Influencing Up - Hardcover

by Allan R. Cohen (Author), David L. Bradford (Author)

The authors of the classic Influence Without Authority explain the unique challenges of influencing powerful people

Learn to overcome your difficulties with a boss who is uninterested in your concerns, or resistant to giving needed support. Or discover how to win the cooperation of senior managers who are hard to reach, and hard to sell on your ideas, products, or services. In their classic book, Influence Without Authority, Allan Cohen and David Bradford provided a universal model of how to influence someone you don't control. Influencing Up applies those ideas to problematic bosses and other powerful people, with sophisticated tactics for building partnerships with them.

If you're afraid of retaliation or just unclear as to how to change a senior person's behavior, don't stay paralyzed. Influencing Up gives you the tools to bridge the power gap.

• Offers practical advice about how to turn your relationship with your boss into a partnership in which both parties benefit
• Explains what powerful people care about
• Shows how to overcome power gaps by developing more partner-like relationships

Learn what a great partnership with your boss can do for your career--and your mental health

Front Jacket

No matter what you're trying to accomplish, influence matters. You need powerful people to cooperate in order to get information, approval, resources, introductions, and support just to get your job done. But how do you win cooperation from a boss who is uninterested in your concerns, resistant to change, or threatened by your potential? How do you secure buy-in from senior managers, inside or outside your organization, who are hard to reach, and hard to sell on your ideas, products, or services?

In their classic book, Influence Without Authority, Allan Cohen and David Bradford provided a universal model of how to influence someone you don't control. Influencing Up applies those ideas to problematic bosses and other powerful people, with sophisticated tactics for building partnerships with them. This book explains the dynamics of power and encourages you to engage in difficult conversations, overcome your fear of "no," let go of your understandable "problems with authority," and become willing to give something valuable in order to get cooperation from a powerful person.

If you're afraid of retaliation or just unclear as to how to change a powerful person's behavior, don't remain paralyzed. Influencing Up gives you the tools to bridge the power gap. You'll get critical advice that will help you achieve your goals and elevate your career, including:

• How to overcome the common difficulties that arise when building a partnership relationship with your boss
• How to help your boss succeed
• How to effectively deal with more distant senior executives--inside and outside of your organization--and understand the power discrepancies that come into play
• How to identify relevant stakeholders and assess their role in the change process
• Examples of determined, persistent, and effective influencers who have reached solutions through careful diagnosis or by intuitively sizing up the needs and concerns of others

You can't achieve your objectives without help. If you're trying to make significant contributions at work, you need to learn how to influence powerful people you don't control. Discover what a great partnership with your boss or senior executives can do for your career--and your mental health!

Back Jacket

"As I reflect on over thirty years building my company from a seven cow farm to a $370 million enterprise, it is clear to me that the most essential but under-appreciated attributes that helped us succeed were determination and self-confidence. We faced countless situations along the way where our willingness to speak up for what we needed with key influencers literally made the difference between success and failure. That is why this book is a must for anyone trying to start or build anything. It is loaded with practical wisdom on how to change minds and get the support of key people who will absolutely enhance your chances of success. I only wish Professors Cohen and Bradford had written it thirty years ago . . . we could have used it."
--Gary Hirshberg, Chairman, Stonyfield Farm, Inc.

"Knowing how to connect with the powerful and gain cooperation is now a critical skill in all organizations. Cohen and Bradford can help anyone be more influential."
--Ram Charan, coauthor of Execution The Discipline of Getting Things Done and The Talent Masters

"Allan and David's insights--including their sharp focus on determining exactly what drives people--are extremely useful. Influencing is becoming increasingly important, not only within organizations, but also with powerful people outside who are potential customers and partners."
--Paul Duffy, Chairman and CEO, Pernod Ricard USA

"This insightful book offers ways to marshal resources you don't control--the essential task of everyone trying to grow a business. Because it goes beyond self-oriented and ultimately self-defeating political tactics, it is an antidote to techniques the powerful sometimes use to hoard power by controlling information as well as access to people and resources."
--Joel Peterson, Chairman of JetBlue Airways; former managing partner, Trammell Crow Company

"Allan Cohen and David Bradford demystify the use of personal power to influence the boss, difficult colleagues, clients, and even competitors. Influencing Up is a must-read for those who want to succeed in complex organizations, large and small."
--Kay Koplovitz, founder and former CEO, USA Network

Author Biography

ALLAN R. COHEN is the Edward A. Madden

Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College. He has consulted on organizational change and leadership at a wide variety of organizations, including GE, Polaroid, IBM, and Fidelity, and holds MBA and DBA degrees from Harvard Business School.

DAVID L. BRADFORD is the Eugene O'Kelly Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Emeritus and Director of the Executive Program in Leadership at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has consulted for a wide array of companies, including Frito-Lay, Levi Strauss & Co., Raychem, Genentech, and AutoDesk, as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art.