The Persuasive Manager

1. The Persuasive Manager Based on the book, “The Persuasive Manager” by Prof M M Monippally, IIM Ahmedabad July 6, 2011

2. 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.

3. Persuasion: A working Definition • 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.

4. Persuasion Strategy

5. Sources of Power Resides in one’s position; loss of position leads to loss of power Coercive Power • Reward Power • Legitimate Power Resides in one’s expertise; risks supersession • Expert Power Resides in one’s relationship; people respect us, so they do our bidding • Referent Power

6. Coercive Power • 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.

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

8. Legitimate Power • 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.

9. Expert Power • 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.

10. Referent Power • 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.

11. Two levels of Compliance • 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.

12. The Art of Persuasion • Ethos • Pathos • Logos

13. Ethos • 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.

14. Pathos • 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.

15. Logos • Refers to persuasion by logical reasoning.

16. Persuasive Moves (1) • 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

17. 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

18. Conclusion (1) • 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.

19. Conclusion(2) • 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.

20. Conclusion(3) • 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.

21. Thank you