Influencing Powerful People – #10
“Understand that powerful people think of others as their helpers first and foremost. Let them know that this is what you are there to do. However, don’t let the helper paradigm stifle your creativity and ambition to lead.”
Dirk Schlimm in ‘Influencing Powerful People’, (2011)
“Powerful People” – they hold ‘position power’ over other people, the power bosses hold over subordinates. They hold other types of power…as examples, the power tied to having control of money and the power tied to a track record of setting goals, influencing results and meeting goals.
Powerful people exist in every successful business.
Business founders hold special power. Business founders saw market needs, stepped up to address those needs and influenced others to join their businesses. If they succeeded in their business then their power was effective and put to good use. If they failed in business their power was, for one reason or another, ineffective.
Sometimes we judge business leaders harshly because they don’t treat us the way we want. Instead of shifting our ‘mindset paradigm’ to consider the opportunities that exist in the leader’s view of our role, we refuse to align with the leader…sometimes, we resist subversively. When our mindsets are in resistance mode, we have allowed the leader’s character and style to bring out the worst in us. With our mindsets focused on resistance, we choose to bury our curiosity. When we make that choice, we stifle our own attention to opportunities and we stifle our own creativity.
We must not blame powerful people for our choices; we must learn how to make and implement better choices when we deal with powerful people. In his book and his teaching, Dirk helps us learn how to make and implement better choices.
