The Support and Resistance Plan

A support and resistance plan is a plan where you determine who is on your side. This might sound overly harsh, but we know there are people at work who are our friends and generally like us and support us in many of our activities, yet there are also some people who, for whatever reason, are not our favorites. Maybe it is because you had an incident in the past. Maybe, as their superior, you had to discipline them and your relationship has been strained ever since. Last, for some, you might not know where you stand with them. Maybe they are new to the group and you really have not gotten to know them. Beside each name in your list, write a “+” for those that likely view you positively, a “–” for those that likely view you negatively, and a “?” for those that you are unsure about. After developing this list, you want to look for patterns. For example, are all the supporters in different levels in the organization than your resistors, or are they in different roles than your resistors?

Another issue to assess with the people on your list is their relative sources of power. Understanding individuals’ sources of power is critical in obtaining support for your project. By power, we agree with Pfeffer in that there are many different sources of power. There are structural sources of power: One of the people on your list is higher or lower on the organizational chart than you are. There are personal sources of power: This includes what many call charisma. However, it is important to stop here and discuss the concept of charisma. Here is where many leadership conversations fall: Often we think to be a great leader, charisma is needed, and then we don’t believe we have the charisma needed. “Charisma” is defined as a personal attractiveness or magnetism that enables a person to influence others.³ Now while it seems you might appear more charismatic if you were tall, good looking, and had a booming voice, we would argue that Mother Theresa had charisma and she has none of these qualities. The key for charisma is that the people following you find you interesting and not that you look or act a certain way. Going back to Charlie Brown, at the moment that his friends followed him out the door, we would suggest he had charisma.

Another source of power is information. A person on your list might be an expert in a certain area that pertains to your project, or they might sit on a key committee that has information needed for your project. Maybe that person has access to a key network of influential individuals who may relate in some way to your project. So now on your list you have a second column for each person that lists the type of power they might have. Trust us; everybody on that list has some type of power. This information is important to know as you develop your involvement plan.