About the Organization

• Does the organization value or prefer a siloed structure? Can you cross organizational boundaries between functions, geographies or divisions?

• How easy is it to influence the organization? The more complex or diverse it is, the harder the challenge.

• Do you know the players who are key to getting work done?

About Yourself

• Do you understand the principles of effective influence and group alignment?

• Do you see your role as actively bringing people together, or as following the way things are done and executing on predefined plans?

• How strong is your ability to perceive the feelings, beliefs and preferences of others? Can you see a situation from a perspective other than your own, no matter how much you may disagree with it?

• Do you get energized by seeing a group work together, or by bringing people together across organizational boundaries or through breaking of old habits?

Based on how receptive your enterprise is, and how adept you are, you can decide how to implement collaborative and influencing behaviours. Like all habits, first you need to identify the problem, then model the changed behaviour (leaving yourself room to make mistakes) and persevere until you succeed.

Reynold Lewke is North American CIO practice leader with Egon Zehnder International. Steve Kelner is global knowledge leader of Egon Zehnder's Talent Management and Management Appraisal Practice Group