Page 76 - HBR's 10 Must Reads for New Managers

CIALDINI
Idea in Brief

If leadership, at its most basic, confirm the intuitive truth that
consists of getting things done people tend to treat you the way
through others, then persuasion you treat them. It’s sound policy
is one of the leader’s essential to do a favor before seeking one.
tools. Many executives have as- Fourth, individuals are more likely
sumed that this tool is beyond to keep promises they make volun-
their grasp, available only to the tarily and explicitly. The message
charismatic and the eloquent. for managers here is to get com-
Over the past several decades, mitments in writing. Fifth, studies
though, experimental psycholo- show that people really do defer to
gists have learned which methods experts. So before they attempt to
reliably lead people to concede, exert influence, executives should
comply, or change. Their research take pains to establish their own
shows that persuasion is governed expertise and not assume that it’s
by several principles that can self-evident. Finally, people want
be taught and applied. The first more of a commodity when it’s
principle is that people are more scarce; it follows, then, that
likely to follow someone who is exclusive information is more
similar to them than someone who persuasive than widely avail-
is not. Wise managers, then, enlist able data. By mastering these
peers to help make their cases. principles—and, the author
Second, people are more willing to stresses, using them judiciously
cooperate with those who are not and ethically—executives can learn
only like them but who like them, the elusive art of capturing
as well. So it’s worth the time to an audience, swaying the unde-
uncover real similarities and offer cided, and converting the
genuine praise. Third, experiments opposition.

buy something, they aren’t just buying to please themselves. They’re
buying to please their hostess as well.
What’s true at Tupperware parties is true for business in gen- eral:
If you want to influence people, win friends. How? Controlled
research has identified several factors that reliably increase liking, but
two stand out as especially compelling—similarity and praise.
Similarity literally draws people together. In one experiment, re-
ported in a 1968 article in the Journal of Personality, participants
stood physically closer to one another after learning that they shared
political beliefs and social values. And in a 1963 article in American
Behavioral Scientists, researcher F. B. Evans used demographic data
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