Goal
Increase your influence and get more of what you want by mastering the art of persuasion.
Nano Tool
Persuading others to go along with a course of action, to agree to a commitment, or to accept a decision can be difficult even for highly experienced leaders. Often, that’s because of a mistaken belief that it’s all about the evidence: Make your data-supported case, and you’ll win. In fact, persuasion is not just about rhetoric. There’s plenty of work to be done before you even approach an individual or team.
First, you need to understand who to talk to and, just as importantly, in what order. That means identifying the connections between people and how to draw the shortest distance between any two of them in an organization (hint: it’s almost never a straight line). Once you have a plan for strategically reaching out to the right people in the right sequence, you must map out what you want from each person.
Have a very specific goal for each encounter. It could be that you need them to open the door to someone they know better than you do, to give you access to some important information, or to increase the budget for your project. Having a systematic strategy for these conversations, versus following your gut, is more likely to result in a win. You need to be aware of who may put up resistance, what kind of resistance it might be, and how you can adjust your pitch to better appeal to them. A one-size-fits-all approach is almost always doomed to fail.
Action Steps
1. It’s always about relationships.
As the African folk saying goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.” Ask yourself throughout the workday: “In this interaction, how can I leave the relationship better than I found it? Can I find a way to help this person solve a problem, support them in an important task, or assure them that their efforts are noted and appreciated?”
2. Earn the next five minutes.
Most listeners give a new idea about five minutes before deciding whether it deserves more. A four-part structure makes those minutes count: Frame the problem so the listener accepts it as legitimate, explain how it arose, propose the answer in plain terms, then show why it beats the obvious alternatives. Practice the sequence until it holds up under interruption.
3. Give them credit.
The need to feel respected and appreciated is the most powerful motivation in working life, and self-esteem is like oxygen. Make others look good and they will want to support you. Share credit for shared successes, and where you can, hand it over entirely. The exception is the colleague who takes credit for work that is not theirs. That is a different problem, and generosity will not solve it.
4. Practice fairness.
Working relationships run on reciprocity: the give-and-take of favors, accommodations, taking turns, and exchanging information. Credit is one currency in that exchange, and the colleague who claims others’ work as their own is only the most visible form of overreach. The less obvious forms are the favor accepted and never returned, the introduction requested and never reciprocated, or the meeting moved a third time because their calendar is the one that matters. None of it is memorable on its own. All of it accumulates.
5. Develop multiple paths.
The first solution to a problem is usually the one that suits the person who thought of it, which is a poor test of whether it works for anyone else. Second and third options cost little to generate and often work just as well for you while creating fewer complications for everyone downstream. Take the options to the people who will have to live with the decision, early enough that the feedback you receive can still affect your choice. A round of input collected after the choice is made is not consultation; it is notification, and everyone recognizes it as such.
How Leaders Use It
As CEO of Progressive, Tricia Griffith builds relationships before she needs to influence others. Wharton professor and Nano Tool sponsor Michael Useem, who has observed Griffith’s leadership firsthand, notes that she brings the same warmth and curiosity to a conversation with a handful of people as she does to a room of hundreds. She shakes hands, asks about people’s families, remembers names, and makes a point of connecting with people personally. That personal connection is more than a matter of style. Griffith has said that leaders need to be willing to engage in difficult conversations and to approach them by assuming positive intent, recognizing that everyone involved is trying to learn and see an issue from different vantage points. It’s an assumption that’s much easier to make within established relationships.
When Cheryl Bachelder became CEO of AFC Enterprises, the parent company of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, the relationship between Popeyes and its franchisees had broken down. Rather than settle strategy at headquarters and announce it, she began putting major decisions in front of franchisees while there was still time to choose differently, on the reasoning that operators standing in the restaurants could see problems and solutions she could not see from Atlanta. The practice slowed some decisions, but it also produced decisions the franchisees would actually carry out.
Knowledge in Action: Related Executive Education Programs
Executive Negotiation Workshop: Negotiate with Confidence
Executive Influence: Increasing Your Impact with Persuasion and Power
Contributor to This Nano Tool
G. Richard Shell, Thomas Gerrity Professor; Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics; Professor of Management, the Wharton School.
