charm of being a creative person. You have the skill set to adapt to any situation. You are a knowledge worker—aka super hero.

This month’s article focuses on:

• How you can help those who don’t do your day-to-day work to understand what you do; and
• How you can positively impact the bottom line through decisions made by others.

Peter Drucker, considered the father of modern management, has written extensively about the knowledge worker—those who know more about what they do than their managers know about what they do. And, Marshall Goldsmith, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller What Got You Here Won't Get You There, wrote about “influencing up,” learning how to influence decision-makers.

Below are some tips offered by these gentlemen that you may find useful when working with non-creative decision-makers. Your goal is to subtly educate those around you to better understand the value and services you and your creative team brings to your company’s, departments’, and function’s bottom line. It’s like drinking the punch, I’d say.

1. Make peace with the fact that you may not always be the decision-maker, and that the person making the decision is not always the smartest or right person to make the decision. Once you come to terms with that, life may seem a little rosier.

2. When presenting ideas to decision-makers, it’s your job to sell the idea. It’s not their job to buy. So sell…sell…sell. Appropriately, Drucker said, "The person of knowledge has always been expected to take responsibility for being understood. It is barbarian arrogance to assume that the layman can or should make the effort to understand the specialist."

3. Pitch to the buyer’s sensitivity not your own. The buyer/decision-maker isn’t going to care how this impacts you, but rather is fixated on how it impacts him/her. So, be sure to highlight what you’re doing to meet the needs of the greater good.

4. Don’t waste time on issues that will have a negligible result. In other words, choose your battles carefully. If you are going to challenge the system, be sure you have all your facts straight and that the goal is large enough to fight for.

5. Present a realistic cost benefits analysis about your ideas. Be prepared to have a realistic discussion about your idea. Remember, organizations have limited time, money, and resources. And, your project may potentially be bumping someone else’s. Acknowledge that fact and address it openly.

6. Realize that people of power are human too and that they are infallible. Goldsmith notes, “It is realistic to expect decision-makers to be competent; it is unrealistic to expect them to be anything other than normal humans. Is there anything in the history of the human species that indicates when people achieve high levels of status, power, and money, they become completely 100% wise and logical?”

7. Treat decision-makers with the same respect you would customers. It is always important to "challenge up" on integrity issues. It is inappropriate to stab decision-makers in the back. So keep your X-actoÒ knives and rhetoric in check.

8. Avoid sabotaging the final decision. If you stab your boss or the decision-maker in the back, what are you teaching your direct reports?

9. Focus on making a difference rather than being right. Goldsmith writes, “The more other people can be ‘right’ or ‘win’ with your idea, the more likely your idea is to be successfully executed.” Also consider the repeat business you’ll get from your internal clients.

10. Get over it and stop whining. People who whine about the past inhibit any chance to be successful in the future. Successful people hone in on solutions that help them reach toward the future, not focus on the past. Goldsmith believes that “future orientation may dramatically increase your odds of effectively influencing decision-makers.”

So, rather than mulling over and/or constantly hyping your education, skills, years of experience, and amount of energy you’ve dedicated to a project, company, person, or team, try influencing up next time you’re working with decision-makers.

By making a small investment in influencing up, you have the opportunity to make a large and impactful change in the future of your team, department, and organization.

Ciao!

Becky