My work in delivering change has led me to specialising in overcoming resistance by influencing, motivating and persuading people to do things differently. Through this I have created an influencing and persuading strategy. This is an essential skill that transcends any one specific piece of work. It ensures that I have an excellent network of contacts, that I have highly effective stakeholder communication and engagement techniques and that I am confident to approach people to ask them to work, which fuels my collaborative, co-design style of working.
If this creating an influencing and persuading strategy sounds like something you would like to be able to do, read on!
These are my guiding principles for an effective influencing and persuading strategy in business:
Everyone’s time is precious – including your own. Don’t waste their time by trying to build a relationship without a purpose. You are developing a business relationship, so be clear about the purpose of why you want to meet with someone. The quickest way to define your purpose is to ask yourself a series of questions (a variation on the 5 whys techniques):
If you cannot answer these questions before you arrange a meeting, then you will waste their time, and they will be less likely to read/reply to future emails or agree to future meetings.
Our brains are very good at identifying risks and problems. In any situation, our brain will quickly calculate what might be go wrong, what the problems could be. This helps us survive, because we can sense danger and prepare for it. At work, you might not think this is relevant, but it is.
Use this understanding to shape how you approach any subject.
You do not need to explain the advantages and disadvantages of what you are asking. If you are making a request, set out the benefits of getting involved. Whoever you are requesting will work out the disadvantages and reasons why they don’t want to do this thing. Part of persuading is to highlight the benefits, advantages and improvements of doing it. Don’t play fair, the brain is not fair, it focuses on the negative, so you need to counter that by focusing on the positive.
I was given this advice by a CEO of a bank when I was starting out in finance, and I have applied this guidance ever since. Recognise that in any engagement, our ability to influence and persuade is likely to shift people only one step.
If someone hates your idea you can reduce their animosity and move them towards dislike. Event if you are brilliant, you will move them to a more neutral view, but you will not get them to love it. We can only leap a maximum of 2 steps at a time, so don’t keep pushing for them to love your idea if they are starting from a very negative position. This is important when is comes to an influencing and persuading strategy as you need to judge the current state of you prospect before pitching.
There are 43 influencing and persuading strategies and techniques in the Agile Change Coach course, showing you how you can nudge, persuade and motivate your team members, your colleagues and your customers to shift to new ways of working. Join us for the next course to unlock the benefits of building an influencing and persuading strategy.
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