The Cranky Middle Manager #100 Influencing Upwards Marshall Goldsmith
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #100 (MP3 13.1MB 28:37Min)
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Welcome to our 100th Episode! 2 years and 100 conversations later, we’re still at it. When I tried to figure out how to commemorate this occasion, I decided that with a couple of minor exceptions it’s business as usual. Our guest is Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There on the topic of Influencing Upwards Thank you all for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.
Don’t forget you can receive our newsletter- drop me a line at wayne@crankymiddlemanager.com and put “Subscribe” in the subject line.
Show Notes
0:00 Okay, so it’s 2 years and a hundred shows that we’ve been doing this little experiment. How’s it going? For newbies, this is the show dedicated to the kinds of conversations managers really have- what’s it all about? Why do we do this? How do we do what we need to do every day and still keep body and soul intact? We asked our most popular guest (Marshall Goldsmith) the question I get asked most often- “how do you influence upwards in your own organization and get the boss’s buy-in”?
Oh, and Cameron Reilly, CEO of The Podcast Network drops me a little congratulations message in his own inimitable style
3:33 A special guest star (okay, my daughter) does the quote of the week. At points in these two years (and just now returning from holiday) you need to hear stuff like this.
4:05 Welcome Marshall Goldsmith who owes us a huge debt of gratitude, and he knows it. (Listen to his first interview with us here)The question that I get most often is: influencing upwards. Why is that the thing that makes intelligent, discerning folks like listeners of this show so crazy? Marshall starts by quoting Peter Drucker… we focus downwards, not upwards. Oh yeah, and too much data is a career killer.
NOTE: Marshall is refusing to put a money back guarantee on this advice. I will gladly refund whatever you paid to listen to this. What a guy, huh?
8:45 Okay, here’s the thing you have to know. The person with the power to make the decision is the person who makes the decision. Being right is no guarantee. Grow up and quit whining. I don’t know where the number came from, but Marshall claims that we spend 15 hours a month whining and complaining about upper management.
12:02 Here’s the dirty little secret. You have to think like a sales person. Get over your hatred of the sales weasels and take responsibility. It’s your job to sell to the decision maker. The biggest thing is to be able to say why your idea is good for the whole organization, not just your department.
16:18 Pick your fights. Having to be right about little things is a credibilty destroyer. They’ll forgive you fighting for the big stuff.
17:30 Be prepared to present a realistic cost-benefit analysis… don’t try to snow your boss with only the benefits and features.
20:30 Never surrender on issues of ethics and morals. Just be careful of how you define them. Make sure that you couch it in how it will appear rather than that it IS unethical or wrong.
25:20 Don’t say, “I’m amazed that someone at this level…..” does such and such. Take a bunch of old men and give them money status and power they will act like people always do.
27:09 Marshall’s new book pick is Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb
June 28th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Wayne:
Thought provoking show. That bit about “all decisions are made by the person with the power to make them” especially got me going. As I listened to it, I found myself wanting to push back, but realized there was a lot of truth to what Marshall was saying.
However, there is also a corollary that people with power need to understand - “All problems are solved by people who know how to solve them.”
The trick to a well run organization is setting up communications paths where the people with power learn to talk to the people with knowledge and where the people with knowledge learn to communicate that knowledge effectively. It is even better when the organization actually promotes and develops people based on their overall ability to both communicate and really solve problems.
Unfortunately, many organizations seem to give power to people who smile nicely, manage to paint lipstick on a pig, or who figure out devious ways to get credit for other people’s work.
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:11 am
Wayne - Thanks again for asking me to do this. Working with you is a joy!
Rod - I completely agree with you! If you go to my website (MarshallGoldsmithLibrary) - click on ‘articles (free) - and scroll down - you will find an article called ‘All of Us Are Stuck on Suck-Ups’. I hope that you enjoy it!
July 10th, 2007 at 7:17 am
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/505686/19870322
A little link love from our boy Phil Gerbyshak
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:30 am
Oh great… Now you had to go ahead and make me buy another book.
Sheesh!
August 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am
hi i enjoyed the read
August 16th, 2008 at 11:44 am
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