I am glad that I got Jo Miller’s Workshop early. The tables filled up well before the 2:00 start time, at this year’s sold out Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing!

Jo Miller starts off stating: if you want to be a leader, you have to be a leader! Nobody will ever tap you on the shoulder and tell you they think you should be one - you have to take charge yourself.

She notes that power & influence can be used for evil manipulation, but it’s obviously not her intention to teach us any of these tricks.

Miller notes that if you want to become a person of influence, you need to make the impression from the start that you are someone that has something to say and should be listened to. As an example, she says that at meetings you should arrive early, be prepared with talking points and sit near the main group. Your behaviour teaches people how to treat you.

We broke off into groups to discuss people we know who are influential and try to figure out why. There were a few examples discussed at our table on positive person of influence.

Elements of Influence:

• Relationship Influence:
  • Knowing who the key people in your organization, profession and industry and building a network of them.
  • This is the most important asset.
• Direct Influence:
  • You have got to be firm, professional and direct when you encounter behaviour which is detrimental to the team or organization.
  • BUT: this cannot be how you run your team or organization or you will just have people that are afraid of you, don’t like you, don’t respect you and are demotivated.  Miller recommends doing this for only the 1% of the cases, doing it in private, being firm, fair, professional and direct, giving specific examples and giving the individual a positive vision for how things will change for them if they change their behaviour.
• Informational Influence:
  • You have got to try to have a ” finger on the pulse” of the organization (business & personnel) issues, but you have to be able to filter out the noise and the gossip.
  • Seek information before they become real
  • Doing this will help you make better business decisions and be able to change direction sooner when necessary.
• Resources Influence:
  • Having access to the resources you need to do your job well, knowing how to best use the ones you have and demonstrate that you can do so responsibly.
  • Learn matrix management and become a strong negotiatory
• Expertise Influence:
  • The influence that comes from you background, qualifications, experience and expertise.
  • Make sure you don’t downplay yourself, don’t defer questions to someone else not in the room if it’s something you yourself can figure out, promote your accomplishments and set up presentations yourself to promote your expertise.
  • Miller quotes a Newsweek article that women underestimate their own intelligence and experience while men overestimate theirs, which may help explain the promotion disparity.
• Positional Influence
  • This is the influence you get by your job title and role in an organization.  What this means is that no matter what other people say, title really does matter, though Miller says title is not enough, you need a 30-second “self-commercial”:
    • Name, Job Title, “I am responsible for…a, b, c” and “Come directly to me when you need… x, y, z”

Jo Miller has put her entire presentation on-line.