Every workplace has a few people that hold greater influence than others. And I’m not talking titular influence here because these influential folks can sit anywhere within the ranks. I've seen Fortune 500 companies where the person who wields the most power is somebody down in engineering, or over in the bookkeeping department. They are the people towards whom others gravitate when there are questions or fears. They bring comfort through sharing their wisdom, their opinions hold weight, and their words get passed around.
I call them Champions because when these employees support their leader, they become that leader’s Champions, actively rallying their less supportive peers to jump on board. These Champions can be your greatest allies, especially during times of big change. And they can help you with the smaller things too, like trying to get buy in on a new proposal, to halt a bad rumor, to bring in a new technology or initiative or safety protocol and more. In the world of change management, these Champions are worth their weight in gold.
That’s why it always surprises me when otherwise smart leaders go directly to the folks who support them the least (and who also hold high influence) when trying to shore up support for some change management initiative.
I call the people who do not support you (and are also influential) Antagonists. My advice is to forget about the Antagonists at first and to put the initial focus on your Champions. Because if you start where you already have a strong base of support, your Champions will spread that message throughout their vast networks, building the strong platform you need.
And when the folks who want to bring you down see that big base of support behind you, it squashes their influence. It’s like when the police give a favored reporter the inside scoop on a case. They know that reporter will frame the story the way they want and help dismiss any opposing stories that may be circulating. Politicians do the same thing. Big power, and successful change management, comes from tapping into the influence of Champions.
There’s also a hidden danger in attempting to tackle your weakest supporters first. Because if you make your pitch and it falls flat, and the Antagonists decide they’re not going to support you, you've just effectively built up a well of angry people. And that puts your Champions in a tough spot. They may not be looking for a knock-down-drag-out battle with an equally powerful person who is 100% against you.
Your Champions will likely say "Listen, I would have been happy to support you, but now that you've ticked off Bob and irritated Pat, it’s not going to be so easy for me. I’m not sure I can help you anymore.” Once you irritate people, it makes it harder for your Champions to do their thing. That’s why one of the first rules of change management is to always start from a position of strength.
Of course, Champions just don’t magically appear; you have to seek them out and gain their favor. The clichéd Champion would be the CEO's admin. And sometimes, yes, absolutely, the CEO's admin is an incredibly powerful person. In many cases, though, the CEO has six admins. So how do you decide between the six?
Basically, to find your Champions, you've got to keep your ear to the ground. When I go in to help an organization through a big change management effort I’ll often look for the Champions in the folks who get the most emails, who respond back to those emails, and who others go to for advice. Often this can be as easy as asking your employees “Who do you turn to when you need advice?”
The more you pay attention, the more you seek to understand, the more you are going to be able to figure out who the power players are in the organization. And once again, that's where you want to start.
To cut this down one more level, once you understand whom these influencers are, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're automatically going to be on your side. Your ultimate goal here is to get as many Champions as you possibly can. Study after study finds that the more Champions you have, the more successful you’ll be. One way to gain Champions is to help them before you need them to help you.
Look for ways you can share your knowledge or expertise, make important introductions, improve their day, solve a pain point for them, etc. The more of these “deposits” you make before you need the Champions support, before you ask to make a “withdrawal,” the more successful you’ll be in gaining that support when the time comes.
Remember, even in a major 100,000-employee organization, a truly huge workplace, it still boils down to a few dozen folks who hold the major power. The more you can get these folks’ insight, the more ears to the ground that you can get, the more people on your side helping you to understand how to best tailor your pitch, the better off you're going to be in any change management effort.
Mark Murphy is NY Times bestselling author, Founder of Leadership IQ, a sought-after speaker on change management, and he also teaches a weekly series of leadership training webinars.
