Influence Tactics

In 1965, an experiment was created where three children were put in front of a camera and asked who was the most patient. Two of the three kids raised their hand. The host gave the child who did not raise his hand an ice cream cone and told the two “patient” children they must wait until later. Then the host left the room and  hilarity ensued.

Today I want to illustrate and bring to life our most read article, Eleven Influence Tactics and How to Excel at Each.

Because these kids use the tactics so clearly and blatantly, it’s a fun way to review several of the tactics.

The two children attempting to influence the ice cream holder quickly flip back and fort between positive-based influence tactics and negative-based influence tactics.

We all want success at work. A recent study reveals how to use influence tactics to get better performance reviews or a raise/ promotion. Interestingly, these two types of outcomes actually require slightly different tactics. Do you know which type of influence to use for each?

Over 40 years ago, Goffman (1955) introduced to the behavioral sciences the idea that people consciously manage the impressions they convey to others in interpersonal interactions. Goffman contended that people act out roles in efforts to establish identities they wish to convey for personal gain.

It was also intriguing to suggest that people alter the image they choose to present, and the strategy used to present this image, based on the situation they are in and the outcomes they hope to achieve.

In the spirit of the holidays and wrapping up your year, I wanted to give you a glimpse of our 5 Most Read Articles of 2016. Each of these articles has proven to be valuable to growing your influence. We’ll start the drumroll and count down from five to one based on the number of readers. 

Many of us serve in roles where we are not commander in chief, but lieutenants, captains, or even sergeants in terms of where we serve on the hierarchy of the organization chart. If you find yourself in such a role, I want to provide you some wisdom through six influence tactics to help you succeed in leading from second chair (or third, fourth, or fifth).

Here are 6 Ways You Can Better Lead and Influence from Second Chair

I have spent most of my professional life teaching how to grow your influence. I am all for increasing your influence; however, there are people who seek to influence you that might be detrimental to your progress or even disastrous to your well-being. It is important we are able to dissect these influence attempts, and Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who is internationally recognized as a leading "voice and face of contemporary psychology" through his widely seen PBS-TV series, Discovering Psychology, his media appearances, best-selling trade books on shyness, and his classic research, The Stanford Prison Experiment, is a great resource.

Zimbardo has been a Stanford University professor since 1968 (now an Emeritus Professor), having taught previously at Yale, NYU, and Columbia University. He continues teaching graduate students at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, and at the Naval Post Graduate School (Monterey).

How Do You, the Influencer, Assess and Resist Negative Influence Yourself?

Here are the first 10 tips of Dr. Zimbardo’s 20 ways to avoid negative influence with my take on each point.

You have a great idea which you know will be successful. Now you need to get buy in from others to bring it to reality. While everyone possesses the ability to influence others to some degree, you may be sabotaging your own idea before it even gets off the ground.

You already know that launching and developing a good idea takes massive amounts of influence. Many fantastic ideas lie on the ash heap of history merely because someone couldn’t influence others to adopt the idea. But you may not know that you might be sabotaging your own idea and influence. Here are some of the worst ways to sabotage your influence.

Deeper than surface techniques, understanding people’s key motivations can help you to grow your influence. Influencing others is more than using the right arguments, a certain tone of voice, or a negotiation tactic. Understanding other’s motivation is key to changing their minds. Underneath every technique to influence are deeper universal goals every person possesses. When these can be tapped into, real transformation happens.

Great managers are VITAL to any organization’s success and significance. The term manager should be less of a dirty word in the business and organizational lexicons. As with leaders, managers must possess the ability to influence and grow that influence.

Leadership requires moving people from point A to point B. How effectively a  leader uses “hard” or “soft” influence tactics determines how well others are influenced to move or change their current direction.