If you’re getting bogged down by details of how something is going to happen when you’re supposed to be, or want to be, the one looking at the big picture then try doing these five things to increase your influence.
1. Know how to sell your ideas
We tend to believe those who are more persuasive, even when it comes to something as important as voting for our country’s leaders. Sometimes the inherent quality of an idea will win out despite stumbles and poor word choice, but more often it’s tied to how well the person who champions it carries themselves.
This doesn’t mean that you need to push your ideas like a snake-oil salesman. It could mean that you know that this person is more willing to listen if you approach them after lunch instead of first thing in the morning. Or that Mary down the hall wants it straight up but John one floor down prefers to figure out the steps for himself from incomplete information.
2. Know your environment
Read the high level journals and magazines that discuss things of note happening in general and be able to discuss them with others. Even better, find ways to quantify the relevant trends. In business, this would incude whatever CEOs are reading. The exact collection will depend on your field.
3. Know how your people are affected by the environment
Your people can mean customers, co-workers, constituents, or any other group you’re interacting with. The point is to make the connections between what they are experiencing and the bigger picture, somethng it can be difficult to do when you’re only looking at your own issues.
4. Share your knowledge
You don’t want to be the only one who knows about the idea and the plan. Even if everyone around you has contributed to the development, they still may not know all the facets. Hoarding the knowledge doesn’t help you, it just puts you in the position of being a human filing cabinet. When everyone can reach the details, then you can continue watching and maing connections to the big picture.
5. Play the part
Lead by example. Be the person who keeps the vision in mind and facilitates all the other necessary pieces without taking them away from someone else. Make sure that you are adding value with your bigger picture view and not being the supervisor who airily waves his hands and doesn’t accomplish anything!
What and Why Vs. How
How is important and extremely valuable. There needs to be a way to go from the big picture to the actual result. Yet there are usually specialists or subject matter experts that are going to be able to figure out those details better than the person who is trying to develop the big picture.
How is important enough that it takes up large amounts of time and a different mental lookout. It’s important enough that it should often be done by someone other than the person working on what and why.
Trying to do both can be stressful and crowd out the ability to make vision possible. If you’re trying to do both, then carve out and set aside blocks of time to do the development work on “what and why” and let the “how” fill in the cracks
Product Management: An Example
This framework was enlarged from a more specific presentation by John Mansour of ZigZag Marketing about how a Product Manager or Marketer should exert influence. He called them the conscience of the company, as the CEO interacted with the investors and all the various divisions had their own particular priorities and point of view.
The Product Manager is determining what customers need based on the market conditions. The Product Marketer is making the most of the current products that a business has. In either case, it’s the what and why connections that are important for success and other team members who need to develop the how, even if they happen to share the same title within the organization. They have a number of other relevant articles on their site, such as one explaining why too much knowledge about your product can be a bad thing and an earlier take on how product management can improve its influence.
ProductCamp New York City
I listened to John’s presentation at an “unconference” held in New York City. The goal was a self-organizing gathering of information and sharing on topics relevant to Product Management and Marketing and the entire event went off fantastically. If the idea appeals to you, there is a list of current and future PCamps here. ProductCamp itself grew from the concept of BarCamp, which embraces a variety of other subject matter. I also blogged about our keynote speaker, the CMO of Kodak, over on my new marketing blog.
