Andrea Ames' lunchtime keynote at LavaCon 2013.

1. Embrace Your Power,
Embrace Your Power,
Influence Will Follow
Influence Will Follow
Andrea L. Ames (@aames)
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member and
Content Experience Strategist/Architect/Designer
LavaCon (@LavaCon)
21 October 2013
@aames @LavaCon

2. About Andrea


Technical communicator since 1983
Areas of expertise
Information experience design: Content strategy,
information architecture, and interaction design for
content display and delivery, within products and
interactive information delivery systems
 Architecture, design, and development of embedded assistance (content within
or near the product user interface)
 Information and product usability, from analysis through validation
 User-centered process for information development and
information experience design





IBM Senior Technical Staff Member on corporate Total Information
Experience team in IBM CIO’s office
University of CA Extension certificate coordinator and instructor
STC Fellow, past president (2004-05), former member of
Board of Directors (1998-2006), and Intercom columnist (with Alyson Riley)
of The Strategic IA
ACM Distinguished Engineer
2
@aames @LavaCon

3. Today, we’re going to talk about…
Power
And influence
Your “innate” power
How your power influences—consciously or not
Using your power and influence for good
3
@aames @LavaCon

4. Why?



If you can:
 Design two UI panels
 Write three pages
 Create five icons
 Drive 10 marketing campaigns
 Track 45 project work items
 Write 90 lines of code
in a day, how many are accomplished when three people are driving,
tracking, writing, designing, creating? 50? 500? 5,000?
Are you expert at every aspect of technical communication, marketing,
support, strategy, project management, your product, etc.? If so, do you
have the bandwidth to be a one-person show?
Most complex situations require multiple judgments, skills, and experiences
And most importantly…
Have you ever had a great, innovative idea—like the need for a unified content
strategy??—and wanted it implemented in your organization?
4
@aames @LavaCon

5. Technical skills and knowledge
vs. soft skills
Easier to see
and develop
Harder to see
and develop
Skill
Knowledge
Necessary but
not sufficient
Soft skills, including
leadership, personal and
power management,
influence
Characteristics
for greater
success
5
@aames @LavaCon

6. POWER
@aames @LavaCon

7. Are you feeling powerful?
Please, quickly
audit your body.
7
@aames @LavaCon

8. Who is feeling
powerful?
Helpless
Depressed
Powerless
Submissive
Happy
Warrior
Elated
Enthusiastic
Energized
Leader
8
@aames @LavaCon

9. Who is feeling
powerful?





Helpless
Depressed
Powerless
Submissive





Happy
Warrior
Elated
Enthusiastic
Energized
Leader
9
@aames @LavaCon

10. 10
@aames @LavaCon

11. What makes us appear—and
feel!—powerless?

In our body language





Slumped shoulders
Crossed arms or legs
Lack of eye contact
Touching hair or face
In our speech




Hesitation: “Uh” or “um”
Hedges: “Sort of,” “kind of,” or “I guess so”
Tag questions: “This is …, don’t you think?”
Disclaimers: “I don’t know everything about this
topic, but …”
11
@aames @LavaCon

12. When it’s useful: Disclaimers
IF USED CAREFULLY…
 When you are perceived to be in a
position of power, to be non-threatening
and get those in less powerful positions to
speak up and contribute
 When actually, or being perceived to,
directly challenge those in power
12
@aames @LavaCon

13. What makes us appear—and
feel!—powerful?

In our body language
 Stand
or sit with good posture
 Spread out; take up space
 Make appropriate eye contact
(within cultural norms)

In our speech
 Use
strong words; avoid hesitation words
 Utilize voice inflection
 Speak loudly and clearly and with
a powerful tone
 Understand your audience
13
@aames @LavaCon

14. We can learn a lot
from animals, because
power is primal.
http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/gorilla/behavior.htm
Own the space.
Cesar Millan, Cesar’s Rules
http://books.google.com/books/about/Cesar_s_Rules.html?id=vpm6mpBvRGwC
@cesarmillan
14
@aames @LavaCon

15. Amy Cuddy’s life hack
@amyjcuddy
1.
2.
Stand up
Raise your arms above
your head in a victory
stance
Practice for two minutes
prior to social or stressful
situations
Amy Cuddy: “Your body language shapes who you are” TED talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html
15
@aames @LavaCon

16. Our bodies can change our minds!
It’s not about being insincere!
This is our “innate” power!
Fake it until you
become it!
Amy Cuddy: “Your body language shapes who you are” TED talk
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html
16
@aames @LavaCon

17. INFLUENCE
@aames @LavaCon

18. From Wikipedia, influence is…
When the actions or thoughts
of individuals are changed
by another individual



Amount of influence you exert often determined by your
confidence/self-esteem and perceived persona
Ability to influence also affected by your perceived expertise, or
credibility—others’ trust of you and your knowledge or skill
Sometimes seen as persuasion, guiding people toward the adoption
of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic (though not
always logical) means
18
@aames @LavaCon

19. Black magic?

Is it…
 Charisma?
 Good
looks?
 Money?
 A talent that you’re born with?

It can’t be learned, developed, refined,
improved, right?
19
@aames @LavaCon

20. How I like to think of it



It’s something you
acquire via your actions
and attitude
Managing yourself and
your attitude
Leadership—the ability
to (from Tom Peters)





Inspire
Liberate
Achieve
Gaining respect and trust
Leading in every direction




Setting and
communicating a clear
vision with enthusiasm
Inspiring enthusiasm
in others
Getting things done
through others that you
could not achieve alone
It’s not black magic
20
@aames @LavaCon

21. What some experts say
John Maxwell
 James Kouzes and Barry Posner
 Joel Garfinkle

21
@aames @LavaCon

22. Five levels
of leadership
John Maxwell
(@johncmaxwell),
Developing the
Leader within You
22
@aames @LavaCon

23. Five ways to be Influential
Joel Garfinkle (@workcoach4you),
Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level
23
@aames @LavaCon

24. Five practices of exemplary leadership
James Kouzes (@Jim_Kouzes) and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge

Model the way
Go first, set the example

Inspire a shared vision
Enlist others in the vision, know constituents and speak
their language

Challenge the process
Innovate, grow, improve, experiment, take risks

Enable others to act
Foster collaboration and build trust

Encourage the heart
Recognize contributions, celebrate values and victories
24
@aames @LavaCon

25. Five key themes
Credibility
 Trust
 Exemplar
 Enable others
 Inspire others

Self
Relationships
25
@aames @LavaCon

26. Shoring up your power
and influence
Skills and knowledge
(necessary, but
not sufficient)
 Professionalism (“soft skills”)

 Goleman’s
emotional intelligence
 Covey’s seven habits
 Maxwell’s approach to attitude
and 360-degree leadership
References at the end of this presentation
26
@aames @LavaCon

27. USING POWER AND
INFLUENCE RESPONSIBLY
@aames @LavaCon

28. Why we use our power
Jay Hall and James Hawker, Power Management Inventory






Personalized: achievement of personal gain
Socialized: need to influence others’ behavior for the
common good
Affiliative: need to be liked by others
Effective use of power within the org is necessary
Strong power motivation is essential to good leaders
(managers)
Socialized power leads to more successful leadership
(management) than personalized power
28
@aames @LavaCon

29. Once you embrace your power…

How do you use your influence?

Only for good, not evil. 
29
@aames @LavaCon

30. Influence model: Reciprocity
Allan Cohen and David Bradford, Influence without Authority

Think in terms of currencies
 Inspiration-related
 Task-related
 Position-
related
 Personal
30
@aames @LavaCon

31. Contextual forces shape behavior
Allan Cohen and David Bradford, Influence without Authority
31
@aames @LavaCon

32. Questions?
32
@aames @LavaCon

33. Resources used/cited




Allan Cohen and DavidBradford,
Influence without Authority
Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People
Amy Cuddy: “Your body language
shapes who you are” TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cud
dy_your_body_language_shapes_
who_you_are.html
Joel Garfinkle, Getting Ahead:
Three Steps to Take Your Career
to the Next Level







Daniel Goleman, Emotional
Intelligence
Jay Hall and James Hawker,
Power Management Inventory
James Kouzes and Barry Posner,
The Leadership Challenge
John Maxwell, Developing the
Leader within You
John Maxwell, The 360-Degree
Leader
John Maxwell, Attitude 101
Cesar Millan, Cesar’s Rules
33
@aames @LavaCon

34. Related resources


David Allen, Getting Things Done
(GTD)
Amy Cuddy, Act Powerful, Be
Powerful:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/28/op
inion/cuddy-power-posing/


Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson,
David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and
Al Switzler, Influencer: The New
Science of Leading Change
Phil Harkins, Powerful
Conversations: How High Impact
Leaders Communicate
34
@aames @LavaCon