SMS INFLUENCE STYLE QUESTIONNAIRE PRE-PROGRAM ASSIGNMENT. Booklet 6. Situational Influence Model O R. Situational Influence Model 6 1

Transcription

1 INFLUENCE STYLE QUESTIONNAIRE PRE-PROGRAM ASSIGNMENT Booklet 6 Situational Influence Model SMS Situational Influence Model 6 1

2 O R 6 2 SITUATIONAL INFLUENCE MODEL INTRODUCTION Most people can describe intuitively how others influence behaviors affected them. Perhaps you have heard people describe someone s influence behavior by saying: She really pushed me around. He seems to understand my problems better than I do. He really got me enthused. She was really decisive. You may have received this kind of personal, but very general, feedback in the past. Unfortunately, such general statements are not very helpful if you are interested in personal feedback on specific behaviors that can help you become a more effective influencer. The Influence Style Questionnaire (ISQ) gives you a way to obtain precise information about how your co-workers perceive your influence energy. The Situational Influence Model, on which the ISQ is based, specifies influence behaviors more exactly, so that you can analyze and understand others feedback about your influence behavior. The Situational Influence Model identifies ten different types of Behaviors that occur when people are influencing one another. The Model organizes these Behaviors into four different Styles or categories of PERSUADING ASSERTING BRIDGING ATTRACTING X+Y=Z influence. Proposing Stating Expectations Involving Finding Common Ground Reasoning Evaluating Listening Sharing Visions Using Incentives and Pressures Disclosing

3 In addition, the Model contains a fifth category, Disengaging, which is not a pure Style. The five categories of influence fall into three modes of Energy. Pushing Moving Against Persuading Asserting This reading explores the Behavior and Style categories in more detail. As you gain understanding of the Situational Influence Model, your ability to understand the information contained in your ISQs will also increase. The Situational Influence Model allows you to move between very general and very specific descriptions about the influence someone exerts on you. (For example, working from the general to the specific, you might say that a person was Pushing in the Asserting Style by using the Evaluating Behavior. You might move from the specific to the more general, by saying that this person was Evaluating you, which is part of the Asserting Style that uses Push energy.) Disengaging Bridging Attracting Moving Away Pulling Moving With The ISQ gives you specific information about how often you use these Styles and Behaviors. Your ISQ results may indicate that you use some Influence Styles more than others. It may show that you use different Styles more with some people, less with others. Use this reading to discover what your ISQs can tell you, so that you can get as much as possible from the Program you will be attending. In the Positive Power and Influence Program, you will learn to analyze the implications of this specific and potent model of influence. You will look at personal feedback others have given you, and begin to change and focus your influence behavior to increase your personal effectiveness. Keep the following in mind as you read: Each Style can be effective if used skillfully and in the right situation. Each Style can have a negative effect if used unskillfully or in the wrong situation. Each Style can be useful to you if you keep an open mind. You may have seen some Styles used negatively in the past; you do not have to use them that way. Situational Influence Model 6 3

4 PUSH STYLES ( MOVING AGAINST ) X+Y=Z STYLE: PERSUADING People who use this Style effectively make suggestions or proposals backed by sound reasons that others find compelling. They support their ideas and use their Push ( Moving Against ) Energy to logically persuade others to accept their proposals or suggestions based on the facts of the situation. When using this Style, influencers usually participate actively in discussions and arguments about ideas, plans, and proposals. Persuading consists of two key Behaviors or skills: Proposing and Reasoning. PROPOSING Advancing ideas, suggestions, and recommendations. I suggest we begin this discussion by reviewing our last agreement. Let s look at the data and let the numbers suggest the best course of action. Asking questions that present a position. When the printer malfunctions, why don t you try the restart procedure I learned? I ll write up the steps for you. Shall we begin by summarizing your notes of our last meeting? REASONING Using facts and logic to support a position. Three of our last four product runs have not met the customer s quality specifications, and they have put us on their warning list. I have evidence here that our Model 3503 is preferred by 79 percent of the users surveyed. Disagreeing with others ideas or casting doubt on their position. The analysis presented in this report does not support your interpretation of what happened. As long as our cash-flow continues to be a problem, it is too risky for us to consider purchasing new computers. 6 4

5 STYLE: ASSERTING Asserting uses Push ( Moving Against ) Energy to promote personal exchanges and bargaining toward agreement. Asserting gets others to accept your personal needs or wishes in a situation through your willingness to help make it possible or to offer some other exchange. Asserting consists of three key Behaviors or skills: Stating Expectations, Evaluating, and Using Incentives and Pressures. STATING EXPECTATIONS Communicating personal needs, demands, expectations, requirements, or standards. When we agree on which pieces of the project you and I will complete, I expect you to live up to the agreement. I need your signed approval of the contract by ten o clock tomorrow morning. EVALUATING Judging others behavior positively or negatively, based on personal standards. Your advice on how to manage the team meeting really helped me stay out of trouble. I m very unhappy that you called my client before you cleared it with me. I m really pleased that your part of the report is so thorough and comprehensive. However, it s twice as long as you promised it would be. USING INCENTIVES AND PRESSURES Offering rewards or valuable resources to motivate others or get agreement. If you will agree to lead this project and get it back on track, I ll work hard to get you the visibility and recognition your work deserves. If you ll put in whatever time and effort is necessary to get this report out within ten days, I ll bring you up to speed right now on this new analytical model that you ve been asking about. MORE Situational Influence Model 6 5

6 Specifying undesirable actions in order to gain agreement or change behavior. If we can t work this problem out in the next hour, I m going elsewhere to get what I need. I m not willing to continue facilitating this meeting if the side conversations continue. I m not going to accept any action plan until I m satisfied my department s needs are met. COMMENTS ON PERSUADING AND ASSERTING If you use Push Styles to influence someone, you are using your energy to Move Against that person. You are attempting to get this person to change in some way, to start or stop doing something, to behave or think differently, or to perform according to certain standards. Persuading and Asserting represent very different uses of Push influence energy. For example, if we want someone to exercise more often, we can list facts about how exercise contributes to personal health (Persuading), or offer them a reward to exercise more often (Asserting). One Style will work better than the other, depending upon the person and the circumstances. Using Push Behaviors to obtain your objective but in a way that damages your working relationship with the other person is Forcing behavior negative use of influence. That is why some people believe that Pushing others is undesirable or bad. This may be because many people use Moving Against Energy ineffectively, or in the wrong situations. When this happens, the other person often resists or pushes back in a manner that can result in escalating conflict. Using your power to force your objective will often drive the conflict (and the other s resistance) underground, where it emerges in covert and unproductive ways. In the Program you will learn how to use Push ( Moving Against ) Energy effectively and positively. This is much different than being pushy or arrogant. Effective, positive use of the Push Styles ensures that you progress toward meeting your influence objective while maintaining or building the working relationship with the other person. 6 6

7 PULL STYLES ( MOVING WITH ) O R STYLE: BRIDGING Bridging uses Pull ( Moving With ) Energy to promote mutual exploration toward meeting an objective or solving a problem. Bridging requires using your energy and patience to try to experience the situation from the other person s point of view. It also requires a willingness to let that person influence you, while you seek to meet your own needs and objectives. Bridging allows others to participate in, and even direct, a conversation but emphatically influences others to change. When people feel they no longer have to justify their own feelings or positions against your active resistance, they will be better able to examine (objectively) their own opinions and beliefs which they may then question! People who cannot be argued (or pushed) into changing their position will sometimes convince themselves with the help of someone skilled in Bridging. Bridging consists of three key Behaviors or skills: Involving, Listening, and Disclosing. INVOLVING Asking for clarification, information, and opinions. Help me understand why you feel so strongly about that. Tell me more about how you supervised that project. I want to be sure I understand your approach. What other solutions to that problem would be acceptable to you? Encouraging others. I haven t heard that argument from anyone before. Tell me more about it. What you re saying is very helpful. Please go on. Being responsive to others disagreements and concerns. A moment ago you mentioned the issue of risk. What problems do you foresee? Help me understand your analysis. How did you obtain the numbers? Situational Influence Model 6 7

8 LISTENING Summarizing what another person says, to test understanding. If I understand you, you re saying that there are no conditions under which you would extend the deadline. Is that correct? Are you saying that you will lower your price if we agree to take late delivery? Reflecting back the underlying feelings of the speaker. You haven t really said so, but I sense that you re becoming impatient with this discussion. You said you were disappointed, but it sounds to me like there s more to it than that. Exploring hidden resistance. Earlier you said you disagreed with the two conclusions I drew from our analysis. From what you just told me, it s really the second point that gives you trouble, not the first. Is that the case? Let me check something. What I m sensing is that it s the risk of failure, not the expense, that really concerns you most. Am I correct? Reviewing history or progress so far. The last time we met to discuss this issue, we were able to agree on a job description for the new position. But we decided to delay setting a salary range until you had done some research. I understand that now you want to share your findings so that we can make a decision. We ve moved through all the items on our agenda but the first one. When we failed to resolve it earlier, we agreed to reconsider it later. Are you saying that you re ready to try again now? DISCLOSING Admitting mistakes and accepting criticism nondefensively. Yes, I can see now that I did not take all the facts into consideration. You re right. I can see how I didn t really listen to your concerns. Letting uncertainty show or asking for help. I m not sure of the best way to go about solving this problem. I know I can t do this without your help. 6 8

9 Selectively sharing private or proprietary information. I would be willing to talk about the bottom line, but I ll still be very uncomfortable about the risk. My manager is really determined that you accept our recommendation. But I m clear about the problems it would cause you. I m really caught in the middle here. Situational Influence Model 6 9

10 O R 6 10 STYLE: ATTRACTING Attracting uses Pull ( Moving With ) Energy to enthuse or inspire others to join with us, to follow us, or to work together to pursue goals that we support. This Style adds meaning and purpose to work, and draws people together in the pursuit of highly motivating goals and shared aspirations. Attracting identifies and emphasizes shared interests, values, and ideals as well as areas of agreement. This provides a basis for people to join together to work toward a common cause or goal. Attracting also describes future possibilities, using imagery, metaphor, or analogy that paints a picture others can see, and that conveys our personal enthusiasm or commitment. To create a truly common vision, these images of the future must reflect shared, or superordinate values that engage others in the process. The Attracting Style is made up of two key Behaviors or skills: Finding Common Ground and Sharing Visions. FINDING COMMON GROUND Pointing to shared goals. I know from working with you in the past how concerned we both are that these shop floor accidents decrease. Those people in sales do not see the situation as we do. We need to stick together. We both believe that the CX2 could be next year s biggest seller, if we got everyone working with us! With your experience in the plant and mine in marketing, I know we can find a permanent solution to this problem! SHARING VISIONS Describing exciting possibilities or ideal outcomes. Here s how things will be different if we join forces... Imagine for a moment how our customers will respond when this change has permeated our entire organization...

11 Sharing hopes and aspirations. I can see a time when we will be acknowledged as the absolute best in the industry not the biggest, but the BEST! I will not rest until every single person on this team feels continually challenged, fully productive, and justly rewarded! Invoking metaphors and analogies. Imagine a well oiled machine with all the parts meshing perfectly our team could be like that. This project is like a magnet for others in the organization. Everyone will be attracted to it. The flexibility we offer could be like one of those hats one size fits all. COMMENTS ON BRIDGING AND ATTRACTING Bridging and Attracting are Pull Styles they use Moving With energy. These Influence Styles work very differently than Persuading and Asserting, which are Push Styles and use Moving Against Energy. Some people may react negatively to the Pull Styles. They think that Moving With Energy is weak, and that the influencer has no power. Indeed, using Pull Styles to abandon your influence objective is ineffective and inappropriate use of Influence Energy. We call giving up on influencing another person Avoiding. (See the discussion below of Moving Away Energy for more information on Avoiding.) Influencers must also be careful not to use Pull Styles as Forcing behavior. For example, asking questions in a way that conveys you already know the answer may make others feel manipulated, and risks damaging the relationship. Similarly, if you enthusiastically advocate a future outcome, but you yourself do not believe in that outcome and will not work to achieve it, others are likely to become suspicious and cynical. Positive and appropriate uses of Pull Styles are essential to organizational life. Interestingly, successful sales people and negotiators use Bridging more frequently than their less successful counterparts. Good managers use Bridging to involve other people and gain their commitment when the situation requires it. Most good leaders are skilled at using the Attracting Style with sincerity and commitment. Situational Influence Model 6 11

12 O R USING PUSH AND PULL STYLES THE IMPORTANCE OF STYLE FLEXIBILITY Different situations call for different Influence Styles. The challenge for effective influencers is to identify which influence situations call for Push Styles of influence, and which call for Pull. Skillful influence requires the flexibility to act according to the demands of the situation. Different influence objectives in the same situation call for different Influence Styles. An effective influencer may recognize several possible ways to resolve a particular influence situation, even when circumstances are clear and well defined. For example, there may be more than one person to influence; if so, who should be influenced first? There may be a choice of influence target; if so, who is more important to influence first? Desired outcomes will vary depending on the influencer s appetite for change and for the risk of change. The influencer may perceive many possible approaches that confer specific tactical advantages (and disadvantages). These and other considerations add up to a variety of possible influence objectives. Each is likely to indicate an Influence Style that will optimize results while maintaining relationships. Here, too, influence skill flexibility is important. Effective and successful influencing requires a balanced use of the Push and Pull Styles over a variety of situations. The goal is to avoid the extremes: if you always Push, you may encounter power struggles, people buckling under, giving in, or leaving the situation entirely. If you always Pull, you may spend a lot of energy drawing others out, disclosing and sharing, and not getting much work done! 6 12

13 MOVING AWAY O R Moving Away Energy can deflect, defuse, or avert the impact of other people s energy. You can Move Away in two ways: Disengaging is effective and appropriate in many influence situations. Avoiding is not. DISENGAGING Disengaging is an action designed to accomplish a tactical objective. This objective is to temporarily step back from an influence attempt that has become unproductive. Disengaging gives you personal space and time to change the environment in a way that allows you to resume influencing the other person in a more productive manner. Disengaging can help you maintain focus and keep you from being distracted by side issues. By averting confrontation and conflict over minor concerns, you can conserve energy for work and other more important issues. When you feel or observe an unacceptable level of tension or stress, you might Disengage to help manage the tension level in the situation and in yourself. There are many different ways to Disengage. You might Disengage by refusing to be provoked. You might manage stress by tactically changing the subject or by finding a light or humorous way of putting things in perspective. You might postpone or defer difficult matters rather than deal with them directly or immediately, in order to return to the situation better prepared to influence. Consider the following situations: You are involved in a tense and difficult conversation about an important issue. You are feeling ineffectual, perhaps because you are distracted, tired, or unprepared. You Disengage by taking a break or postponing the discussion to another time, when conditions will support your efforts to influence the other person. A heated argument has developed. Instead of becoming involved in it, you remain cool and objective, focusing on the process of the discussion by drawing others attention to how feelings are beginning to interfere with productive problem solving. You might then change the subject, introducing humor to lighten the mood. You suggest the group adopt some formal decision-making procedure to resolve the dispute. Influencing others can be difficult even when conditions are ideal. When conditions are working against you, your primary objective may become solely to manage your own (and perhaps others ) tension levels by detaching yourself or temporarily withdrawing from the action. The above examples describe specific actions you might take to Disengage from the situation, with the intention of changing it or returning later to continue influencing to obtain your objective. Situational Influence Model 6 13

14 Disengaging actions may or may not require any influence behavior. Sometimes, Moving Away Energy has no influence impact. But in other situations, you may need to influence the other person in order to effectively Disengage. If so, you may use any of the Push or Pull Behaviors discussed earlier to help you to take action, in order to achieve your Disengaging objective. HERE ARE SOME TYPICAL ACTIONS YOU MIGHT TAKE TO DISENGAGE. Postponing or rescheduling. I would like to postpone this issue. Could we have our meeting sometime tomorrow, away from the office? I need an hour or two to prepare my position. Then I ll be ready to respond to your offer. Giving and getting feedback. It seems that we re simply debating the same point repeatedly. I m sure we can find a way to deal with the issue more productively. I m getting upset. I d like to return to the beginning and set some ground rules about how we re going to work together. Changing the subject or the agenda. I think we should table this topic for now, work on other business, and return to it when that business is finished. Let me tell you a funny story. I think it has direct bearing on the topic we ve been debating for the last hour. Taking a break (or caucusing ). We ve been working very hard for the last hour. Why don t we take a ten minute break andthen reconvene? I must admit that our team did not consider that possibility. Give us five minutes alone, and we ll have an answer for you. 6 14

15 AVOIDING People often use Moving Away Energy to reduce their personal discomfort or stress at the expense of resolving real issues or pursuing their work objectives. For example, some people have low tolerance for conflict. They tend to withdraw, or smooth over conflict, too soon as a result, they fail to confront and work through real differences. Sometimes people modify their positions too quickly and settle for too little. This use of Moving Away Energy is called Avoiding. It is usually unproductive and not influential, since it means abandoning your real influence objective. Often, you may have difficulty recognizing that you are Avoiding; someone else has to bring it to your attention. The following examples may help you better understand the difference between Disengaging and Avoiding: Minimizing or dismissing differences of opinion. I don t really think our positions are all that different. (When, in fact, positions are very different.) Changing a position or withdrawing to avoid confrontation or conflict. I didn t mean that quite as strongly as it sounded. (When, in fact, you did.) All right, I ll concede on this issue to save time. (When, in fact, you cannot afford a concession.) Sidestepping the issue, suggesting bureaucratic procedures, or deferring to others to avoid controversial issues. Given the strong feelings people seem to have, why don t we skip this item and get on with the agenda? (When, in fact, handling the conflict is essential to achieving a lasting agreement.) Since we both seem to have strong views on this subject, rather than argue let s have the boss decide. (When, in fact, the boss decision will only make the disagreement more difficult to resolve.) Situational Influence Model 6 15