Influence Without Authority

Almost always in life, you are part of one group or the other. Whether you like it or not, you are forced to interact with different kinds of people and more often than not you are not so excited about the team dynamics. You hate this snob in the group or that "free rider" waiting for you to do the job for him. But unless you are the leader it is hard for you to influence the flow of things. The issue here is - How do you develop mutual influence without the formal authority to command? How do you interact and communicate effectively with your colleagues?

Well, this is where the "Law of Reciprocity" comes in. It simply means that people must be paid back for what they do. They do something great and you give them something equivalent to acknowledge their contribution. The opposite is true too, although a million times more difficult. This means that there should be reciprocal exchanges between team members so as to click as a group. Whenever there is an exchange it should be roughly equal over time or there are bound to be hard feelings in the group. For example, if a colleague works for 18 hrs a day for a month to finish a job, then just a smile from you would not do the trick. Atleast a gift or a good verbal acknowledgement should be good.

So always remember the Law of Reciprocity to stay in good touch with your team members and to make your presence felt in a group. There are a lot of complications regarding the units of reciprocal exchange but I think the information provided should be enough for laymen to go about their business.

References : Works of Allan Cohen (Babson College) and David Bradford (Stanford University)

For Peace
Fuehrer