Influence Strategies

Influence [in-floo-uhns]-noun

1. The capacity or faculty of persons or things to exert coercive force or produce effects on the actions, behaviors, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to obtain the contract.

2. The action or process of producing effects on the actions, behaviors, opinions, etc., of another or others: His mother’s influence made him stay.

There are at least three broad categories of behavior associated with influencing others:

• Compensation
• Reciprocity
• Reason

It is beyond the scope of this article to make value judgments about the techniques presented: I leave that to you. My intent is simply to help you become more aware of them so that you can react accordingly when someone tries to use them on you.

Compensation

This is the simplest and most primitive method of influencing someone: just threaten them. Although the “civilized” world of large institutions, both public and private, would not approve of overt threats, we have devised more subtle methods to get what we want.

They may not directly threaten others, but we imply similar meanings when we use these techniques:

• Social pressure – “Everyone else in your group wants to do it. And you?”
• positional pressure – “I’m sure you and I can figure this out without involving the Boss” or “Because I’m the Boss, that’s why!”
• Exhaustion – “I will stop (the action) if you give in.”
• Shortage and time pressure – “If you don’t act now, they will leave!”
• Martyr – “If you don’t give in, the others will suffer.”

At what point in your work experience have you had the pay tactic used on you or seen it used on someone else?

Was it effective? Why or why not?

Reciprocity

This is an exchange of items of value or a sense of obligation undertaken by one side in the hope that the other will be ashamed of the desired action:

• promise – “If you do what I want, I will reward you.”
• vanity – “The people you value will think more (or less) of you if you do (or don’t do) this.”
• to exchange– “If I do this for you, will you do that for me?” (This differs slightly from ‘Promise’ in that I offer to make the first move, without waiting for you to do so.) Please note that we suggest that you never ask someone to give you something as part of the exchange. For many people, “concede” means to give up something to the other party; that is, a win-lose outcome. We suggest you say: “Let’s trade this for that” because trade implies an exchange of value that retains the social level of those involved; that is, a mutually satisfactory result.
• debt – “You owe me this for things I’ve done for you in the past.”
• reciprocal commitment – “Since I changed my initial price/offer, I hope you will act favourably.” (It doesn’t matter if the initial price/offer was reasonable or not.)

At what point in your work experience have you had the reciprocity tactic used on you or seen it used on someone else?

Was it effective? Why or why not?

Reason

We share similar personal values ​​or viewpoints (or I want you to think we do).

• outer test – “These expert opinions that you respect should convince you that I am right.”
• Basic needs – “This is what I need. Can you help me?”
• Your goal – “Doing this will help you achieve your goal of X.”
• consistent values – “Doing this fits perfectly with your belief about X.”
• vanity – “You are the only one we know with this ability. Will you help us?” (Note that this is a slightly different variation of the ‘Vanity’ shown above.)
• Loyalty – “As a friend (fraternity, sorority, member of a specialized group), will you do this for me?”
• Altruism – “Will you do it for the good of the group?”

If you know that others are trying to manipulate you through one of these strategies, you have a better chance of resisting or turning it against them. Wouldn’t that be fun?