Growing Your Influence

Anita Brick: Hi, this is Anita Brick and welcome to CareerCast at Chicago Booth. To help you advance in your career. Today we're delighted to be speaking with Ron Price, who just got back from Africa. So thank you for making time for us today.

Ron Price: It's great to be with you.

Anita Brick: Ron is an internationally recognized business advisor, executive coach, speaker and author who has worked in 15 countries. The former president of a multi-million dollar international company, he, along with coauthor Stacey Ennis, has a new book–and I’m so excited about this–called Growing Influence: A Story of How to Lead with Character, Expertise, and Impact. So thank you for jumping off a plane and getting onto this call with us.

Ron Price: Thank you for inviting me.

Anita Brick: Oh, of course, there are a lot of things in the book, and the book is really a fictionalized story of a relationship between basically a mentee and a mentor. So in the context of that, we have some very good questions. So let's start off with a question from an MBA student. This the student said: “In your book, Emily is passed over for a promotion three times. I feel like Emily. how does one locate an area of influence as a base from which to build and expand?”

Ron Price: Part of Emily’s challenge was that she didn't understand why she had been passed over. She thought she deserved it. She thought she had proven herself. So first question that we should have when we feel we should be getting promoted and we're not is, do I understand why? Do I understand what's behind the decision not to promote me? In her case, her problem was that there was gender bias in her organization. Negative gender bias. Her boss felt that because she had a child at home, that he didn't want to add more pressure or greater responsibility to her. And instead of letting her make that decision, he had made the decision for her without even discussing it. So when she finally discovered what the cause of it was, now she had the basis for having a good strategy for how to respond to it.

We kind of start by getting to the root cause of why not getting promoted. Apart from that there are a lot of different ways that we can be increasing our influence. And I think your ability to increase your influence in an organization is not only shaped by what your title is, but it's how you behave and what you're capable of doing as being of great value to the organization that you work for.

Anita Brick: Well, along with that, an alum asked the question goes right along with that. She said, “I don't yet have the title. What specific advice would you have for someone like me to build influence and credibility to get the title?”

Ron Price: The most important part of how you develop yourself as a leader is first, your character and how you show up at work. What kind of a personal reputation or personal brand that you build for yourself. And that's primarily built by the values by which you cover your behavior. And then how you stay, which you choose to relate to other people. The second way that you build your reputation or your brand is by the expertise that you develop. Expert leadership is what you know or what you're capable of doing that creates value for others.

So if you think about building your circle of influence around who you are, your character, and around your expertise, you're putting yourself in the best possible position to be eligible and to be preferred sometimes for things that are outside of your control. Sometimes this isn't the right organization for you. Quite often, what we find is that people have dormant power that they don't see because they're being influenced by external factors, and they're not recognizing how much they could be doing for themselves.

Anita Brick: Let's dig a little deeper into that. How do you see what you can't see? And in fact, an alum asked that question: “I love the metaphor of the mirror that you use. I can't see what I can't see. So how do you begin to separate the external influences on you as a person and really delve into those things you can control and that you can make visible?”

Ron Price: It's a great question. Actually two aspects of that. The internal aspect, seeing who you are, where you're at, what your potential is, is first a function of internal reflection and self-evaluation. So we want to help people understand what their behavioral traits are, what's their response to problems and challenge is do they tend to respond quickly and just start trying to solve? Are they more deliberate? Do they tend to want to study it and get down to the root cause? What's their style in how they interact with other people? Be more relational and warm, or are they more analytical and matter of fact? And what's their relationship to change? Do they like a lot of change? Do they like variety or do they prefer something that's more stable and consistent? We like to help them think about what do I actually want from my work? Money and title are certainly things that a lot of people want, but they're not the only things. There are many different reasons why people end up feeling satisfied or fulfilled in their work. The inward journey of helping that person know themselves better. That's the first part.

The other part is there is part of us that we can't know without help from the outside. That's what you referred to when you mentioned the mere metaphor. We need people to work as our mirrors. We need them to give us feedback and help us understand how we're coming across what our actual impact is. Not just anybody. We have to find people that we trust, that we believe have our best interests at heart, and then we need to ask them and create a safe space for them to tell us what our impact is.

There's often a difference between what our intention is, our motivation and our actual impact. So understand the gap between our intention and our impact is part of the leader's journey. The only way we can fully understand that is by letting others give us feedback. Learning how to receive it graciously, and to use it in a way that's helpful and not harmful to our self-image. So it's false, negative and positive feedback that we have to learn how to process and how to use it to our advantage.

Anita Brick: Well, you're absolutely right. Sometimes, depending on who a person is and how they grew up, and all of that positive can be harder or negative can be harder. But once you have the feedback, how do you then translate this into positive influence?

Ron Price: There are three different ways to think about growing your influence. The first is what are the things that I can control 100%? I can take 100% responsibility to set aside some time every day to take care of myself. And that's a choice I make. I start every day in a proactive way rather than reactive. That's something that you can control 100%.

So this first circle of control is what can I take 100% responsibility for? The second circle of influence that we talk about is the circle of collaboration. This is where I want to effect change some way in the organization, but I can't do it alone. I need other people to help me. So in the book, we talk about that if you can find other people that share the same interests and the same values, they want to accomplish the same thing as you.

There are creative ways that you can build collaborative strategies. We refer to them as virtuous conspiracies, where you might not be able to change the whole organization, but you can. In fact, you are part of it. You can begin to influence it in a quiet way and build that influence over time. So that's the second circle of influence.

Anita Brick: So before we go on to the third one, let's dig a little bit deeper here. The student and alumni had related questions to the virtuous conspiracy. First, how can you find a place to start when the culture is rather competitive and even toxic?

Ron Price: Well the question to ask yourself is, is there anybody there that would like to see a difference like I want to. And instead of trying to change the whole culture, you say we're going to build a little culture inside of this larger culture where we're going to encourage each other. We're going to focus on how we can help each other out. And you're going to look for little ways, and those ways may grow where you can demonstrate great care for the other people in your little circle.

And what will happen is that we'll begin to oftentimes in serendipitous ways, attract other people. Yeah. This is what I want. You may eventually find somebody who has more authority, who's in a higher position, who shares the same interests with their higher level of authority. They might also have a greater degree of influence or where they might be able to help you with it.

One of the ways I've seen this done practically in media is they see what I refer to as interest groups or affinity groups, and they get together and think about how they can support each other, how they can learn together, and how they can be a more positive influence in their organization overall. As those interest groups grow. They begin to speak to power. You start small and then just figure out how you can support each other and let it grow from there.

Anita Brick: Okay, so a follow on question to that was from an alum. And she said: “How can I keep creating this virtuous conspiracy and not get distracted by obstacles and negativity?”

Ron Price: That best way to keep from getting distracted is to focus on the principles that are going to help you be successful, and discuss creatively how you can help each other in developing the application of those principles, whether it's the values by which you govern yourself or how you decide you want to relate to other people, or how you're going be growing your expertise. But be intentional. Have a plan for how you can keep going, and then be consistent and disciplined to that plan. And that's the greatest way to keep from getting sidetracked.

Anita Brick: Okay. One of the things you do talk about in the book, and you talk about leading with logic and following with emotion. So as MBA students said: “I'm good with the logic part. How would you advise someone like me to add a bit of emotion when it's not comfortable?”

Ron Price: Great question. Some of us too tend to be more analytical and logical, and it's the way that brain has been wired and we need to learn this. How are you putting emotion behind that in a way that it expresses conviction? There are a few suggestions.

First is look for other people, hopefully inside your organization, but if not outside the organization, that when they speak, you can hear that they have emotion in their voice. But it's not an emotion that's reactionary. It's an emotion that's intentional. Look for people who, when they speak, you can hear this energy in their voice. Listen to the words they're using, listen to the intensity of their voice, and see if you can begin to develop your own language skills in a similar way.

Second suggestion would be and this may be difficult for some folks, but it really is the way that speakers are taught to be more persuasive. Speak into a mirror. Pick something that you really believe in and practice using emotion. Using the words of emotion and the tone of emotion and practice into a mirror. Or these days you can go ahead and turn on the video on your smartphone and record yourself speaking, and then go back and watch it.

I know, Anita, for the vast majority of the public, they hate to watch themselves on video, so I understand the apprehensions about that. But it's just you. You're looking at it and you're learning because that phone is really becoming another mirror that shows you who you are. And as you practice it and try to get a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. This is going to help you. That's the second suggestion.

My third suggestion and the last one. Toastmasters is an international organization that gets people together in small groups of anywhere from 6 to 20 people. You're practicing your presenting skills, your communication skills. And if you tell them, I'm trying to learn how to communicate with more emotion, they'll help you. They'll give you feedback. And it's a safe environment with a tested methodology for improving your communication skills. So those three recommendations, I believe if you did those things for six months to a year, you will. You'll be different in how you communicate. You have learned how to use emotion to your advantage.

Anita Brick: I like those ideas. That's great. And learning how to lead with logic and then follow with emotion is becoming more aware of these emotions and how they interplay inside of you, and how you can begin to harness them and develop the skill of managing them in a way that makes you more influential, where in fact you can both lead with logic and follow with emotion, that helps a great deal.

If we switch gears just for a moment, here's a situation that an alumnus was in or is in that isn't the best. And he said: “I used to have a lot of influence in my organization, and then I made a misstep. Nothing illegal, but still not good. What are a few things I can do to regain the trust, credibility and influence I have lost?”

Ron Price: Well, there's no guarantee that you can. It may be this individual is going to have to look for a fresh start in a new organization. However, if there is hope of rebuilding their influence inside this organization, the first step is making sure the people around you know that you recognize where you made a mistake. So if the person hasn't already taken responsibility for that, and if necessary, apologize for unnecessary. That's the first step. Most people are willing to give you a second chance if you first acknowledge the mistake you've made. And if you take concrete steps to rebuild trust. So the first step is to acknowledge it.

Second step is to either identify or ask for what can I do to rebuild my trustworthiness here? And of course, you don't ask everybody indiscriminately. You ask with some intelligence. The people who are closest to you, the people whose trust you want to win back, the people whose trust you need. If you're going to both be restored to the level of sorry you had and go beyond that. Of course, the first step, once you've done that, is to make sure that you follow through with the advice that they give you. It's important to learn not to be defensive when they see that you're willing to accept responsibility for your impact twice, and that you're willing to take steps forward to rebuild trust. That's your best chance of turning that around inside the organization.

Again, sometimes you can't do that. Sometimes the bias that people develop towards you because of a failure is too difficult to overcome. And in those instances, probably the best strategy to make sure that you're working on yourself, that you're building your character and your expertise, but you're also looking for opportunities outside of the organization, or maybe in another department where you can get a fresh start.

Anita Brick: Got it. Okay, so do you have time for one more question?

Ron Price: Yes, sure.

Anita Brick: What are three things that you would advise someone who wants to grow, influence and use this to build a successful and enduring career?

Ron Price: Well, the first thing is do everything to build your influence through who you are as a person. So that's the only thing because they're external factors. Really the thing that had such a dramatic impact on my career was when I took responsibility for growing myself, and I didn't look to somebody else to create the space for me, or I didn't look to somebody else to do it. And it has a profound impact on how you see yourself, what you think is possible, and how you develop capability of navigating all of the space around you. So that's the first thing. Never quit working on yourself. Be intentional about what it means to build your own character.

The second thing I would suggest is recognize how important strong relationships are to your long term success. It's not enough just to become a good person ourself. We also have to learn how to build really great relationships with people around us. My oldest son, he was graduating from college and he asked me for advice and I said, you know, the one thing I look back and realize that was much more important than I knew it at the time, was think about who you build around you as friendships and as a team, because those relationships and by the way, I think this is one of the great benefits of MBA programs because you get a chance to build deeper relationships with people in these programs.

But I said, I look back and I realize that if I'd had those relationships stronger, that I would have been able to go further, faster, because I was never doing it alone. I was always doing it with the support network. So this is my second piece of advice to think about who's going to be a part of your inner circle. Choose them carefully and then invest in them so that they also feel comfortable investing in you. That would be the second thing.

Third thing I would say is recognize that this is quite a long journey for us now. When we look backwards, it seems like it went in the blink of an eye. But when you're looking forward, your career is a long period of time. Where are you going to get the opportunity to make a lot of choices and don't play the short game. Play the long game. Think about how am I continuing to build myself. My expertise is this position that I'm being offered going to help me for the long journey of who I want to become and where I want to end up.

Those are the three pieces of advice I would give for somebody to keep growing.

Anita Brick: Well thank you Ron. Really, really appreciate you for doing this. And taking the time. Great book. Growing Influence, as a story, it's fictionalized. It has some really great content. Thank you for writing it. And thank you very much for making the time.

Ron Price: Thank you, Anita. It's been a pleasure.

Anita Brick: And thank you all for listening. This is Anita Brick with CareerCast at Chicago Booth. Keep advancing.