This week, I had the opportunity to view a presentation by a performance professional.
B. Kim Barnes is the CEO of Barnes & Conti Associates, a leadership development firm. Barnes & Conti are consultants who have been helping organizations develop their leadership talent for over 30 years (Barnes & Conti, 2014).
The Basics of Influence
Kim defines influencing others as,
The process of moving your ideas into actions through others
(Barnes, n.d., 4:00).
According to Kim, influence grows out of strong relationships full of mutual respect. In addition to respect, people are more likely to be influenced if you believe they are capable of achieving what you are asking of them and you demonstrate a willingness to collaborate and hear their ideas. From a neuro-scientific perspective, people are more willing to accept the ideas of someone who is non-threatening, credible, has shared goals, and is skilled at perspective-taking.
The Tactics
Kim categorizes the mechanics of imposing influence into two categories – expressive and receptive. Expressive tactics focus on actively convincing someone to accept your ideas. Receptive tactics help the influencer gather information and enhance relationships. Combining expressive and receptive tactics is recommended.
Expressive tactics
- Tell – suggest or express need
- Sell – list reasons or state goals and benefits
- Negotiate – offer incentive or consequences
- Enlist – encourage or envision
Receptive tactics
- Inquire – ask open-ended questions or draw out information
- Listen – check understanding or test implications
- Attune – identify with other or disclose about self
- Facilitate – pose challenging questions or clarify issues
(TatyOrtiz, 2020)
Choosing Your Tactics
When entering an influencing situation, planning your approach can help that interaction go smoothly. The first thing to consider is your objective. What is the desired result you would like from the interaction? After determining the objective, possible obstacles and issues should be considered. Factors like your relationship with the person, organizational culture, trends, and recent events can all dictate what approach may be most successful. It’s a good idea to plan how you will address the situation, but it’s also a good idea to be observant and react to on-the-fly when presenting your ideas.
For additional details, Barnes & Conti associates has posted resources and materials on their website (Barnes & Conti, 2008).
My Thoughts
Throughout the LDT program, navigating interpersonal relationships has come up during every class. Both HPT and ID often require practitioners to exercise influence and persuasion on others. Often HPT and ID’ers are coming into someone else’s organization to implement change – and change is not easy for anyone! In my personal experience, influencing organizations to change (hopefully for the better) requires lots of skillful conversations. I truly appreciated the way Barnes broke down the different ways of convincing people to accept your plans. I will use the tools from this talk to become a more well-rounded influencer. I realized that I use expressive tactics more as a manager, and I tend to gravitate toward ‘negotiate’ and ‘enlist’; I can do the most work on ‘tell’. I frequently use receptive skills as a teacher or a collaborator. I rely on using ‘listen’ and ‘inquire’ to lead back to expressive tactics. I’ve always thought of influence as an elusive soft skill, but this presentation helped me see that it is definitely something that can be studied.
References
Barnes & Conti. (2008). Additional Materials for Exercising Influence. Exercising Influence: Reference Materials and Practice. https://exercisinginfluence.com/materials/.
Barnes & Conti. Barnes & Conti Home Page. (2014). https://www.barnesconti.com/company.html.
Barnes, B. K. (n.d.). Exercising influence [Webinar]. Purdue University. https://purdue.brightspace.com/d2l/le/content/308209/Home
TatyOrtiz. (2020). Better or worse gif. Tenor. https://tenor.com/view/better-worse-staythesame-michael-michaelscott-gif-18663469.
