This week I welcome Gordon Donovan on to the Art of Procurement. Gordon is a presently a member of the procurement leadership team at Metro Trains Melbourne, and he has a broad range of experiences as a practitioner including Head of Procurement roles, consultant and training spanning both the UK and Australia
Our conversation focuses on influence – both functional influence and influencing skills, and I’m willing to say that there are few, if any, who have studied the topic of influence and procurement as thoroughly as Gordon. He wrote a 20,000 word dissertation for his Masters Degree on the topic of the development of influencing skills within the Australian procurement community, and he frequently weaves the topic into his procurement learning and development programs.
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“My drive from a procurement functional influence perspective is to have a CXO, when they are considering organizational goals and strategy, to consider ‘lets talk to procurement’. If we get that, we have won.”
In this episode, you will learn:
- The need to demystify procurement
- The difference between functional influence and influencing skills.
- The importance of facilitation skills
- An overview of different influencing styles and how to determine which style you should use depending on who you are seeking to influence
- Why kids are the best influencers and what we can learn from them
- Key traits of a successful influencer
- The power of inspiration
- Gordon’s tips for building trust, which is the foundation of building influence.
Links and Resources:
- Subscribe to the Art of Procurement podcast.
- Gordon Donovan on LinkedIn.
- In Search of Influence blog post series by Gordon Donovan: Part 1 & Part 2
