Persuasion, leadership, goals, manipulation
When I think of persuasion, the first thing that comes into my head is the Dyson guy in Curry’s trying to sell us the latest Dyson model last year. He involved my 6 years old child in trying it out, playing to her emotional side, you could help mummy and daddy to do the housework and earn some pocket money. And look, it is even your favourite colour, red, isn’t it lovely?
My daughter’s little heart was genuinely happy that she can help and earn money at the same time.
He was good, I mean really good, and we ended up with a new Dyson. We wanted a new hoover at some point anyway. Never mind, we have one now. What to learn from this guy’s sales pitch? If I could translate his style in the workplace, life would be easier in a lot of situations. But what is persuasion? Persuasion is the action or process of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something.
Think about a scenario when someone is trying to make you do things you don’t really want to do or agree to. In a work environment as a manager, you might have team members you need to task with something, but they don’t really want to do the job or get their buy-in when it comes to change. You have a few options regarding strategies to persuade people to comply.
People are often applying the strategy to ‘play’ with others’ emotional thoughts (Dyson guy), or they are being very rational, objective, and trying to persuade you the way that the rules are brought forward as a reason to comply. Sometimes people use the combination of both. To successfully apply any technique, you need to know your audience. You need to read them to see the most appropriate technique to apply to get the results. You need to have the ability to built rapport with individuals. When it comes to your teams, to a degree, it is easier as you know them already, you built a relationship with them already.
In his book Managing difficult people (2014), David Cotton talks about the ‘Push/Pull, Head/Heart model of persuasion and influencing. He discusses the different ways of persuading people, either to appeal to the heart or the head. You can pull individuals towards your goal or way of thinking, or you can push them forcefully in the same direction.
Source: Adapted from David Cotton diagram (2020)
Combining the different elements of the model can help select the most appropriate strategies to suit the situation where you need to persuade someone to do something. As Cotton details, some combinations are more suitable for certain situations than others.
Head and push = Everybody knows the rules. We need to follow the rules; otherwise, there won’t be any choice but to take sanctions, disciplinary actions. This option might bring quick results in certain situations, but not achieve commitment from the individuals. This style is very linear, straight to the point; you often find this kind of behaviour with leaders' autocratic style. The use of statistics and figures can support the argument here to put the point across and make it more agreeable. There is a threat of punishment or offer of reward here, which can remind individuals of the carrot and stick analogy. Like the transactional leadership style, it has its place and can have a high cost to it if applied in the wrong scenarios or applied as a general leadership style. In crisis scenarios, perhaps it is the best approach to get quick results and make decisions, but when times are 'normal' (who knows what is expected nowadays), this approach might not be suitable.
Head and pull – Let’s follow the rules, so the workplace is more harmonious. This style is a touch different, people still need to follow the rules, but the reasons behind it more appealing to the individuals; they can see a more direct benefit from agreeing to ‘play’. There is a bit more motivational effort from individuals to comply with this style of persuasion. There is no immediate crisis, but there are rules to follow, which is the reason for the 'head' element in the model; we know that we need to do the things required of us, and we are doing this because there is a benefit for us as a team. The leader here is also encouraging the team to do tasks for their own benefits, but there is a large emphasis on the 'need' to do things.
Heart and push - come on now, let’s do this. We don't want to be the only ones who don’t do it. This style is playing with emotions a lot. To comply is to ensure we as a team are not falling behind, we are doing the things because we have to do them. This style can gain more commitment, there is an element or a perception that the leader is in it with the team, part of the problem solving and solution finding, but still based on achieving compliance. The leader is not micromanaging the situation and this is important to highlight. This style can be more useful when leaders need to break down barriers to change. The style still has the element of we need to do it, there is logical reasoning for doing things. For example, the application of rhetorical questions; ‘who doesn’t want success?’ might help support the argument and get the buy-in.
Heart and pull = just imagine what fun it is going to be when we all work together on this. The ultimate style of achieving commitment from your teams. This is providing opportunities for individuals to show commitment, be involved in problem-solving. The danger in this style is; if the intention behind things is dishonesty, it will be seen as manipulative and dishonest. Using exaggerated and emotive language could play on emotions and build momentum to support persuasion. Complimenting your audience can also positively affect achieving your goal along with using personal pronouns such as ‘you’, ‘we’, ‘I’. The ‘we can do this’ attitude implies that the leader is part of the team, we are doing it together and you are essential in achieving these goals.
One vital thing to highlight when we are talking about persuasion. Persuasion does not equal manipulation! Manipulating people can be considered devious, and in many circumstances, manipulation results in negative psychological states for individuals who are being manipulated. Manipulation can result in emotional exploitation, especially if the manipulator is using the individual’s emotional vulnerabilities to achieve results.
What is your takeaway? How are you persuading people?
Reference: David Cotton, Managing difficult people, 2014, Teach Yourself
Photo by Kartik Gupta, Cottonbro, Riccardo Bresciani and Vlad Chețan from Pexels
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