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M5.→.The four chains of influence
RED
CLA
REM
DEAL
■ We analysed skill audit scores of 800 former participants for internal structure.
What we found:
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most situations that need influencing can be broken down into four "partial influence results"
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there is a fixed order in which these influence results should be reached
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these partial influence results both need a person's temperament and skills
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after extracting these partial influence results, we gave them the name "chains of influence"
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these four broadly defined chains taken together, form what we call "Social Talent".
■ After estabishing this structure, we followed 300 former participants longitudinally.
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we related their skill audit scores to performance data in practice
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What we found: the chains ...
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each need a minimum level of profiency, meaning that chains don't compensate for each other (= no compensation across chains)
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offer a certain space for compensation within chains, meaning that lacking skills can be partly compensated by temperament, and the other way around
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are so broadly conceived, that they offer plenty of room for a very personal way or realising them, so that they fit personality, and personal preferences, affinities, temperament, and convictions
RED
.RED - Reducing resistance ← yes → temperamental compensation
○ RED - reducing resistance:.is a two tier chain of influence.
The first tier is the talent of NOT getting involved in the conflict someone is inviting you to engage in.
The second tier, is to act in a reparative way, in order to get a troubled relation at least in a workable mode, or maybe restore it completely, even when your conversation partners don't take any initiative to do this.
○ Temperamental compensation
People that come across as sympathetic and friendly, most of the time have considerable less difficulty realising the first tier of RED, than people that are the opposite. Staying out of a conflict that one is invited to engage in, comes naturally for them. Friendly, helpful people furthermore have some temperamental help in reducing resistance actively, because they can better suppress the feeling of feeling offended, they naturally have a good choice of words, and are more patient.
○ Trainability
In fact, RED is the chain that can benefit most from temperament of all the four chains. This does not mean that people that dont have the right temperament can't reduce resistance, but they have to be more active in deploying skills. What RED needs in terms of skills can be written on the proverbial Dutch, small, round paper beer mat, but it requires the suppression of defensive reflexes that can be tenacious for some people. So, "train-till-routine" applies especially to the latter categorie of participants.
CLA
.CLA - Clarifying Objections ← no → temperamental compensation
○ CLA - Clarifying objections: the extent to which your own explorative behaviour, in terms of asking questions, encouraging, summarising, picking up implicit signals, verifying, and structuring, clarifies your conversation partner's objections to come along with your plans.
○ There is no temparamental compensation for CLA.
○ More than for the other chains, CLA's receptive side is very prominent, more than the productive side.
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Receptive: hearing, and indeed paying attention to what is said, and also noticing implicit verbal and non-verbal signals.
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Productive: all questioning, sorting, encouraging, verifying skills that are needed to clarify objections.
○ Trainability
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The biggest impedement for CLA is self directed attention: that is the mental state in which you are more busy with yourself, defining your strategy, thinking about how to solve the situation, or just feeling judged or even afraid.
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When scarce attention resources are needed for your own thoughts, you cannot use these resources for paying attention to your conversation partner. It is as simple as that.
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The to be revised ►video skill audit will in future offer extra practice in redirecting any self directed attention towards your conversation partner.
REM
.REM - Removing Objections ← yes → temperamental compensation
○ REM - Removing Objections: the ability to propose a creative, new solution, that can remove an objection your conversation partner has, to get him or her to come along in your plans. You have to find this solution within a restriced time frame, and within the restrictions that are given for your simulation.
○ REM = being creative = combining existing pieces of knowledge to a new solution to open windows of opportunity to close a deal.
○ Temperamental compensation
Extraverts have a temperamental advantage in this chain, where extraversion is a rather counterproductive trait in the other chains (it aggravates resistance, it distracts from clarification). In our longitudinal validation study, it appeared that upward mobility for management development trainees was closely related with extraversion. REM is indeed the chain, or if you want: the phase in a conversation, where you might have to enthuse to get people aboard. Enthusing is a subtrait of extraversion. Enthousiasm gives your solution extra attention and strength, but can never be a replacement for a creative solution. Solutionless REM will inevitably derive in "toxpo", toxic positivity, which we consider as a domination strategy. This might undo all the reparative work you had to do for getting in the final phase of a conversation.
DEAL
DEAL - Closing a Deal.← yes → temperamental compensation
○ DEAL - closing a deal, while refraining from unnecessary delay, and from avaidable concessions and from horse trading.
○ Temperamental compensation
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When it comes to closing a deal, a certain directiveness is needed. No endless discussions anymore, no delay. Deals often have be to forced to closure in a gentle way.
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Whoever does this, needs to take the lead, and needs to have the upper hand.
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People with natural authority are therefore easier deal closers, where this trait might not always be favourable for reducing resistance and not for clarifying objections either.
○ Trainablity
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People that lack the traits that are described in the former alinea, will in the beginning have to act against their convictions about themselves, untill they have done it more often, and get self confidence.
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Acting against a certain feeling is something that should not go on for a lifetime, but in the beginning it requires a certain routine, routine that you can build up during training. Once the basic routine is there, you will have to see in practice if you can indeed incorporate this routine longitudinally in your habits, or if there is a lack of affiinity to do this.
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To answer the latter question, the training might not offer enough practice, we should be honest and open about that. For other chains however, any built up routine seems quite predictive for practice, but as said not for this one (yet?).
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