Authentic Gravitas

by Rebecca Newton

  To make the most of inspirational appeals, recognize the power of emotion in shaping others’ thinking and decision-making and consider the emotive elements of your interactions. Be intentional about which emotions you aim to invoke in others through your message and delivery.

  Beyond the Banner: Inspirational Appeals (Values)

  Years ago, I had the unusual experience of sitting on a client board to assist them in choosing a service provider. My client, an IT company, was seeking a consultancy to work on a large rebranding project. Four executives and I sat and listened to multiple agencies walking us through their slides and pitching to us on why they were the right fit. Then two women walked in. They sat down opposite us and asked us some questions. I kept waiting for the impending slide deck to emerge, to be handed hard copies and spoken at. But it never happened. They facilitated a discussion with us. The women had done their research and knew the values of the client company, but went further to identify what that meant and looked like in practice. They then went on to ascertain the values of the executives, asking what they appreciated about the company, what they valued, and what was most important to them in the project. They crafted a model throughout the discussion that highlighted to us how their values and the client’s values were aligned. At the end of that pitch, we felt like we knew them and what they stood for. Making the decision to go with them was an easy one.

  Inspirational appeals go beyond invoking emotions and include values-based messaging. In our day-to-day life at work, we can overlook the immense power of shared values. Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have spent decades researching and writing about leadership, highlighting the importance of clear and shared values.8 In a study of 711 members of the American Management Association, Posner found that high levels of congruence between personal values and organizational values, and high levels of clarity of organizational values, were both significantly related to higher commitment, satisfaction, motivation, and ethics, as well as lower job anxiety and less work stress. This was regardless of age, gender, and function area.9 And we can see the power of values alignment around the world. A study of over four hundred professionals across seventy-two corporate teams in Taiwan found that teammates’ shared work values were positively related to team member performance and satisfaction with cooperation.10

  Often we forget to highlight and draw on shared values. While we’re happy to work with people who have different styles and areas of expertise and experience from ours (this difference is usually why we seek them out in the first place), we want to work with people who share our values. Knowing that your core principles are aligned is perhaps the most powerful foundation for influencing.

  We readily talk about what I call “banner values”—those displayed on the walls in reception and the homepage of the company’s website. But when it comes to the values we live and breathe at work, and the values we hold personally, we can be more reserved. This can be because we think others aren’t interested, because it makes us feel vulnerable if we share, or because we’re just not in the habit of talking about values at work. If all else is equal with your competition—your expertise, offerings, price points, etc.—but you convey shared values in your presentation or pitch, you will stand out. And even if everything else is not equal, you may still find values to be the key differentiator that sways a final vote. This is especially (but not exclusively) relevant to the context of business to business. But also within an organization, colleague to colleague, regardless of hierarchy, having a genuine interest in what matters to others and choosing to share your aligned values can significantly increase your influence.

  Instilling Confidence in Others: Ingratiation

  Early in my career, my boss asked me to run a team day. I hadn’t run one before. “I can’t,” I told him, “I don’t know what to do!” “You absolutely can do this,” he said. “I know you can. You’ll be good at this because . . .” He went on to list four reasons he thought I personally was a good fit for this project. Ingratiation is about using praise to express confidence in someone’s ability to carry out a challenging task or request. While flattery can be associated with insincerity, genuine praise is not just nice to have, but an actual necessity at times. We can have more confidence in another’s ability than they have in themselves. Share with others specific reasons you believe they would be a good person to do what you’re asking of them. People with gravitas not only build confidence in themselves by engaging in courageous behaviors, but also instill confidence in others around them.

  Telling someone what you like, respect, or appreciate about him or her can also be a great way to adjust your perspective of a person you don’t “click” with. You can find that one thing about them that you do like, such as the way they present or pull together a proposal. While this can be hard, it shifts your perception of them and ultimately has a positive impact on your relationship.

  Participation Gains Buy-In . . . or Does It?: Consulting

  Consultation is one of the most powerful influencing techniques available to us because we naturally are more attached to things we create. When others contribute their intellectual energy and professional expertise to a project or proposal, they are more likely to regard it positively.

  Getting others involved to suggest improvements or to help plan our projects can mean they are more likely to give a positive assessment of it. People have a desire for social consistency. It’s the reason we are more likely to follow through on our goals if we share them with other people—we want to be seen as consistent with what we have said. If others suggest some part of our project is worthwhile by engaging and participating in it, they are more likely to stick with that idea.

  So, participation gains buy-in. Or does it? A study of organizational change found consultation tactics to be associated with less resistance.11 Research we conducted at the London School of Economics, however, suggests that while participation may increase buy-in, what matters is if it’s genuine—if it’s something we sincerely want and plan to take into account in decision-making, and if we have the potential to change based on their contribution.12 The danger is in asking people to contribute, but failing to act on their input. It sounds obvious, but it happens regularly. Think of employee surveys. People get extremely frustrated when they share their ideas and feelings about the company, team, and work, but nothing is done to address their concerns. In our study, we looked at change leadership and found that while change leaders (those responsible for change strategy and/or implementation) received ideas and suggestions, employees often did not feel their ideas were given genuine consideration, and rarely were these ideas implemented. Similarly, if we invite contribution and then do nothing with it, we can unintentionally put ourselves in a worse position than if we had never sought feedback in the first place. This can decrease our influence and increase resistance to our plans. I am certainly not saying we should adopt others’ ideas just to make them feel valued. They may not come up with the best idea, or there may be reasons their good ideas won’t work or can’t be implemented. But we do need to be genuine in our desire to hear others’ feedback if we’re asking for it. Be clear about the boundaries of what others can and can’t shape, and invite participation within those boundaries. And if you choose not to follow through with their contribution, explain why.

  Coalitions and Forward Influence

  Consider who could make or break your project or proposal and request their contribution—their ideas, input, and alterations. Knowing that you have the support of a few key people will increase your confidence in your message. And when people perceive this message confidence, they will be more open to your ideas and suggestions. Having this support additionally allows you to draw on what I refer to as “forward influence”—whereby others, regardless of position and hierarchy, extend your influence beyond your own direct interactions. They go before you in positioning your proposal, behind you in reinforcing it, and beside you in influencing a wider sphere, an
d they take it beyond the people or spheres you could access alone.

  Research supports the importance of identifying and gaining the support of key people for this form of influence. Bernard Caillaud at the Paris School of Economics and Jean Tirole at the University of Toulouse explored strategies that a proposal’s sponsor may use to build consensus and persuade a majority of the group’s members to accept their proposal.13 Imagine you are the one making a proposal to a group. The research indicates that factors such as the size and governance of the group, and the extent of congruence among group members and between you (as the sponsor) and the group members, will affect your ability to build consensus. In addition, it is imperative to inform certain key group members individually of the idea or proposal. By distilling information in this way, members who approve of the proposal are able to sway the opinions of other members of the group. The study highlights the importance of identifying and bringing on board key members who possess credibility within the group and align with you, the sponsor. Key members’ endorsements could turn out to be pivotal in influencing the receptivity of a majority of the group members in favor of your proposal. Getting key members’ endorsements, through consultation or other means, requires us to take time out to engage them, and with sufficient lead time to offer real opportunities for a contribution that can meaningfully impact the plans.

  It seems that influencing to get an idea or proposal accepted can work in a similar way to leading change successfully—getting other champions on board makes a tangible difference. This is yet another way we can be intentional when it comes to influence. This forward influence can be as powerful, if not more powerful, than your own direct influence.

  Practically Applying the Influencing Techniques

  We can increase our influence by being intentional with which techniques we choose to apply in a particular situation, based on our target assessment and thorough preparation. Remember, it is what you do before you go into the room that largely shapes how successful you are likely to be in influencing others once you’re in the room. We can be strategic about how we influence directly and how we build forward influence.

  There is much evidence to suggest the power of proactively utilizing various influencing techniques. One study of two thousand firms in Malaysia found that transformational managers tend to use inspirational appeals, consultation, and ingratiation to increase organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).14 OCB is voluntary action and mutual aid without a request for pay or formal rewards—for example, accepting extra duties and responsibilities at work, working overtime when needed, or helping junior staff with their work. The researchers note that while most previous research attributes differences in OCB to leadership styles, appropriate choice and successful use of influence tactics (specifically, inspirational appeals and consultation) also play an important role in generating positive outcomes.

  Rather than relying on habit, natural style, or what’s been modeled to us to get others on board with our work, we need to first get clarity on the goal and then choose the best technique(s) available. A study in the public administration and public policy realm found the most effective techniques for influencing participants varied according to the type of decision being made.15 In the visioning process, coalition tactics (other people supporting your idea with forward influence) and inspirational appeals were most effective. Where they needed to make more concrete decisions about current issues, rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation effectively influenced decisions.

  Consider whether you use each of the techniques outlined above on a frequent, occasional, or rare basis. Given your influencing goals, are there other techniques you could try? If you’re unsure of how they could be applied in your context, consider how those around you with gravitas influence key people in their sphere. Observe which techniques they apply in various situations and assess whether it is worth challenging your own influencing habits and expanding your toolkit. Look around you and see what naturally exists in your environment. Influence is like a muscle: if you don’t use it, exercise it, and condition it, it won’t get bigger and stronger. The best influencers reflect on and practice their techniques—they spend time giving great consideration to the context they are working in and the people they are trying to influence.

  BEING PRODUCTIVE AT THE WATER COOLER AND HAVING INFLUENCE AT THE COFFEE MACHINE

  We increase influence with intention, but what happens in the context of unplanned encounters in our day-to-day? Many of the people we seek to influence are in our world on a regular basis. In this case, influence isn’t determined by a one-off event, but by their perception of us, built up over time through each encounter. So how can we prepare to influence in moments we didn’t know were coming and couldn’t possibly prepare for?

  Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland and his research group at MIT conducted research to challenge the notion that time spent informally chatting around the office is unproductive. They found that the cohesion of one’s group, or “tribe,” was a central predictor of productivity (where cohesion is defined by how connected work friends are with one another, how tight and interconnected their personal network is).16 Pentland calls it the “Water Cooler Effect,” arguing that much of the important information about how to be productive at work is found in informal conversation around the office. We find out how to be “successful” in our jobs here. Beyond productivity, we can also increase our influence around the coffee machine or the water cooler, or waiting for the elevator, or sitting at a large table with just one other person who also arrived a few minutes early for the meeting, while waiting for everyone else to show up. The list goes on. There are three ways in which the informal chat at the coffee machine can increase our influence.

  The first comes as our general organizational knowledge increases—some of the questions on our target assessment list are answered in casual conversation (even when we don’t explicitly ask the questions). We find out directly or indirectly about others’ goals and challenges, resources, personalities, and positions.

  Secondly, we deepen relationships and build trust. Influence is about much more than our ability to prove our case. Research suggests relationship building is crucial to successfully garnering support for new initiatives.17 As we strengthen relationships, we are able to build trust, and this increases our ability to influence others through the techniques discussed earlier to ultimately add greater value. Research confirms what we see in our day-to-day work—a high degree of trust in the person proposing an initiative is more likely to elicit support from peers. In the busyness of our rush from one twenty- to thirty-minute meeting to the next, and the next, we cover much ground and can feel we get a lot of things done, but this habit of working can be at the expense of relationship building and trust. Research shows us that time at the coffee machine is not wasted.

  Thirdly, we can be prepared for small encounters that can lead to great change. We need to recognize that we can prepare. These encounters seem spur of the moment, and indeed, we don’t know whom we’ll bump into and when. But it’s likely we’ll bump into someone. And if there’s someone or a group of people we’re trying to influence, it’s likely we’ll encounter them at some point, particularly if we are regularly getting out and about around the office. So while we don’t know when an opportunity may arise, we can prepare for the brief encounters that can happen several times a day. We prepare for meetings and plan our work, but we just walk around bumping into people, shaping their perception of us with little, if any, forethought. Be ready for these brief encounters with content that would be important or interesting to the people you most seek to influence. Let’s take a look at how this can play out in practice.

  Jessel is in the office kitchen getting a mid-morning coffee. Chip, an executive who is not usually on his floor, walks in. “Jessel, how are you?” Chip asks. “Oh, yes, great, thanks, Chip. Really busy, you know. You?” Jessel replies, missing a rare opportunity to shape
Chip’s perception of him. Chip may, of course, interpret the “busy” comment to mean that Jessel is hardworking and in demand. He could also, however, take away that Jessel isn’t coping well with his workload. Chip could interpret Jessel’s off-the-cuff response in multiple ways, since Jessel offers no useful content. So let’s give Jessel a second take.

  “Jessel, how are you?” inquires Chip. “Oh, hi, Chip. I’m well, thanks,” Jessel replies. “We’re busy with a new project around sustainability. We think this can really drive some positive change. We’re seeing a lot of interest from clients. How are things with you?” This response is a few short sentences that leave Chip with an understanding of Jessel’s current work and its importance to the wider executive team, including Chip (“a lot of interest from clients”). If Jessel delivers it casually, it won’t sound staged or over the top for a coffee machine conversation. It’s simply about being ready to talk about what you’re working on in two to three short sentences. Here are two things that might happen. First, Chip could ask more questions, find out more about Jessel’s work, and note that he’s making an important contribution. Second, Chip may pass this information on to others, thereby becoming a forward influencer on Jessel’s behalf. Jessel could have gone one step further in the chat and applied another influencing technique such as consultation: “Actually, Chip, it would be great to get your input, if you have ten minutes anytime in the next couple of weeks?”