Page 187 - Executive Warfare

Outsiders with Influence

As difficult as it can be to manage a
relationship with the people you see every day, it’s that much more
difficult to manage a relationship with the people you don’t. You generally
don’t know your outside directors, clients, donors, or vendors very well—
let alone the boss’s friends and acquaintances. They don’t know you well,
either. Yet these are outsiders with influence, and they may have veto
power over your rise. So you’d better handle them carefully.
Let’s start with the most obviously powerful of these strangers, the peo-
ple who send the money that keeps your organization rolling along.

CLIENTS AND DONORS: You Can’t Avoid the Witch’s House

A lot of people rise in the ranks without ever having had to confront those
peculiar people who ship gold to an organization, the clients and the
donors. If you’ve come up from the financial side, for example, you may
never have dealt with them at all.
At some point on your way to the top, though, you will probably wind
up in a revenue-generating role, where you will be overseeing people who
are handling clients and donors. Just
because you are a senior person who is
not meeting with the givers of gold JUST BECAUSE YOU
every day does not mean you can afford ARE A SENIOR
to ignore them. Your job is not just to PERSON WHO IS
win new revenues, but also to retain the NOT MEETING WITH
revenues the organization has already THE GIVERS OF
won and, if possible, increase the GOLD EVERY DAY
amount of money existing clients or DOES NOT MEAN
donors will send you. YOU CAN AFFORD
Even when you reach senior manage- TO IGNORE THEM.
ment, if you have a fragile relationship
with a major donor or client, it doesn’t
take much for that person to affect your career. If you don’t believe me, just

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