Over the past 50 years the understanding of persuasion has gone a long way from the myth of the used car salesman, the fastest mouth in the West who uses trickery and questionable ethics for a one-time sale. The old emphasis on persuading another person to your beliefs is not only inept, but it won’t work on a long-term basis. Inside the business organization the hard sell is nearly dead: people quickly understand that they’re being taken advantage of and lose their respect and willingness to cooperate with such traditionalists.
The new influence management
Today we understand persuasion or influence management as the process of finding common ground and mutual agreement on important work goals and objectives.
What does influence management look like? Those adept at gaining real influence (truly persuasive individuals), use conversations to collect and share essential information about their mutual objectives. If their objectives are important, it’s rarely a one-shot conversation, but more like a campaign. These influencers are very good at active listening—and obvious about it. They test their ideas with trusted confidents and they work hard to understand the perspective and mindsets of those whose support they need. And inevitably, as they begin to understand the other’s take on a subject or project deliverable they make adjustments by giving on some issues to get on others. Achieving the support and help for your projects and objectives is rarely duck soup. It can entail a lot of conversational leadership and interpersonal smarts.
In short, when you need genuine internal commitment from people, these fundamentals are necessary for long-term success. Based on the immensely relevant research and practice in today’s world, the old hard sell has very limited relevance. That’s true in marriage, negotiation, influence management—and in the organizational hierarchy.
Stay tuned for my blogs on influence management. I’ll be showing how to make the rubber hit the road.
I've very curious to know what specific questions you have about influence management.