Influencing Powerful People:

Engage and Command the Attention of the Decision-Makers to Get What You Need to Succeed

Dealing with powerful people can be intimidating. Many of them have reached the height of achievement through a combination of charm, confidence, and rilliance, and they certainly deserve our dmiration and respect. More than likely, owever, they also succeeded as a result of their relentless drive and, in the process, developed reputations for being intense, demanding, and temperamental. How do you keep up with such individuals, gain their confidence, contribute to their enterprise, and ensure that your ideas count?

Influencing Powerful People provides you with the tools you need to connect and get results with key influencers and decision makers—chief executives, department heads, supervisors, and anyone else in a position of authority.

Author Dirk Schlimm, who has frontline experience working with "larger-than-life" leaders, provides sixteen proven rules for working successfully with the powerful people in your life—whether your boss, client, partner, associate, or international counterpart.

These rules include:

Adopt the role of a "helper"
Counter ego with humility
Appreciate who they are and what they do
Do the things they can't
Become an effective counterweight

It's not about giving up your values or telling them what they want to hear—in fact, what powerful people need most often is your loyalty and unbiased perspective. It's about learning to build a relationship and communicating in a way that gets their attention. It's about strategically managing and adapting your everyday behavior so that the powerful people in your life gain confidence in you, appreciate your contribution, and listen to you when charting their course.

No matter what your level in an organization, Influencing Powerful People holds the key to ensuring that you make an impact, earn respect, and progress to even greater achievement and responsibility.

Dirk Schlimm is a corporate director, an executive coach, and the principal of Jenoir Management Consultants. He serves as an adviser to business owners and executives and works with senior leadership teams around the world to increase their alignment and effectiveness. Schlimm, who previously worked as an executive at Husky Injection Molding Systems, has interacted with such powerful leaders as Peter Drucker and Howard Dean.

Table of Contents

Foreword Lawrence Tapp xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xvii

Rule 1 Get Ready for a Potent Mix of Brilliance and Drive 1

Rule 2 Know How to Manage the Supremely Confident 15

Rule 3 Master the Art of First Impressions 33

Rule 4 Know What You Are Doing 47

Rule 5 Save Energy for When It Counts 63

Rule 6 Practice Humility 77

Rule 7 Show Appreciation 89

Rule 8 Sidestep Power with Diplomacy 105

Rule 9 Guard Your Independence 119

Rule 10 Get Results 135

Rule 11 Cover Their Weaknesses 151

Rule 12 Facilitate the Impact of Raw Power 161

Rule 13 Advise Those Who Like to Act 175

Rule 14 Know When (and Whether) to Put On the Brakes-if You Can 187

Rule 15 Coach with Caution 199

Rule 16 Use Your Own Power Well 213

A Final Rule: Powerful People Need People Who Don't Need Them 225

Notes 227

Index 243

272 pages, Hardcover

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czy wybrany tytuł polskojęzyczny lub anglojęzyczny jest aktualnie na półce księgarni.

INFLUENCING POWERFUL PEOPLE

SCHLIMM D.

Influencing Powerful People:

Engage and Command the Attention of the Decision-Makers to Get What You Need to Succeed