HR Leading with Persuasion

'Arggh!' This is no doubt a common sound you might hear emanating from behind the closed doors of HR Directors and Managers during these turbulent times. You might wonder whether you are playing the role of Atlas with all those newly conceived corporate responsibilities being thrust upon your weary shoulders, or maybe you feel more like a circus juggler wondering what task is going to be thrown at you next.

It's no wonder, with all these rapid HR upheavals occurring faster than ever before in today's shape shifting corporate universe, that HR executives often feel overwhelmed. HR professionals are being squeezed between the old days while being expected to adapt to a whole host of new changes. Previously, our role consisted primarily of being an administrator and an advocate for employees, but now we are expected to take on many more additional burdens such as developing and forming strategic partnerships internally with all the brass from the CEO down to the floor with all the other levels of representation; act as organizational consultants; or liaise with the legal department, and everything else in between.

Despite all these added responsibilities, the HR Director may still be kept at arms length from being a fully appreciated and valued member of the executive team. Nonetheless, it's still up to HR leadership to articulate these new corporate visions into effective policy and still have serious regard for their hard hitting consequences on the bottom line. Sometimes, it probably just feels like we're caught between a rock and a hard place doesn't it?

How can we make our voice prominently heard to achieve these lofty expectations when not everyone is taking us seriously enough? How can our HR team take charge and form the bonds with both management and personnel to get the job done? So, what's the key to not only get them to listen, but to wake them up without actually grabbing them by the shoulders and shaking them to get their attention?

Well, the most powerful key we can use to unlock our way into the ivory tower at all levels is through the compelling use of our astute negotiation skills, backed by the skilful employ of the art and science of persuasion. Many HR leaders often refer to their corporate peers and the company's personnel as 'clients' or 'customers'. Indeed, this is our primary clue to what we need to do. We can't sell our proposal unless we can persuade them to buy into it.

Once we've have been given a directive to offer creative solutions or conceive plans to address any HR issue or problem, we have to present an effective proposal and convincingly persuade the right people to adopt and implement our hard conceived plans to make them work. We can't just tell a CEO, Board of Directors, Executive Management, key personnel, or the rank and file about our great plan. HR Directors and Managers have to know how to sell them; to convince them; we have to be able to persuade them WHY this is a great plan or policy.

7 Powerful Triggers to Influence and Persuade

1) Setting the right Framework

How you frame an idea or proposal is essential to getting a good start. If you're not convinced, try this test to get the idea and appreciate the importance of how influential proper framing can be as a persuasion tool. Here, you are given two sets of circumstances offering two choices. Choose one from each set;

Set 1

• Plan A will save 1 of 3 plants and 2,000 jobs.
• Plan B has a 1/3 possibility of saving all 3 plants with all 6,000 jobs, but has a 2/3 possibility of saving no plants and no jobs.

Set 2

• Plan C will result in losing 2 plants and 4, 000 jobs.
• Plan D has a 2/3 possibility of losing 3 plants and 6,000 jobs, but has a 1/3 possibility of losing no plants and no jobs.

What did you decide? Clearly, plans A & C are the same while plans B & D are also the same. In numerous tests, 80% of respondents chose plan A in set 1, while 80% chose plan D in set 2. Why the difference? People respond one way to risks concerning gains (Saving jobs and plants in A & B in set 1), and differently to risks involving losses (Losing jobs and plants in B & D in set 2).

When the options are equal, we tend to be risk averse when the problem is framed in terms of gains (Plan A), and risk seeking when the problem is framed in terms of losses (Plan D).

So, what's the most effective way to frame a proposal to persuade someone to buy into it? The key is to not only emphasize what they will gain if they accept the proposal, but also to emphasize what they will lose if they don't! Most people only try to explain the gains that might be made, but it's what could be lost that's really the more persuasive element of the argument.

2) Principle of Consistency

Numerous studies have shown that people possess an almost obsessive need to be consistent. Once committed to a decision, we are almost compelled to act in ways which are consistent to that commitment. If you can create a public scenario, such as in a meeting for example, whereby you can get a group or a person within a group to make an active verbal or written commitment, especially in a public setting with other people in attendance, your chances of compliance by the group or person are increased dramatically.

3) Principle of Recognition

It has also been shown that people feel indebted to a person who has performed a thoughtful or helpful act which is unintended. This does not mean you have to be a toady or sycophant. If you genuinely give from the heart without expecting something in return, the receiving person's gratitude will naturally follow. Regardless of how we are perceived, or how other people perceive us, you can't build bridges if you throw stones at the people you need to work on them with you, can you? It's about team building, not team breaking.

4 Principle of Social Proof

A simple experiment was performed on a busy street that had interesting results. The experimenter stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and stared upwards during a busy lunch hour. One or two people did likewise. Next, the experimenter used several people to do the same thing, and the result was that more people stopped to look up. When the same experiment was done with an even larger group, many more people stopped to look up and stare.

To persuade people, you need to interject accounts of the positive reactions of other people to your proposal at every possible opportunity that presents itself to you. In fact, it's even more influential if can get other members of your staff to spread the word as well. It's like spreading a rumour, only in this case it's the positive buzz about your proposal. It's similar to the gentle nudge of a snowball down the slope of a hill as you watch it grow in both size and momentum.

5) Principle of the Authority Figure

We all have met those people who have made us sigh with annoyance when they pretentiously engage in name dropping. And, in a sense, this is exactly what you should do also, except without being obnoxious and snooty about it. You could simply say in a casual manner, 'You know, I just happened to mention this to the V.P. of finance the other day, and she seemed really enthusiastic about this proposal.'

Authority figures make a positive and influential impression on other people. Think of how the 'big names' are consistently used in commercials or how you respond to another's expertise. The titles and names of the big-wigs are very persuasive in giving your proposal some heavy duty weight and legitimacy.

6) Principle of Liking

People not only need to be liked, but they like it when they know that someone else likes them specifically. Sounds simple and obvious enough, but you're wrong. Why? The reason is because as you read that first statement, you were probably thinking of yourself. You are not the one who needs persuading. It's the person you want to persuade that you have to think about here. The people who are liked are those people who make others feel good about themselves. If you show genuine, and I repeat genuine, interest in another person, they will warm up to you because they feel liked. A person who feels liked is going to be more responsive to being persuaded and disposed to responding positively by a well conceived proposal aren't they? It all goes back to that bridge building concept thing again, doesn't it?

7) The Principle of Scarcity

'Act now before it's too late' - 'Limited time offer' - These are time tested marketing techniques which have effectively and convincingly persuaded many of us to trigger our buying and decision making impulses. It's not that hard to adapt to your own proposals to these well-utilized techniques just as effectively. The notion of 'If you snooze-you lose' concept, impels people to make a decision sooner. Your decision is dependent on the situation, but if time and lost opportunity has any relevance to the goal or objective you trying to achieve, it can be an incredibly persuasive lever to get the action you need. If you point out what will happen if a person doesn't act now, and especially if you emphasize what they will lose by not acting immediately, you can readily persuade someone to agree or acquiesce and react positively to your plan or proposal.

Summary

To sell an idea or plan, it is essential we possess the ability to persuade the decision makers to our way of thinking. If HR Directors and Managers are to gain effective legitimacy, then this means we have to go that extra step to get our foot in the door, but once we're in, the battle is more than half won already. Even if we already have a solid and established base of equality with our executive peers, this doesn't mean we should ever neglect the importance and the powerful influence of the ability to persuade our peers and co-workers, because that never ends!

 

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