Chapter 10 – Broker
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10.1 The Skill of Persuading Others
(click the activity index number to take you back to the activities index)(click the heading to take you to the Managing the relationship with your boss slide)
Influencing others is an important skill associated with the Broker role. As an Academic
Coordinator, you will often find yourself in the situation of needing to persuade others to
do things – students, your Head of School and other managers, professional staff you
work with and your academic colleagues.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this activity is to help you increase your
persuasiveness in your role as Academic Coordinator.One of the major challenges for you as Academic Coordinator is that often you do
not have a formal power base with vested authority. Furthermore, members of ‘your
program team’ may also see themselves (and you them) more as colleagues than
members of ‘your team’. They expect to be treated as peers. As Academic Coordinator,
you may find yourself caught between the competing needs and demands of your
students, your colleagues/peers and your supervisors. Thus it is important to work on
increasing your persuasiveness with both your Head of School and your colleagues.
You will find that if you increase your persuasiveness with your manager or Head of
School, your persuasiveness with your colleagues will also be enhanced; similarly if you
increase your ability to persuade members of your program team to take action in areas
of concern to your Head of School, you will also increase your ability to influence your
Head of School.
Quinn, Faerman, Thompson, McGrath, and St. Clair (2007, p. 307), identify some
specific ways of increasing persuasiveness when working with your managers (e.g.,
Head of School) and peers (or academic colleagues). They suggest that when working
with supervisors you should:
- Come up with solutions rather than problems.
- Show appreciation when they do things to help.
- Always demonstrate your loyalty to shared goals.
- Never ‘bad-mouth’ them to colleagues.
When working with peers they say it is important to recognise the problems and
difficulties they face and either work with them to resolve them, or ensure that they are
supported in some way to achieve what you want them to achieve.
There are a range of other ways in which you can increase your persuasiveness and
influence over others in order to be a more effective Academic Coordinator. Different
situations will require different tactics. Selecting the right tactic at the right time is critical
to your success as a Broker. Here are some tactics to help you persuade others: