Download Roisin Gwyer

‘Influencing up’ in a library
setting
Roisin Gwyer
University Librarian
University of Portsmouth
Summer Conference
18th-19th June 2015
University Librarian job descriptions behaviours
Item
Leadership
Relationship building
Communication skills
Emotional intelligence
Interpersonal skills
Influencing skills
Negotiation skills
Resilience
Vision
Motivation
Change management
Service excellence
Professional development
Creativity
Inspiration
Advocacy skills
Credibility
Equality and diversity
Integrity
Strategy implementation
Time management
Conflict resolution
Listening skills
Profile
Accountability
Consultation skills
Decision making
Library awareness
UK HE awareness
Number of instances
33
29
27
25
14
12
10
10
9
8
7
7
6
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
Influence styles and
tactics
Influence techniques
Rational persuasion
The agent uses logical arguments & factual evidence to show
a proposal or request is feasible & relevant for attaining
important task objectives
Apprising
The agent explains how carrying out a request or supporting a
proposal will benefit the target personally or help advance the
target person’s career
Inspirational appeals
The agent makes an appeal to values and ideals or seeks to
arouse the target person’s emotions to gain commitment for a
request or proposal
Consultation
The agent encourages the target to suggest improvements in a
proposal or to help plan an activity of change for which the
target person’s support & assistance is required
Collaboration
The agent offers to supply relevant resources & assistance if the
target will carry out a request or approve a proposed change
Ingratiation
The agent uses praise & flattery before or during an influence
attempt, or expresses confidence in the target’s ability to carry
out a difficult request
Personal appeals
The agent asks the target to carry out a request or support a
proposal out of friendship, or asks for a personal favour before
saying what it is
Exchange
The agent offers an incentive, suggests an exchange of favours,
or indicates a willingness to reciprocate at a later time if the
target will do what the agent requests
Coalition tactics
The agent seeks the aid of others to persuade the target to do
something, or uses the support of others as a reason for the
target to agree
Legitimating tactics The agent seeks to establish the legitimacy of a request or to
verify the authority to make it by referring to rules, policies,
contracts or precedent
Pressure
The agent uses demands, threats, frequent checking, or
persistent reminders to influence the target to carry out the
request
Influencing Skills Styles Profile of health library
and information managers (Sutton & Booth, 2011)
Leadership style
Preferred tactic
Strategist
Work to a strategy in a
planned way
Reason
Assertion
Partnership
Opportunist
React to situations as they
arise and develop
Ingratiation
Exchange
Collaborator
Adapts position to fit in
with others
Partnership
Reason
Exchange
Ingratiation
Battler
Concentrate on getting
what they want to achieve
and are prepared to use
sanctions
Coercion
Assertion
Being more opportunistic
• Develop an ‘elevator pitch’ to use when the occasion
presents itself (Aurora used this method)
• Encourage your staff to be influential (crib-sheets)
• Say what you want in one sentence
• Use any opportunity to demonstrate professionalism and
show value of the service to the organisation
• Talk up your ideas to others who may have influence (the
core team)
• Talk about your ideas in other places (committees,
meetings) to get ideas generally accepted (20 times?)
• Be ready to move quickly when an opportunity arises
• Prepare a compromise so you look flexible
Influence as part of
leadership style
Transformational v. transactional
leadership
Transformational leaders inspire and motivate
others to build a shared vision (use rational
persuasion, consultation, collaboration & inspirational appeal)
Transactional leaders reward others in return
for work towards a prescribed goal
Influential leadership
Burton and Dalley (2007)* summarise ‘the art of influencing’
as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
An understanding of who you are and what you stand for
Congruence and authenticity
Empathy with others
Communication capability
Intent (operating from values such as truth, trust, integrity)
Ease with uncertainty
Ease with interdependence
*cited in Roberts & Rowley, (2008)
The values of librarianship
These include a belief in:
• The value of information
• Accessibility to information, services and support
• A customer focus
• A belief in social inclusion
CILIP’s ethical principles expand on these values
e.g. providing the best possible service within the available
resources
Effective library leaders …
• Manage resources well (staff, space, money)
• Use information critically and ethically
• Manage information well, and in an ethical and legally compliant
way
• Focus on customer service – both customer service as a set of skills
and attitudes and understanding the needs of a variety of
‘customers’
• Use space imaginatively (and provide services over extended
periods of operation)
• Work through building relationships with stakeholders (and
networking with each other)
• Commit to quality enhancement
• Promote their service and the organisation
• Act entrepreneurially, offering solutions to institutional problems
The way we work
Effective strategies : within the
organisation
• Build good social networks and enlist allies to
your cause
• Identify the core group and maintain good
relations with them
• Engage with the wider organisation by working
outside the library (perhaps on a secondment) or
by serving on organisation-wide committees.
This builds knowledge of the organisation to
complement your own specialist knowledge
Effective strategies : within the
organisation
• Become an active policy entrepreneur, take
advantage of any opportunities to advance the
library’s agenda (make presentations, attend
away days)
• Consider how the values and competencies
inherent in information work can add value to
other parts of the organisation, take an holistic
approach and work collaboratively
• Make the needs of users or customers your
priority
Effective strategies : leadership style
• Practice transformational leadership, in particular
develop rational persuasion and inspirational
appeal influence strategies
• Use different strategies to those employed to
influence downwards, match the strategy to the
situation
• Maintain congruence between your values and
your message. Make it authentic
Effective strategies : the message
• Be prepared to sell your idea and to take
responsibility for it
• Focus on the larger good not on achieving
individual objectives
• Provide a realistic cost-benefit analysis
• Use user demand to back up arguments,
especially issues which will affect a large number
of people or which will have a dramatic effect on
a smaller number
Effective strategies : the message
• Make the task/resolution seem incremental
rather than imposing
• Develop a preferred way to address an issue and
have this ready in advance so that if a crisis does
happen you are in a position to influence the
reaction
Cohen, A.R & Bradford, D. L. (2012). Influencing up. New Jersey, Wiley
Gwyer, R. (2009). Theory, research and practice in library management 7 :
Influencing up. Library Management, 30 (6) : 479-486
Roberts, S. & Rowley, J. (2008). Leadership the challenge for the
information profession. London, Facet
Sutton, A. & Booth, A. (2011). What type of leader am I?: a training needs
analysis of health library and information managers. Health Information
and Libraries Journal, 29 : 39-46
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organisations. 8th ed. London, Pearson
Pacelli, L. (2006 Nov 17). Thirteen tips to effective upward management).
Blog post. Retrieved from
http://www.ftpress.com/articles/article.aspx?p=668004