LeadershipHQ Magazine June 2015 2nd Edition | Page 30
2. Be congruent. When your thoughts,
words and deeds align (have
internal congruity) you become
credible; people tend to trust you
more and to be more influenced by
you. To improve on this point:
a.
Choose to be responsible for and
selective of your thoughts. Don’t
wrestle with blocking out negative
or low-quality thoughts. Instead
displace them by choosing to
continuously improve the quality of the
conversations you have with yourself;
b.
Practice commitment and let
your word be your bond. Through
consistency others learn this and
trust you more;
c. Start small with the changes you ask of
others, then build on those achieved.
3. Be selfless. Look for ways to help
others without thinking of how
they could repay you. They mostly
will so you really don’t need to
risk incongruity by clouding your
thoughts with self-interest.
4. Develop authority. The sources
of genuine authority include
knowledge (knowing the right,
effective or proven way); power
(control of political, religious,
economic
resources);
and
charisma (mysticism, spiritualism,
personal magnetism).
Many in business use (abuse)
economic power as the basis for
authority when it is only one of
many sources and a relatively poor
one at that. How might you broaden
the basis of your own authority, to
your benefit and that of others?
5. Create scarcity. If you deliberately
move yourself towards the top of
your marketplace you will find “the
Apple Factor” beginning to apply.
30 | © LeadershipHQ 2015
Apple restricts sales via deliberately
high pricing and so holds only 7%
of the world’s mobile phone market.
Their profits, however, represent
70% of the sector’s total! LEGO are
rumoured to deliberately meet only
90% of the current demand for their
product. They are the world’s #1 toy
company. How could you apply this?
6. Understand your market. Before
you can employ social proof in
your influencing behaviour, you
first need a deep understanding
of what matters to your audience.
Once you are clear on that, your
conversations with them needs to
be primarily around helping them
get what the best of people like
them (or the people whom they
want to be like) have.
Leadership in Anything
It’s sometimes helpful to “move to
the left” of a subject to gain a little
parallax and perspective and I’d like
to do that now by stepping across
the seven desired qualities that
consistently appear in research on
leadership skills, and to run those
against Cialdini’s factors.
As you read, bear in mind that these
same factors often turn up in any
detailed analysis of the world’s most
successful salespeople.
Those six qualities are:
1. H
onesty & integrity: Aligns with
congruity of thought, word
and deed.
2. C
ompetence & credibility: Aligns
with authority and congruity.
3. I nspiration & motivation: aligns
with congruity, authority and
reciprocity.
4. Bravery & decisiveness:
commitment, consistency, authority.
5. Good communication skills:
liking, authority, congruence
6. Fairness & equity: consistency
7. Sense of Humour (optional): liking?
So, regardless of whether you are
leading your team to new heights
(or wish to), or leading your clients
to appreciate the value of the
proposition you have for them, you
will achieve greater results with less
effort, frustration and on-the-job
learning if you take into account the
principles that have already been
teased out for you.
A Little Homework?
On a final note, with a strong sales
bent but relevant nonetheless
across the board for anyone in
business, in 2008 Robert Cialdini’s
research associates (Noah Goldstein
and Steven Martin) published “Yes!
50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be
Persuasive”.
The book comprises 50 chapters
each of a few pages in which one
of the six principles of influence is
taken and applied in a simple, realworld situation. The results of that
application are then analysed and
interpreted to further tease out the
nuances of the original research.
That should be enough to get your
juices flowing, and exploring how to
apply this research to achieve more
with less in your own business.
Good fortune!
Peter Rowe
Business Improvement Specialist
Managing Director
ProfiTune Business
[email protected]
www.profitune.com