The way in which we behave as managers and the approach we take will have a marked effect on our ultimate success or failure.

Having a range of approaches and styles of behaviour gives us more flexibility. It increases our options – and our chances of success.

Natural Styles

Most managers have a natural style of influence which they prefer to use whenever possible. More flexible managers also keep in reserve a fall back style, used when the preferred style doesn’t achieve the desired results.

However, there are at least eight identifiable styles of influence – not including aggression, manipulation or force!

Because we are influencing a wide range of people, proficiency in a wider range of styles will ensure more success. We can step outside the comfort zone of our natural style and enjoy greater success by practising new ways of influencing.

However, we must think carefully which influencing style has the greatest chance of succeeding. Varying our styles too much may give us a reputation for being unpredictable

The Autocratic Approach

You tell them, they agree

Use this style when:
• You are looking for a quick response
• You seek only short-term commitment
• You are happy to check up and follow through

This approach works best when supported by power, authority, age, knowledge or wisdom. Resistance or objections are minimised. You tell others what you want then to do.

Do remember though that autocracy can be a high-risk strategy. It may result in a feeling of ‘You won, I lost’. They’ll get you next time.

The Collaborative Approach

You include others in the decision-making process.

Use this style when:
• You want to maintain long-term influence with others
• You seek a high level of commitment
• You have no time to enforce the outcome

This approach works successfully without you having any power or authority.

A word of caution, democracy takes time and can result in watered down solutions. Remain consistently collaborative. Don’t give up too early. Avoid imposing too many parameters or conditions – these will create frustration in others.

The Logical Approach

You use clear logical, unassailable arguments, supported by proof.

Use logic when:
• The other person demands evidence and lots of detail
• You are prepared to do your homework
• You are prepared to wait for a reaction

This approach works best when the other person is a logical, linear thinker. Avoid exaggeration and unnecessary emotion. Offer instead facts and figures.

But, you may find this style long-winded and frustrating. You may even be forced to put it in writing. Allow time to prepare your argument, time to explain it, time to wait for a reaction.

The Emotional Approach

You use your natural charm, charisma or enthusiasm.

Use emotion when:
• You want others to feel part of an exciting project
• You want to fire up someone’s motivation
• You are truly enthusiastic about an idea

This approach works when your influence becomes a genuine extension of your own feelings and beliefs. Appealing to the long-term effects of your ideas, you will reinforce their continuing value.
 
 Do remember though that emotional appeal carries risks. It can leave a nasty taste in the mouth. Painful memories linger longer.

The Assertive Approach

You ask directly, clearly and confidently for what you want, or don’t want.

Be assertive when:
• You want to influence autocratic people, bullies, stick-in-the-mud
• You want to influence behaviours
• You need to act and initiate, rather than react

Assertiveness can have a lasting effect, especially on those who least expect it from you. Any resistance is met by your persistence.

Assertive influence carries little or no risk.

The Passive Approach

You win the day by being submissive, by not overtly influencing.

Remain passive when:
• You want to influence others through personal demonstration
• You want to avoid unhelpful confrontation
• You have tried all the other approaches

As you quietly demonstrate desired behaviours, others can see for themselves the value in following your lead. Many potential confrontations with power or authority demand submissive influence, which can pay positive dividends.
   
The downside is that your submissiveness may leave you with feelings of low-esteem. Can you live with this?

The Sales Approach

You use good old-fashioned salesmanship.

Use salesmanship when:
• You know that the other person expects to be sold to
• You need to show the benefits your suggestion will produce
• You enjoy selling ideas

Draw out their point of view, understand their needs, demonstrate that you empathise; minimise resistance by showing how their ideas dovetail with your own; show how they will benefit.
 
Do realise though that logical or submissive people often hate an overt sales approach and may work hard to wreck your plans.

The Bargaining Approach

You trade concessions in order to reach a mutually acceptable conclusion.

Bargain or negotiate when:
• You are both equally keen to go ahead with the idea 
• You are happy and able to offer a few concessions
• You want to reach a <i>win-win conclusion</i>

Don’t just share the cake – make it a bigger one. Your success as affair negotiator will help cement the relationship.

 Aim too low and you’ll end up even lower. Over collaborate and you may regret giving too much away. Always trade concessions.

The Power Of Positive Behaviour 

Who has been a big influence in your life? A parent, relative, employer, friend or neighbour? Chances are that they often did nothing specific to influence you – they just behaved in ways that you took note of and decided to copy.

The behaviour of others can be influenced greatly when they observe the ways in which you:

• Deal with aggression
• Handle awkward customers
• Control group behaviour
• Field tricky questions
• Overcome resistance
• Live by your values and beliefs
• Walk the talk

Behaviours that help the influencing process:

• Continuous maintenance of rapport
• Maintaining good eye contact
• Congruent body language which supports your messages
• Appropriate voice tone which underpins what you say
• Sensory acuity – noticing how others react to you and your messages
• Flexibility – being prepared to change your approach, when necessary
• Awareness and acceptance of the needs of others
• Lack of conditional words, which dilute your messages

In Summary: Modelling Behaviour

Ok, suppose you don’t have sufficient flexibility of style. With practice, it’s easy to observe, analyse and reproduce the effective behaviours of other people. If you’ve ever studied any skill under a master, you will already have done this.

Suppose you know a person who uses an influencing style in a particularly elegant or effective manner. You have identified this as something you would like to improve for yourself. By closely observing what works for that person and noticing the effect it has on others, you can begin to experiment by adopting these behaviours and strategies and making them work for you, too. Behaviour is only behaviour – it can usually be replicated

You might also enjoy: “Understanding Assertiveness”

Today’s News: We have announced the Top Sales Article of The Month over at Top 10 Sales Articles and it really is a belter – just click on the banner below to see for yourself.

Tomorrow:One of the leading business development experts in the world – Leslie Buterin – is my guest on The JF Guest Author Spot.

There are two distinct levels of self-sufficiency in how people work:

• Involvement. This can be created in various ways such as: consultation, giving information and making it clear that suggestions are welcome and that experiment and change in how things are done are good. This provides the opportunity to contribute beyond the base job.

• Empowerment. Empowerment adds the authority to be self-sufficient (making your own decisions) and creates the basis for people to become self-sufficient on an ongoing basis. In sense, empowerment creates a culture of involvement and gives it momentum.

The Power Of Responsibility
Together, involvement and empowerment create an environment in which people can have responsibility for their own actions. But remember: Responsibility cannot be given – it can only be taken; thus only the opportunity to take it can be given.

Creating a situation in which people do take responsibility for their work demands:
• Clear objectives (people knowing exactly what they must do and why).
• Good communications.
• Motivation (to show the desirability, for the individual as well as for the organisation, or taking responsibility).
• Trust (having created such a situation, you have to let people get on with things).

A team enjoying involvement in what they do, and having the authority to make decisions and get the job done, is the best recipe for successful management.

A Management Catalyst
A successful team is one that:
• Is set up correctly.
• Responds to the responsibility it has for the task.
• Seeks constant improvement (and does not ever get stuck on the tramlines).
• Sees its manager as a fundamental support to its success.

A team in this situation will do well and is more likely to go on doing well than a group just told what to do.

Your role is one of catalyst – constantly helping the team to keep up with events, to change in the light of events and to succeed because it is always configured for success.

You will find some additional articles on Leadership here

Today’s News:

The final Top Sales Article Of The Week for August has been chosen and now the panel will be deciding which of the excellent five weekly winners will be Top Sales Article Of The Month – it’s a really tough call. Just click on the banner above, to update yourself. You will also notice the brand new ticker box in the left-hand column, announcing this week’s nominees.

We are on schedule to launch The JF Journal next Tuesday, so if you haven’t subscribed already, simply click on the banner at the bottom. You’ll not only receive a complimentary E-book – you will also receive another FREE E-book every month for the next twelve months!!

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, Wendy Weiss, the “Queen Of Cold Calling” makes a very welcome return.

The JF Guest Author Spot

Kevin Dwyer

Some leaders do all they can to appear to lead. Others lead.

Have you ever had a boss who had to go to all of the “important” meetings even though they did not understand the detail which was to be discussed in the meeting? Ever had the same boss then ask you for a briefing on the details so they could be “up-to-speed”, instead of just inviting you along to the meeting?

Ever had a boss determined to be always visible to senior management as part of a strategy to advance their career? One might even go so far as to call them the “Visibility Manager”, such is their passion to be seen to be doing.

Ever had a boss so self-absorbed that they neglect to develop their staff’s intellectual and emotional intelligence?

If you have worked for a while it is probable that you will have had a boss with some or all of these traits. They may well have been successful as well, measured by the results of their strategy, at least temporarily.

Their behaviour reminds me of Aesop’s fable of The Peacock and the Crane.

A PEACOCK spreading its gorgeous tail mocked a Crane that passed by, ridiculing the ashen hue of its plumage and saying, “I am robed, like a king, in gold and purple and all the colours of the rainbow; while you have not a bit of colour on your wings.”

“True,” replied the Crane; “but I soar to the heights of heaven and lift up my voice to the stars, while you walk below, like a cock, among the birds of the dunghill.”

Leaders who do what is necessary to get noticed rather than embolden their people to do what they thought they could not and achieve what seemed unreasonable, are not leaders. They are mere peacocks.

Leadership is about a leader and followers. Leaders model the behaviours they want from their followers. Leaders demonstrate what is possible.

Leaders are noticed. They do not need to manage their visibility.

They are noticed because of the clarity and power of an idea and the drive they demonstrate in enabling the idea.

They are noticed by the strength and the independence of the people who follow them.

They are noticed by what their teams achieve, not by what meetings they attend.

Careers may be built on political posturing and managing visibility. Self belief, self-satisfaction and true respect are built on leading yourself and leading others.

To lead well, one needs to be self-aware and self-regulate. How aware are you of any tendencies to be the peacock rather than the crane? Ask your colleagues and subordinates.

Kevin Dwyer is a pragmatic change management advisor and founder of Change Factory. He comes from an old school that experienced and led change first and learnt the theory later.

Kevin’s interest in sales is in developing the reinforcing loops of corporate goal, strategy, marketing and sales tactics, KPIs, recruitment, career and competence development, coaching and counselling that influences more customers to move through their buying process with the selling organisation. You can learn more about Kevin and the Change Factory here

Today’s News: Unless your name is either Gustav or Obama, you will have felt pretty neglected when it comes to news headlines this week: I couldn’t find too many blog posts relating to the former and anyway interest will have blown over by next week; the latter seems destined to be with us for a while to come.

From Paul McCord: “Obama’s VP strategy…did drama overload America’s attention span?” and from Tibor Shanto: “Lessons for Sales from the Democratic Convention in Denver”

Tomorrow: It’s a tidy up w/e for me: Ten new E-books to edit and The JF Journal to finish. Rumour has it that after almost two weeks of grey skies, the sun will finally re-appear, just as most of Paris returns from it’s summer vacation in the south.

Have a great w/e yourself and be sure to make it back next week – JF

Successful modern leaders should be supportive of staff, but should also take decisive action to maintain standards of behaviour: The worst leaders are those who fail to support staff. These conclusions came from research by The Industrial Society, carried out among 3000 business people. The survey, “Liberating Leadership”, identified 38 key competencies for leadership, and exposed some myths about modern leadership, derided by some as ‘too soft’ and people-centred.

Highest rated among the qualities was the ability to deal effectively with breaches to standards of behaviour. The other main qualities were that the leaders did not take personal credit for other people’s work; listened to their staff; worked on their own learning; and were honest and truthful.

“Clearly”, the Industrial Society said, “those around successful leaders, or the observers in this research, do not have difficulty equating supportive leadership behaviour with decisive action to maintain standards… above all; they appear to admire the combination of the two”.

The five weakest areas of the less successful leaders were that they failed to be sensitive to people’s feelings; failed to recognise other people’s stress; failed to develop and guide their staff; failed to encourage feedback on their own performance, and failed to consult those affected before making decisions.

The top 100 leaders identified in the study were also more critical of their shortcomings and displayed more humility than the bottom 100, who tended to have an inflated sense of their own abilities. The Society reported: “What is clear is that the most admired leaders are highly skilled in the ‘modern’ areas of leadership, but importantly they are also able to set tough standards and achieve results.

Observers want leaders to combine ethical and inspirational behaviour with the ability to take tough business decisions”.

By identifying the highest competency as “dealing effectively with breaches of behaviour” observers are essentially saying that leaders should be decisive in tackling poor performance, the Society says. Tony Morgan, Chief Executive of the Society, commented: “Modern leadership can no longer be regarded as a soft option.

This research shows that it is integrity, honesty and decisive action that marks out the truly successful leaders. Their followers have no problem equating ethics and discipline and neither should we. Leaders in all fields – from business to sport to politics – cannot escape the need to adapt to this new ‘firm but fair’ style of leadership; not if they want to remain at the top”.

Today’s News:  

Clayton Shold’s guest this week is Mike Schultz who gives advice on selling professional services in a “down” economy; just click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: Will hopefully be leadership guru Kevin Dwyer on The JF Guest Author Spot