The Persuasive Manager

Based on the book, “The Persuasive Manager” by Prof M M Monippally, IIM Ahmedabad

July 6, 2011

Three types of managers

Bystander managers: Take little initiative. Have little or no influence on their organizations.

Shotgun managers: Use influence tactics indiscriminately to get what they want. Not particularly successful.

Tacticians: Choose their influence strategies carefully and are generally successful. They occupy positions of power largely through their knowledge and skills. They are masters of the art of persuasion.

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Persuasion: A working Definition

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Persuasion is an attempt, using means such as reasoning and emotional appeal, to change others’ thinking, attitudes, and eventually behavior in a way that builds on their willing cooperation.

Persuasion means using formal and informal power intelligently to influence people and shape the agenda.

Persuasion Strategy

Ethos Pathos Logos Making oneself likeable

Leveraging authority

Creating indebtedness

Stroking the ego

Playing on herd instinct

Getting small Commitments

Appealing to shared Values

Engaging target in consultation

Using inductive and deductive reasoning

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Sources of Power

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Coercive Power

Reward Power

Legitimate Power

Expert Power

Referent Power

Resides in one’s position; loss of position leads to loss of power

Resides in one’s expertise; risks supersession

Resides in one’s relationship; people respect us, so they do our bidding

Coercive Power

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Coercive power is the power to force others to do what we want them to.

Comes essentially from the ability to harm another person or group of persons if they don’t comply with our wishes.

Implies using the resources of our position to threaten others with unpleasant consequences, such as denial of essential resources.

Reward Power

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Reward power involves getting the compliance of subordinates or colleagues by offering them rewards.

Legitimate Power

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Legitimate power is the power that stems from legal or social authority.

Holding a superior position in a corporate or social organization implies having legitimate power over those who are in subordinate positions.

Everyone recognizes it.

Expert Power

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Power derived by individuals from their specialist knowledge and skills, irrespective of their position in an organization.

The rarer the expertise or the harder it is to acquire, the greater the power.

Referent Power

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Power that comes because others admire us, want to be identified with us, and treat us as the point of reference.

They change their behavior and beliefs to be like us.

Referent power is the most effective in a manager’s repertoire.

Carefully cultivated, this type of power can also be the one that lasts the longest.

Two levels of Compliance

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As managers, much of our job is to enforce compliance.

Compliance is applicable at two levels.

The first is getting others to do their assigned work so that we can get on with our own work and meet our targets.

The others could be our boss, peers, or subordinates.

The second level, especially applicable in a changing environment is to get people to change their behavior which may have worked well and been acceptable so far.

This type of compliance is generally much harder than the first level of compliance unless people are sensitised to the imminent dangers.

The Art of Persuasion

Ethos

Pathos

Logos

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Ethos

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Ethos is the most important and most powerful of the three persuasion factors.

Ethos refers to the persuader’s character.

If we are perceived as credible and fair-minded, persuasion is easy, especially in contexts where there is room for doubt.

Our credibility increases if we have demonstrated expertise in the field in which we are trying to persuade others.

Pathos

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Means arousing listeners’ emotions in favour of persuader.

Emotions can be negative or positive.

Fear, anger, disgust, guilt, and envy are a few of the negative emotions.

Pride, joy, hope and compassion are some of the positive ones.

Arousing these emotions can persuade the stakeholders to accept or reject a particular course of action.

Logos

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Refers to persuasion by logical reasoning.

Persuasive Moves (1)

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Making oneself likeable» Persuading becomes easier if we are liked by others

Leveraging authority » Use legitimate power intelligently

Creating indebtedness» Do good things to others

Stroking the target’s ego» Use genuine praise to build good relations

Persuasive Moves (2)

Playing on herd instinct» Get a large no of people behind us.

Getting small commitments» Getting a small commitment first makes it easier to get a

larger one later.

Appealing to shared values» Every community has shared values

Engaging the target in consultation» Share problem and seek help in solving

Using inductive and deductive reasoning» Convincing logic facilitates persuasion

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Conclusion (1)

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Persuasive strategy consists of choosing the right mixture of persuasion factors mentioned in earlier slide.

Framing the compliance request in a way that matches the target’s needs, values, and beliefs holds the key in persuasion.

Conclusion(2)

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Persuasion is not guaranteed even if we play all the cards right.

We may be able to change someone’s mind even when the target is formidable and the resistance well founded.

And we may fail even when we have all the logic in world in our support and we make irresistible offers .

Yet we should try it because it is worth trying.

Even if we fail, we will do so honourably.

And we will not regret we did not try.

Conclusion(3)

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Unfortunately, there is no formula that we can apply to choose the right strategy.

We have to identify moves that we are most comfortable with, and those our targets are most likely to respond to.

To make persuasion a way of managing and to become a persuasive manager, we need to do two things.

First, we must plan our major persuasion efforts systematically.

Second, we must review both our successes and failures systematically.

Thank you

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