DYNAMIC OF LEADERSHIP - Reflection Week 5 (Influencing, Power, Politics, Networking and Negotiation)

Reflection Week 5 (Influencing, Power, Politics, Networking and Negotiation)

The fifth class of Dynamics of Leadership was started on Tuesday, 23^rd April 2024 with a topic of ‘Influencing, Power, Politics, Networking and Negotiation’. Influencing in leadership refers to the ability of a leader to inspire, motivate, and guide others towards a common goal. It involves effectively communicating ideas, building relationships, and gaining the trust and respect of team members. Influencing behaviour is not a one-time event, but a continuous process and investment that organizations should make in their employees. By incorporating influence training into leadership development programs, organizations are setting their leaders up for success [13]. Prof Jamilah further explain about 9 influencing tactics; Inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalitions, legitimization, pressure and rational persuasion. From Prof Jamilah slide is refer to source that adapted from J.French and B.H Raven.1959, “The bases of social power”. These tactics are ways in which individuals translate power bases into specific actions.

Below is the summary of the 9 influencing tactics as stated before;

Rational persuasion	A tactic that is used to try and convince someone with a valid reason, rational logic, or realistic facts.
Inspirational appeals	A tactic that builds enthusiasm by appealing to emotions, ideas and/or values. Gains support and acceptance through leading with inspiration, vision and value.
Consultation	A tactic that focuses on getting others to participate in the planning process, making decisions, and encourage changes. Asks the followers for suggestions to help improve a plan or activity to gain buy-in.
Ingratiation	A tactic that emphasizes on getting someone in a good mood prior to making a request. It includes being friendly, helpful, and using praise or flattery. Uses praise and flattery to gain support.
Personal appeals	A tactic that refers to friendship and loyalty while making a request.
Exchange	A tactic that suggests that making express or implied promises and trading favours.
Coalition tactics	Refers to a tactic that prescribes getting others to support your effort to persuade someone. Influences the target to do something by enlisting the aid or support of others.
Pressure	A tactic that focuses on demanding compliance or using intimidation or threats. Uses demands, threats, frequent checking or persistent reminders to influence others to do something.
Legitimating tactics	This tactic suggests that basing a request on one’s authority or right, organizational rules or policies, or express or implied support from superiors, is a best.

 

From research [14], among these tactics, inspirational appeal, consultation and rational persuasion were found to be the most effective influence methods (with inspirational appeal being the most effective among all three); coalition and pressure were found to be the least effective influence methods (these tactics tend to be not only ineffective, but they have negative impacts on employee outcomes). A further examination of these influence attempts found that despite the effectiveness of these tactics, the most frequently used influence methods were using pressure, exchange, coalition and weak rational.

From these finding I can see that managers and leaders should start to develop more skills in using these effective influence tactics and decrease the use of the methods with negative impacts to the employee.

Next slide is about ‘Power’ of the leadership. The concept of power refers to the capacity that a person has to influence the behaviour of another person. From my opinion, leaders will use power that they get from the organization from their position to persuades other individual or employees to support leader’s goal or company direction. There are 2 sources of ‘Power’ as per below:

1)    Informal Power refers to the power that comes from an individual’s unique characteristics. These are the most effective because personal skills, traits and knowledge influence personal power.

2)    Formal Power refers to the power that establishes because of the individual’s position in an organization.

Next slide is about ‘Type of Power’ including referent, legal/legitimate, expert, reward, information/resources, coercive/punishment, connection. Power in leadership allows managers to help their teams reach common goals. There are many types of power they may have, depending on their role, personality and experience. Exploring each type can help you learn about your current or potential management approach so you feel equipped to educate, encourage and persuade your team.

I did summarize the type of power below based on additional research that I made refer to [15];

Referent	Based on respect. It occurs when a leader has strong interpersonal skills, so others follow them because they find the leader inspiring. For example, an employee who wants to resolve a conflict refers to what his mentor might do and follows that model to resolve the issue.
Legal/legitimate	Leaders with legitimate power can influence employees because their position dictates it. An example of legitimate power is military rank. All lower-ranking members abide by the direction of their commanding officer and other high-ranking officials. This structure helps maintain organization and ensures everyone works toward the same goals.
Expert	Expert power exists in an organization when one member possesses skills others don't have. This leads others to defer to the expert. Employees typically assume managers or executives possess some skill or knowledge that others don't, but anyone in the organization can hold expert power.
Reward	Gifts can give someone the ability to influence the behaviour of others. Reward power exists when a manager has the power to offer incentives to employees who perform well. For example, offering a raise to employees with the highest sales numbers signifies reward power.
Information/resources	Someone holds informational power when they know something others don't. This type of power lasts as long as the information is not known to others. This puts the person in possession of the information in a unique position to leverage this power however they choose.
Coercive/punishment	Coercive power is the power someone gains through threat or force. Managers can use this type of power positively, such as when they use discipline when a team member breaks rules to help them correct their behaviour and improve their productivity.
Connection	Leaders have connection power when their alliance with influential people is admired and desired by others. The connection gives people the sense that the leader possesses or has access to the same power that the influential person has.

 

Additionally, as a workplace leader, reward power may be most effective when the reward is something relevant to the employees. Having something they desire can encourage boosts in productivity. Keeping incentives attainable can allow you to improve or maintain morale among your team. The difference between informational power and expert power is that you don't need expertise in a certain topic to have informational power. The information you have can involve what you learn from others, through experience or through education. You can have informational power once or many times throughout your career. By understanding the different types of power, we will know which ones are most likely to give positive results. We will also know which power bases we should avoid relying on too heavily. Remember that effective leaders often combine multiple types of power to create a positive and productive work environment.

 

Prof Jamilah then notified the class that what is the most effective way to accumulate power in an organization. The answer is through ‘kindness’ by provide services, favors, and assistance to everyone within the organization. Bu, one of student raise hand and disagree with Prof Jamilah statement. He said that kindness will make people like and influence by leader’s kindness, but we cannot simply be as ‘kindness’ always to our employee. What about from my own perspective? Is it leaders to be ‘kindness’? Yes, it depends on the situation. Finding this balance is an ongoing process. Leaders who combine kindness with assertiveness create a positive work environment, build trust, and achieve better results. Prof Jamilah gave an example of the dog. From the stranger to the master of the dog because of the kindness by giving a food to the dog.

 

Move to a topic of ‘Politics’. I wonder that the word ‘politics’ itself have the connection to ‘influence’ and ‘power’ that Prof Jamilah discussed and explain before. As we all know, a good leader can motivate their followers to complete a task they would not do independently, in other word leader can influence their followers. Great leaders are honest, ethical, and competent. Their subordinates and peers also respect them. A good leader is intelligent, ambitious, and creative. They’re also social, so they can easily communicate with their followers. Political leaders must have a broad world perspective, including understanding their people. Good political leadership is a combination of morals and competence. The actions of great leaders often define good leadership. For example, Nelson Mandela was a leader who fought for equal rights and overcame many obstacles.

 

What defines good political leadership? When I think of a leader, I think a leader should have integrity and empathy for those they lead, as well as an understanding that listening is just as essential as speaking up. A leader must have good intellectual level where a leader should make quick decisions for the situation face by the organization or the country. But, in a small organization like our family, a leader such as a father itself, must have such a knowledge especially when the children ask for what they don't know. 

 

Next discussion is about ‘Networking’ in leadership. Effective networking is exchanging new ideas, helping others and access to honest information. Building a strong diverse, professional network is vital for today’s leaders. We need leaders who adapt to ongoing global uncertainty and disruption, to harness innovation and solve complex problems such as environmental sustainability and social inequity [16].

Diagram show networking and connectivity within the circles of the organizations

 

Networking refers to activities that are associated with developing and managing relationships that give rise to relational power. Networking is an important aspect of a leader’s role in organizations. In research done on 450 managers, it was found that networking is the largest contributor to their success (defined in terms of speed of promotion). Another study on India-born entrepreneurs found that active participation in networks is linked positively to success of new ventures and their growth [17].

 

From my point of view, networking is important in leadership, especially to create a political between leaders, employees and also to other beneficial parties. With additional information about networking, I did some research about how to build an effective leadership networking? There are 6 rules for effective leadership networking [18].

  6 rules for effective leadership networking

 

For the last slide before proceed for group presentation, Prof Jamilah explain about ‘Negotiation Process’ in leadership. Negotiation process in leadership involves the ability to effectively communicate, collaborate, and reach agreements with others in order to achieve common goals. It requires leaders to understand the needs and interests of all parties involved, identify potential areas of compromise, and work towards a mutually beneficial outcome. Below slide was a screenshot from Prof Jamilah class taken on 23//4/2024.

 Slide from Prof Jamilah on “Negotiation Process”

From the slide, we can see the negotiations process spit into 2 either agreement (close the deal) or no agreement. If no agreement on the deals, then make it as postponement and will later to plan again for further negotiation process. If the result is still no agreement, we should ask for mediator or what we call it ‘orang tengah’ for any clarification (good for 3 times attempt only) before we bring to higher end. The negotiation process in leadership is important because it allows leaders to effectively communicate, collaborate, and make decisions with others. By negotiating, leaders can build relationships, resolve conflicts, and reach mutually beneficial agreements. This skill is crucial for successful leadership as it helps in managing diverse viewpoints, balancing competing interests, and achieving organizational goals.

Before end of lecture, Prof Jamilah describes an effective leader must have a brain and knowledge, despite a good attitude by using the power, influencing the right techniques, know to use networking and know how to conduct the negotiation skills. All these matters are very important in leadership.