‘Instructor’s Name’
‘Subject’
Mentor Response – Power and Politics
The mentor response clearly elucidates how results, more than anything else, could pull people towards accepting a certain plan. Power is nothing but an ability to get things done in a manner which the person exerting the power wants it to be done. So, power does not always mean using one’s position or influence to get things done from others. The mentor, in this case, has made use of rational persuasion as a way to get things done. He had first used his tracker among a small group of employees, and when it showed good results, tried to roll it out in a larger scale. In this way, he had the results of the first trial to show to others, to convince them of the success of the whole exercise. He recollects how initially when the plan was communicated to his peers they were hesitant about the additional paper work.
However, in this case, the mentor had the power the previous results gave him. He had the proof of the success of his plan, and that was enough to convince others to follow suit. The mentor has made use of three strategies to coerce his peers into following his plan – reason, coalition, and assertiveness. In the end, the mentor was able to convince his own boss, who requested his plan and implemented it in a much larger scale. He was successful in convincing his subordinates, colleagues and boss that the plan he conceived should be implemented in their respective departments. Thus, empowered by the initial success of his plan, his astuteness and his resourcefulness, the mentor was able to exert all three types of influence in his organization – upward, downward and peer.
