Description of Challenge
Those of us who wish to change our world into a better place, often come at this with
an attitude of righteousness and innocence. We have a tendency to distrust power (and
how it can corrupt) and so stay away from it. We may fear appearing controlling and
manipulative, and so shy away from ethical political influencing and so are likely to die
‘right’, but ineffective.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man
stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs
to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and
blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again [... who] if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold
and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
Solution
To become effective we need to understand how power operates, e.g. how decisions
are actually made, how to build alliances and coalitions and how to sense the right
moment to act. We need to give up the wish to be popular and understood by
everyone. We need to surrender our naivety and be willing to take difficult decisions. In
essence, to act ‘politically’.
References:
● Exercise: Political Influencing (to be linked)
● https://futureleadership10.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/politicalskillsmodel.pdf
● http://www.alchemyformanagers.co.uk/topics/thExUEu55GwBEw4D.html
Submitted by Robin/Kosha
Developed in collaboration with
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