Influence tactics: how people translate their power to affect the behavior of others

○ Should be matched to situation and person being influenced

○ Ex of influence tactics:
■ Coalition tactics: engaging the help of others to persuade someone
to do
something
■ Consultation: requesting someone’s advice to solve a problem or
mutually
setting goals to increase a follower’s commitment to the leader’s
decision
■ Exchange: offering to exchange something of value now or in the
future
for someone’s cooperation
■ Ingratiation: flattering or praising someone to put them in a good
mod or
make them more likely to want to help
■ Inspirational appeals: appealing to someone’s aspirations, values,
and
ideals to gain his or her commitment, or increasing people’s
confidence
that they can do something in order to increase motivation
■ Legitimating tactics: enhancing one’s formal authority to make a
certain
request by referring to rules
■ Personal appeals: asking someone to do something “because we’re
friends” or asking or a personal favor
■ Pressure: using coercion or persistent follow-up or reminder to gain
influence
■ Rational persuasion (or reason): using logic and facts to persuade
someone
○ Ex of responses to influence attempts
■ Commitment: endorsing and becoming an actively involved
participant as
a result of the influence attempt
 ■ Compliance: going along with what the influencer wants without
being
personally committed
■ Passive resistance: rejecting the influence attempt but not getting in
the
way of what the influence is trying to do
■ Active resistance: rejecting the influence attempt and actively trying
to
stop the influencer from doing what she or he is trying to do

Role of National Culture in Influence Effectiveness

● Your ability to effectively influence others is enhanced by high cultural
intelligence, or
your ability to function effectively in culturally diverse environments
● Understanding diverse cultures, values, and perspectives enhances your
sensitivity to
what is important to others and how to best influence them
● Influence tactics are most effective when they are consistent with the
social values in the
national and organizational cultures
○ Ex. consultation is likely more effective in a country with a strong
democratic
tradition than in a country in which obedience to leaders is a strongly
held cultural
value
Persuasion Skills
● Influencing others often requires persuading them to do or to believe
something
● Because persuasion gets people to do things differently because they want
to, not
because they have been ordered to, it is a more effective way to lead
● Recommendations for being more persuasive:
○ Build credibility
○ Do not begin with a hard sell
 ○ Search for shared ground and be willing to compromise
○ Develop compelling positions
○ Connect with people emotionally
○ Create a continuous feedback loop
○ Be patient
Upward Influence
● Upward influence: influencing superiors
○ “Mentoring up”
○ Six primary upward influence tactics:
■ Ingratiation: using flattery and acting polite, friendly, or
humble to put the
supervisor in a good mood
■ Exchange: offering to trade favors or rewards for compliance
■ Rationality: using logic, planning, reason, and compromise
■ Assertiveness: using aggression, nagging, and verbal
confrontations
■ Coalition formation: seeking the support of other organization
members to show a united front
■ Upward appeals: making informal or formal appeals to
organizational
superiors for intervention
○ Upward influence styles: combinations of upward influence tactics
that tend to be used together
■ Shotgun: this style uses the most influence and emphasizes
assertiveness and bargaining. Shotgun managers tend to have
less job
tenure and the greatest needs to obtain personal benefits and
“sell” their
ideas about how work should be done. This style is associated
with the
highest levels of job tension and personal stress.
■ Tactician: this style uses an average amount of influence and
emphasizes
reason. Tactician managers tend to direct organizational
subunits
involved in non routine work that gives them a skill and
knowledge power
base. Associated with lowest levels of job tension and personal
stress
■ Bystander: this style uses little influence with superiors.
Bystander
managers tend to direct organizational units doing routine work
and
generally have little organizational power
■ Ingratiator: this style primarily uses a friendliness strategy but
also uses
the other influence strategies to some extent.