The Power of Influence
ABOUT JOE
Joe Bacigalupo, MBA, MPEC, ACPEC is a Managing Partner and an Executive Advisor at AlliancesHub International, LLC. AlliancesHub offers Change Management and Strategy Consulting, Talent Optimization and Analytics, Leadership Development, and Executive/ Leadership Coaching services.
THE POWER OF INFLUENCE plays an important role in all aspects of our lives. Whether it is pitching a business idea or getting the kids to do their homework, we try to influence others daily.
American psychologist, Kevin Hogan, PhD, author of “The Psychology of Persuasion”, describes that most people respond to certain stimuli to common situations in the persuasion process. These responses provide the foundation for the following nine laws of persuasion:
1. Law of Reciprocity: When someone gives you something of perceived value, you immediately respond with the desire to give something back.
2. Law of Contrast: When two items are relatively different from each other, we will see them as more different are placed near to each other in time, space, or thought, we will see them as more different if placed close together in time or space.
3. Law of Friends: When someone asks you to do something and you perceive that the person has your best interests in mind, and/or you would like him/her to have your best interests in mind, you are strongly motivated to fulfill the request.
4. Law of Expectancy: When someone you respect and/ or believe in expects you to perform a task or produce a certain result, you will tend to fulfill his expectation whether positive or negative.
5. Law of Association: We tend to like products, services, or ideas that are endorsed by people we like or respect.
6. Law of Consistency: When an individual announces in writing or verbally that he/ she is taking a position on any issue or point of view, he/ she will strongly tend to defend that belief regardless of its accuracy even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
7. Law of Scarcity: When a person perceives that something he might want is limited in quantity, he believes the value of what he might want to be greater than if it were available in abundance.
8. Law of Conformity: Most people tend to agree to proposals, products, or services that will be perceived as acceptable by the majority of other people or a majority of an individual’s peer group.
9. Law of Power: People have power over other people to the degree that they are perceived as having greater authority, strength, or expertise.
In the art of influence, this is pow- erful knowledge. However, what if you learn to do or say that one thing at just the right time before trying to influence someone? Robert Cialdini, PhD’s new book: “Pre-Suasion” goes deeper into this concept. As Cialdini explains, there is a moment in time just before the attempt to influence (e.g., a sales pitch or a speech) called a “privileged moment”; during this window of opportunity, influencers should get the people they are trying to focus on something that will help the influencer’s cause.
Here's an actual example from a research test. The researchers stopped people in a mall and asked them to fill out a survey. Only 29 percent agreed to participate. The researchers then started stopping people and asking, “Do you consider yourself helpful?” Amazingly, most of the people (77.3 percent) responded yes and filled out the survey.
If you are interested in creating a powerful personal presence to influence and engage, visit the Alliance- sHub website to learn more about the “Leadership Effectiveness” Executive Coaching Program.