Power, Influence, and Politics: Mastering Stakeholder Management with Vijay Verma
What You Will Learn
Upon completion of this training, learners will be able to:
- Identify eight sources of power, evaluate their own power level, and develop strategies to increase their power and influence.
- Analyze the political landscape, identify three political positions, and develop strategies to turn adversaries and opponents into allies.
- Identify five categories of stakeholders based on dimensions of trust and agreement and develop strategies to engage stakeholders effectively.
Description
The more power you have and the better you know how to use it, the better you can get things done. Ignoring the external and internal politics surrounding your project can be hazardous to your project and your employment. Effective use of power, influence, and politics is the key for mastering stakeholder engagement. Most project managers have enormous responsibility, but not enough formal authority. Successful project managers must understand the dynamics of power and politics, as well as the importance of engaging stakeholders through leadership and influence.
This training will focus on practical techniques to use power, influence, and politics to engage stakeholders, and key factors for managing politics effectively. Analyze the political landscape in your organization and learn how to stop being naïve, protect yourself from “sharks,” be politically sensible, and turn your adversaries and opponents into your allies. Understand the five categories of stakeholders and uncover ways to manage politics at the project and upper management levels.
In this highly interactive session, you will evaluate, improve, and discover strategies to increase your total power. You will understand the important keywords for positive and negative politics, identify three political positions, develop strategies to manage five categories of stakeholders, and increase your overall leadership effectiveness. You will learn many practical tips to create a climate of greater collaboration, teamwork, and commitment among stakeholders for getting things done and leading people to their peak performance.
AGENDA
Day One
- Basic Concepts of Politics in Engaging Project Stakeholders
- Main issues about politics
- Intensity of politics in project management
- From strategies to results with power, influence, and politics
- About Politics (Setting the Stage)
- Politics are about power, influence, and negotiations
- Seeking power
- Acquiring power (focus on informal power)
- Maintaining power by using power effectively (to manage politics )
- Politics are about power, influence, and negotiations
- Importance and Dynamics of Power and Influence
- Main issues about power and influence
- Two components of power (formal and informal)
- Four advantages of informal power
- Eight sources/types and basis of power
- Increasing Your Power Level
- Characteristics of power
- Outcomes of power
- Evaluating your own power level
- Developing strategies to increase your total power (group exercise)
Day Two
- Importance and Dynamics of Politics
- Why do we have organizational politics (four main issues)? (Four main issues)
- Project and project management issues
- People behavioral issues
- Organizational and management issues
- External and global market issues
- Why do we have organizational politics (four main issues)? (Four main issues)
- Analyzing the Political Landscape
- Two types of politics with attributes (negative and positive)
- 10 Ten commandments of positive politics
- Swimming in a political pond
- Three political positions with their viewpoints, intentions to deal with politics, and techniques to manage their people and projects
- Naïves
- Sharks
- Political sensible
- Political Behaviors of Stakeholders
- Types of political behaviors and their impacts
- Managing political behaviors
- Managing Project Politics and Stakeholders
- Five categories of stakeholders based on trust and agreement
- Strategies to convert adversaries and opponents into allies
- Managing politics at the upper management level
- Managing politics at the project level
- Managing stakeholders with power, influence, and politics
PDU Allocation Table
| Ways of Working | Power Skills | Business Acumen | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAPM® / PMP® / PgMP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-ACP® / Agile* | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-SP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-RMP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PfMP® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
| PMI-PBA® | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14.00 |
 |  |  |  |
Instructor(s)
Vijay Verma PMP, PMI Fellow
Vijay K. Verma, MBA, PEng, PMP, PMI Fellow, is an internationally known consultant, speaker, trainer and author. Mr. Vera has forty years of experience in the area of project management. He provides project management services for projects varying in size, complexity, and diversity.
He has presented numerous workshops for many clients from a wide variety of industries. He has written the three-volume series Human Aspects of Project Management, published by the Project Management Institute, which includes Organizing Projects for Success (Vol. 1), Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager (Vol. 2), and Managing the Project Team (Vol. 3). Mr. Verma received the 2009 PMI Fellow Award (one of the highest and most prestigious award), 1999 PMI David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award (for his book Managing the Project Team), and the 1999 PMI Distinguished Contribution Award for sustained and significant contributions to the project management profession.
His most recent book, The Art of Positive Politics: A Key to Delivering Successful Projects was launched in June 2018 and another book Leading with Purpose: Positive Power and Inspirational Influence will be published in 2021.
Mr. Verma is a professional engineer and holds Masters’ degrees in Electrical Engineering and Business Administration (MBA). He lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, enjoying life with his seven grandchildren.