The word "influence" gets used in a lot of different ways. I’d like to clarify our use of influence by contrasting it to two other words: persuasion and manipulation.

Influence vs. Persuasion:

Influence requires more than mere persuasion. Consider the two scenarios:

1. Your manager has given you an assignment that is impossible. She has promised your firm’s most important customer that you will integrate their antique database system into your firm’s cutting-edge software. You know it can’t be done—at least not in a reasonable time or for a reasonable cost.
2. Your company has a culture of “promise them anything and then deliver an excuse.” Senior leaders over-promise to Wall Street; managers over-promise to customers; and employees over-promise to managers. People say “yes” but then fail to deliver—except for delivering a plausible excuse.

Neither scenario is easy, but only the second requires all the skills from Influencer while the first can be handled with adequate skills of persuasion. What are the differences?

Persuasion-related issues are usually more short-term and focus on getting a person’s honest verbal agreement or commitment. They can often be handled in a single conversation.

Influence issues are more long-term and involve entrenched habits. Getting the person’s honest agreement and commitment to change is usually just a starting point. These influence challenges often require many people to change and involve several interrelated behaviors. Our book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, is focused on these tougher problems where a careful plan is required.

Influence vs. Manipulation.

Here is my test for whether a skill is manipulative: “Would it lose its power if people knew exactly what you were doing and why?” If the answer is yes, if the technique loses its power in the light of day, then it’s manipulative and I don’t want any part of it.

The approach and the tools we discuss in Influencer work in the light of day. In fact, we try to make sure everyone we are trying to influence are “informed consumers” that they know exactly what we are doing and why. Our experience is that manipulation only works in the short term—usually only once—and creates a vicious backlash that labels you as untrustworthy forever. We stay well clear of any method we feel is manipulative.

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Posted by David Maxfield on October 4, 2007 5:29:00 PM MDT #