Developing and using power and influence tactics to influence people - Article Example

Different leadership techniques have to be adopted under different circumstances and for different purposes. For instance, to get a project through, people need the support of others. The first action taken by the leaders is to adopt the project as their own and show personal commitment to it. They then work towards generating support from others in the organization. They have knowledge about the company and know how to use the company’s informal system of relationships. Markham (1998) indicates that some types of influence tactics are more successful like the logical argument.

Some prefer to use the coercive and persuasive techniques rather than confrontive influence strategies even when they expect resistance although threatening tactics are unsuccessful influencing people. Use of personal power or positional power would depend upon target commitment. Expert power has been more useful than reward or legitimate power sources. Although leaders may use enthusiasm and drive to make their projects successful, these have a detrimental effect on projects and targets according to Markham.

This requires influencing many people who may not wish to be influenced and the end result may be tension and conflicts. The project leaders may not be trained enough in interpersonal relations, which imply that being a project leader does not give an individual the power or ability to influence, although Carson and King (2006) believe that empowerment leads to self-leadership. Today’s work environment call for self-leadership, say Carson and King. Empowerment implies to delegate power from the higher organizational levels to the lower ones.

Employees must be given the power to take decisions rather than just making suggestions. This leads to self-leadership which involves an analysis of how and why a task should be completed. It is the process of influencing oneself. This helps to improve direction and motivation within