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Key Opinion Leaders are the most influential people in any group or organization. If you're going to lead people, especially a large number of people, you need the help of Key Opinion Leaders. Your job is easier when they are engaged and impossible if they oppose you.
Other articles have addressed the important and non-trivial task of identifying key opinion leaders. Here we will address engaging them -- winning their support and letting them make you successful.
Engaging the Key Opinion Leader
If you know who your Key Opinion Leaders are, you're ready to start working to win their hearts and minds.
Now if you've got a layer of management below you in the organization, you probably have in those jobs the people through whom you expected you would drive your leadership agenda.
They're still there of course. But now you have another group of people, most of whom probably report to one of those managers you have reporting to you. The success of your leadership agenda relies on these -- your key opinion leaders. What do you do now?
Not to worry. You didn't pick the Key Opinion Leaders. You found them, but they were picked by their peers. So they've really been honored by the others in your organization.
Your job just got a lot easier. So did the jobs of the managers below you.
You see, ultimately you've got to win over your entire organization. They need to understand your agenda, know why they're being asked to change, to perhaps work harder during a transition period, whatever. You need something extra from them, and they're only going to give it to you if they buy in.
But you don't need to win them all over. Your job now is very straightforward. Grab the hearts and minds of the key opinion leaders. When they buy in, when they understand, you can get out of the way because the rest will come virally. These are the people who others believe in, respect, and are going to follow.
You -- and your managers -- now have the ability to influence the behavior of 50, 100, 500 or more people by working very closely with maybe 5 or 10.
And that's what you're going to do. You're going to let these people know that they have been identified by their peers. You're going to give them access to you and your management team. You're going to share as much information with them as possible, and you're going to carefully consider every question they ask and every objection they raise.
They are going to know that you have a plan, that you consider them key to the success of the plan, that you will listen to them as they question and seek to understand, and that you will be open to suggestions and honest debate. You're going to give them the time -- your time -- to absorb and make your plan, their plan.
You will give them answers to their questions, and you'll incorporate their suggestions whenever you can. It may be your agenda, but they're going to feel like they own it.
Show the Key Opinion Leaders that they've been elevated. You don't need to promote them or pay them more money. You're giving them more respect, more of your time, listening to them more. They will know it, others will know it, and they will appreciate it and respond to you.
When a Key Opinion Leader Can't Be Won Over
What to do when you can't win the heart and mind of a KOL depends on how serious the disagreement is.
If you've made a great effort, and you simply can't see eye to eye with one another, you may have options. Assuming you and they have acted professionally and ultimately have agreed to disagree, you can ask that KOL a simple question -- will they agree not to oppose or work against you if you move them to a new position?
If the answer is yes, help them go and join a new team or a different project. Everything is handled professionally and everyone lands on their feet.
If in the course of identifying Key Opinion Leaders you found someone who you can't work with, and who will actively oppose your agenda, you have a more difficult problem. This person has to go, and your agenda is going nowhere until you take drastic action.
Want some good news? It seldom comes to that. If you've been a successful leader to this point, you probably don't have any cancers within the group. If you have a KOL with whom you ultimately end up disagreeing, they are most likely professional enough that you can work out a solution where no one gets hurt.
The organization that isn't changing is dying. To learn more about the role of the Key Opinion Leader in a world of continuous change, visit www.thomasjodea.com. Tom O'Dea has over 30 years of IT experience, with 20 years of senior leadership in IT and Professional Services with multibillion dollar corporations |
