Spheres of Influence: How to Create and Nurture Authentic Business Relationships

Transcend Networking

Brad Englert has written Spheres of Influence: How to Create and Nurture Authentic Business Relationships to help emerging leaders develop and perfect what he calls the ＂critical hard skill＂ of building effective and enduring business relationships.

There are two major parts to the book. The first part of the book focuses on the ＂internal sphere of influence,＂ those people with whom readers can have the most direct impact: relationship with the boss, relationships with executive leaders, relationships with direct reports, and relationships with all staff. In the second part, Englert focuses on the ＂external sphere of influence,＂ and explores relationships where readers have less direct impact. these include relationships with customers, relationships with peers and influencers, and finally, relationships with strategic vendor partners. The real-world stories in this book are relevant to a diverse range of industries, organizations, and backgrounds. In these pages, emerging and aspiring leaders will learn how to build authentic, mutually beneficial, trusting, and enduring relationships spanning years and even decades.

Brad Englert is the founder of Brad Englert Advisory and an author, advisor, and technologist. Brad worked for Accenture for 22 years, including 10 years as a partner. He then served The University of Texas at Austin for eight years, including seven years as the Chief information officer (CIO).

During Brad’s career with Accenture, a global management consulting and technology services firm, he worked in a variety of information technology leadership and operational roles for large, complex institutions of higher education, state governments (Texas, California, Minnesota, Montana), and commercial organizations (Best Buy, Caterpillar, Whirlpool, Bell South, Deutsche Bank, and Wyeth). When Brad retired as a senior partner in 2006, he had a proven track record in information technology operations, large scale information systems implementations, and strategic planning. At The University of Texas at Austin from 2009 to 2017, Brad led the modernization of mission critical information systems serving 52,000 students, 4,000 faculty, and 21,000 staff.

Prior to Accenture, Brad held managerial positions in payroll/human resources and labor relations at the Internal Revenue Service, and was a high school teacher in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. Brad is married to Corliss Hudson Englert. They have two sons, Eric and Nathan.

Brad earned a masters of public affairs degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor of arts degree in social sciences with honors and distinction from Shimer College, which is now the Shimer Great Books School at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.