About UsProgrammingConsultingJournalsTrainingCAD NewsContact Us
Influence is needed to get things done

It is not enough to be prepared, technically competent, in charge or organized.  You need to deal with people on many different levels in different situations.  

  1. Dealing with conflict
  2. Interacting with your boss or upper management
    3.
  3. Selling your ideas on what CAD can be
  4. Expanding your staff
  5. Getting a budget approved
    6.
  6. Serving on teams or task forces
  7. Steering through company politics
    8.
  8. Surviving organizational change
  9. Initiating organizational change
  10. People not wanting to follow the CAD Standard
  11. Working for a new boss
  12. Dealing with new users

CAD Managers have to learn to act and react in different ways depending on the situation.

For example.  Take item #1 - Dealing with conflict.  Sometimes you need to push a little to get people to work it out.  If someone is in conflict with you, you may need to pull back a little.  Seek to understand others perspectives and then to have them understand you.  When seeking to resolve conflict, always keep in mind that positive outcome does not always mean getting your way.  If you win the battle, you may damage the relationship.  Choose your battles carefully.  It may be better to back off on an issue for a short time and press ahead again at a later time.

In #2 above - Interacting with your boss or management - you should seek to find out what others want and what is their agenda, before you push ahead with yours.  If you know that your direction is in conflict with what they are seeking then you can regroup.  You could reframe the objective in terms of the goals of the team.  Always put you ideas surrounded with terms that your management would use.

Think through the issues that surround each of the areas above.  Be a champion for the new and innovative.  Always think about productivity.  People skills need to be fully developed.  You need to adjust to others.  Keep things positive.  Embrace the company objectives.  Extend them to your area.

When someone hits #10 - What do you do?

First ask why they cannot follow the standard.  Find out what they are trying to achieve that they think the Standard is preventing them from getting there.  Frame your comments back to them as concerns.  "I am concerned that if we stop doing it the right way, then others might want to do the same thing."  Talk in terms of getting the Standards in place in the future.  "We could deviate in order to get the files plotted and then go back and fix them".  Negotiate a time to do that and the people who will do the fixing.

The point in influencing others is to achieve your goals.  It is not to get your way.  It is to get your ends, the means may be different from what you may have wanted, but if the goal is achieved, then rejoice.