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