Influencing

Lalith Weeratunga

Proactivity and influence

Proactive people are different from others because:
1. They appear to have clear ideas about what it is
they want to achieve.
2. They pay attention to what needs to happen if they
are to bring about the state of affairs they desire,
and invest their time, energy and other resource
accordingly.
3. They possess a set of skills to do with influencing
others and the exercise of power.

Influencing others
Irrespective of seniority some find it difficult to
influence others.

non-assertive

assertive

aggressive

Characteristics of non-assertive
persons

Find it difficult to express their needs and

influence others.
Even if they do, they tend to do it an apologetic
way.
Non verbal behaviours such as low eye contact,
soft voice and submissive postures.

Characteristics of assertive persons

Express their needs and stand up for their own
rights
But do so in ways that respect the right of others
They are not unduly worried about conflicts that
may arise.
Communicates clearly with others
States ones position confidently
Uses appropriate non-verbal behaviours

Characteristics of aggressive persons

Determined to win, regardless of what happens to
the other people involved.
Often express their feelings and pursue their
needs at the expense of others
They fail to pay attention to what it is that others
value.
Talk loudly, look angry, use phrases which abuse,
blame, or undervalue others.
Short term they win; long term they create
unnecessary opposition and resistance.

Two approaches to influencing

1. Focused on Assertiveness behaviours
which help an individual to stand up for
his/her rights and communicate important
messages to others.
2. More macro perspective considers
influencing as a political process

Assertiveness
Expressing unpopular or different opinions
Requesting behaviour changes
Refusing requests

Assertion skills
Content skills - what the assertor says
Non-verbal skills how the assertor looks and
sounds
Social interaction skills the way the assertor
behaves in the process of the interaction, including
escalating, persistence, and the management of
defensive reactions.

Influencing as a political process

Acquisition and exercise of power and influence
can be viewed as a political process.
When preferences conflict, it is the power and
influence of the individuals and groups involved
that determines the outcome of the decision
making process, not logic and rational argument.

Acquisition of exercise of power and influence

A person can increase his/her ability to influence others by
paying attention to herself, to others, and the kind of
relationship they have by:
Developing the capacity to satisfy others needs
Assessing others dependence (power is inherent in any
relationship in which one person is dependent upon
another)
Increasing others sense of dependence
Assessing own dependence
Minimizing own dependence
Negotiating advantageous agreements

Impression Management
A key component of
Interpersonal skills

What is Impression Management?

The process whereby people seek to
control or influence the impressions
that others form.
(Schlenker, B.R., Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2000)

We impression manage in many

different ways:

What we do
How we do it
What we say
How we say it
The furnishings and arrangements of our
offices
Our physical appearance clothes, make up,
non-verbal behaviours (facial expressions and
posture)

Origins of IM
Sociologist Erving Goffman wrote one of the first books
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959).
He said that IM involves attempts to establish the
meaning or purpose of social interactions, guides actions,
and helps us anticipate what to expect form others.
IM is a mutual ritual that helps smooth and control social
relations and avoid embarrassment.
People are performers who play many different roles to
construct their social identity.
When these social identities involve information related to
the self, the term self-presentation is also used.

Ingratiation
Tactics and strategies aimed at making others like you.
A fine example is Dale Carnegies How to win friends and influence
people
IM theory suggests that a basic human motive, both inside and
outside of organizations, is to be seen by others in favourable
manner and to avoid being viewed negatively.
These attempts to be seen favourably or positively are called
acquisitive IM.
Defensive tactics that seek to minimize deficiencies and avoid
disapproval are called protective IM.
Both these tactics can be directly applied by the parties involved or
occur t indirectly through association.

Types of ingratiation
Opinion conformity
Favour doing
Other-enhancement
Self-enhancement

Opinion conformity
Birds of a feather flock together Aristotle:
similar breeds attraction.
Donn Byrnes law of attraction (1971) the greater
the proportion of similar attitudes that two people
share the more they will like each other.
Common and effective form of ingratiation
Thrives on power differentials.
Greater the difference in power between two people
in an organizational setting, the greater the
likelihood that the lower status individual will
imitate the attitudes and behaviours of the higher
status person.

Favour-doing
Capitalizes on the simple truth that a good way to
instill liking is by doing favours for others.
Norm of reciprocity universal rule of social
behaviour that we should pay back.
Favour doer seeks to trigger a feeling of
indebtedness.

Other-Enhancement
The average man is more interested in his own
name than all the other names on earth put
together Dale Carnegie
Honestly praising others were the keys to being
successful.
We like those who praise us powerful social rule.
Several approaches
Use of third parties
Making compliments credible.

Self-enhancement
Directly using IM to make oneself be seen as more
attractive.
Commonplace in job interviews.
Compensatory IM

Beyond Ingratiation: Other

Acquisitive IM techniques

Self-promotion
Intimidation
Exemplification
Supplication
Indirect IM
Non-verbal IM

Interpersonal Communication
Skills: some salient aspects

Contribution to real managers

effectiveness

11%
44%

19%

26%

Nonverbal communication
Sometimes called the silent
language.

Defined as nonword human responses

(such as gestures, facial expressions)
and the perceived characteristics of
the environment through which the
human verbal and nonverbal messages
are transmitted.

Whether a person says something or

equally important does not say
anything, communication still can take
place.

Paralanguage
Important dimension of nonverbal
communication.

Include things such as

Voice quality
Tone
Volume
Speech rate
Pitch
Nonfluencies (ah, um, uh, huh
etc.)
Laughing
Yawning

Interpersonal Communication
(IC)
Major emphasis is on transferring information from one
person to the another.
Comm. is looked on as a basic method of effecting
behavioural change.
It incorporates the psychological processes (perception,
learning and motivation) on the one hand, and language on
the other.
IT is also having an impact on this human interaction
process.
Listening sensitivity and nonverbal communication are
closely associated with I.C.

Importance of Feedback

Is there a noise in
the forest if a tree
crashes to the
ground but no one is
there to hear it?