Timestamps

00:00:00: Introduction

00:00:29: Influencing career development

00:02:22: Budget persuasion

00:03:12: The rule of reciprocation

00:05:02: Alternative compliments

00:06:29: Personal conversation beats email

00:10:36: Use of emojis

00:11:44: Actions to increase influence

00:13:31: Influencing your manager

00:15:25: Bob's career advice

00:16:22: Final thoughts

Interview Transcription

Helen Tupper: Hi, it's Helen and you are listening to week two of the Squiggly Careers Videobook.  And today, you're going to hear me talk to Bob Cialdini, author of Influence, about his principles of persuasion and how we can apply them to our career development.  So, let's get started. Robert, welcome to the Squiggly Careers Videobook Club.

Bob Cialdini: Well, thank you, Helen.  I'm glad to be with you.

Helen Tupper: From your perspective, how does increasing influence support somebody's career development?

Bob Cialdini: Well, let's start at the beginning of one's career with the job interview.  How do you optimise the likelihood that you will be able to get into a position to develop your career?  And I had a friend who was having a lot of trouble using the typical strategies that were all taught to employ.  You go into a meeting with an evaluator, sometimes a team of evaluators, and you say, "I want to be altogether transparent and answer all of the questions. 

Please feel free to answer them for me".  And he wasn't having a lot of luck.  And so, he did one small thing, based on reading my book, Influence, that changed things around.  After he said, "I'm ready to answer all of your questions", he said, "but I wonder if you could answer a question for me before we begin.  Why did you invite me here?  What was it about my background and experience, my resumé, that made you think that I was a suitable candidate?"  And then went silent and let them tell him out loud the things that they found especially suitable between him and the responsibilities, and to commit themselves verbally and publicly to his strengths. He said, "When there was a group, somebody would say, 'Well, I really liked your background and experience'; somebody else said, 'Well, I really liked your training'; somebody else would say, 'I really liked your traits.  They really fit us'; and they were convincing one another".  They were doing his job for him with that.

Helen Tupper: That's very clever!

Bob Cialdini: And he said, he's gotten three better jobs in a row by adding that one question.  So, that would be the first thing I would recommend.  Now, suppose you did get that job, and you have an idea after you get settled in the organisation that you think would be very beneficial for all concerned, but you have to get it approved.  And so, there's a budget that you have to figure out and bring to a group of superiors who will have to approve that budget.  And you figure it out, it's £50,124, £50,124, right?  Well, what you typically do would be lop off the £124 pounds and say, "It's a 50,000..."  That's a mistake.  People are less likely to push back on you if you give them a precise budget number than a round one --

Helen Tupper: Ooh, that's a good insight!

Bob Cialdini: -- because they see that you've done your homework.  All right, so now let's say you've got that budget and you need to get your team motivated for it and ready to engage on the task, the initiative.  I'm going to suggest something that one of my principles recommends, and that is the rule of reciprocation.  Give first.  Give to your team the things they need that will simplify their process to engage in the tasks that you set for them. 

For example, I heard a researcher talking about a consult that he did in a large technology firm, and the unit that he was talking to, they were going to have to change their communication programme.  And there was a new programme, they were going to have to learn all the ins and outs of that programme, and it would start in a month. Well, what the manager did was, ahead of time, she went through that entire new programme and provided a roadmap for her employees, tips of what to do and what mistakes to avoid, and so on, ahead of the implementation of it.  Productivity increased by 19% before the programme was even enacted because she had done something for them.  The rule of reciprocity says, "We are obligated to give back to those who have first given to us".  So, she undertook this greater effort and they undertook greater effort.  It had nothing to do with the new programme, it had to do with the psychology of giving back to those who give to you first. 

So, that's another thing. Let me give you one last thing.  Okay, now let's say that you've done all of that and your team is moving apace toward the goal.  And what we typically are told to do is to compliment them, to give them praise on their effort.  And typically, we are told to compliment them on their progress that they've made toward the goal. 

That's a mistake.  When you compliment them on their progress, you focus them on something they've already done.  And here's what happens in many groups.  They take their foot off the pedal because they're entitled to it from all the achievements that they've made.  Typically, what happens is they slow when you have complimented them on their progress.  So, if the manager changes one word, they're no longer slow, but continue their efforts.  Instead of complimenting them on their progress to the goal, compliment them on their commitment to the goal. Helen Tupper: When you were talking about the interview, that first example, I was thinking about maybe an assumption that people make with influence, "It's the people who have all the answers that have all the influence".  But in that first scenario, it was you got influence because you asked the question, "Why did you invite me?"

Bob Cialdini: Exactly.  Another big mistake people make these days is letting technology do the work of influencing the people that they need to move in their direction, instead of the personal interactions that have always been the route to successful influence.  And what we are doing more and more is using technology to send our messages, rather than getting in that person's office, rather than getting in a face-to-face interaction with that person. 

There was a study that was done to show that if you ask for the very same request, you make the very same request of an individual, in person versus email, you're 16 times more likely to get a yes to it.  Not 16%, 16 times more likely, because there's a person that they're dealing with, somebody they know, someone they have a history with, someone there may be rapport with.  Those are the things that have always moved us.  And we're letting technology replace those time-honoured practices that our species has always employed to get influence, by silicon-based technologies that have none of that. So, for example, on all my emails now, under the signature, I have a photograph of myself.  And that signature is not just a block font mechanical, it's my signature, it's my personalised signature.  In every case, I want them to say there's a person there, and it changes everything.  And it changes by harking us back to what we have always used as cues to assent.

Helen Tupper: I think it's really interesting in recognising now that email is the main conduit for conversation between a lot of people, but actually there are things that we can do to put your insights and influence into that.  So, we know that that kind of individual, the photo, that connection with an individual matters, so how do you put that into an email?  So, recognising that we're not getting any less dependent on technology in our work, that that's not going anywhere.  How else do you --

Bob Cialdini: So, that's a really good insight, that we're not going to stop technologies advance.  That's a bullet train coming at us.  But exactly right, how do we integrate evidence of humanity, human connection into that.  I think you were about to say, "What's another one?"

Helen Tupper: Yes, exactly that!

Bob Cialdini: Okay.  There was a study of 6,700 commercial websites where they did A/B tests.  They put a feature in and took the feature out and looked to see what the effect on conversions was to have that feature in, and there were 29 separate ones.  Well, what they found, and I don't want to be too self-promotional here, but it was my seven principles of influence were the top ones.  So, is there an authority here?  Do you have social proof?  Is there scarcity here?  But there was also liking; how do you get liking online?  It turned out that if you have a welcoming statement on the landing page of your website that says, "Welcome to our site, we're so glad you're with us", you get significantly more conversions before they see one thing on your site, because you've humanised the exchange, you've given them what they look for in any interaction.  Approval is the first thing they look for.

Helen Tupper: You've made me think of two things, listening to you, two questions.  Emojis, Bob, do emojis help with influence, because they kind of convey a little bit of personality, or is that fake, is that kind of a fake way?

Bob Cialdini: No, they absolutely do convey influence.  So, suppose you want to urge people to change from the situation they're in to something new.  What's an emoji that's most likely to do that?  It's a sunrise.

Helen Tupper: Oh!

Bob Cialdini: It's a new day.

Helen Tupper: I was going to say a rocket, looks like, "Get on with it", but that's just my way of being!

Bob Cialdini: A change, not advancement, change, "I want you to change from your current position to one that's closer to mine, or from your current vendor to me".  And so, without doing anything other than an image that creates the mindset that is central to your appeal, your message, that can work.

Helen Tupper: And so, if somebody is listening to this now and they've watched your videobook, because we've instructed everyone to do that, and they're listening to this and getting some extra tips, what are some specific actions that you think people should include in, like, an average week at work, some very practical things that we should all be doing more of if we want to increase our influence for the year ahead?

Bob Cialdini: Be more human.  The things that people are looking for in that technology is draining away from us and making us want those things more.  So, that would be the general one.  The specific thing, again I don't want to be self-promotional here, but it would be to look to my LIT Videobook, where I summarise the scientifically tested principles of persuasion and the equally scientifically tested practices that harness these principles to make us significantly more persuasive and influential.

Helen Tupper: In a Squiggly Career, how can people influence with authority that they might not have in a traditional sense?

Bob Cialdini: Yeah, it's the difference between being in authority and being an authority on a topic.  So, being in authority, that's about power.  Being an authority, somebody who's knowledgeable, somebody who you can count on to give you a clear-eyed and thoroughgoing piece of information, that's the authority we are all looking for.  Become that expert on a particular niche, in a particular domain that you think is central to career development for you, and you won't have to go after people, they'll come to you.

Helen Tupper: Some of our listeners for the year ahead, they want to influence their manager, right?  So, they're thinking, "I want to progress in this company", whether that looks like promotion or a different opportunity, and their manager has influence over that opportunity, so they need to have influence over their manager.  And I was just thinking about your principle of commitment and consistency.  So, if you were my manager, Bob, I'm just wondering if this is the right way to use this principle, but you're my manager, and I am trying to maybe get you to say out loud that you believe in supporting people's progression and seeing people develop in the company.  If you explicitly say that out loud, that makes you more likely to have regular career conversations with me or make introductions for me.

Bob Cialdini: Exactly right, "Is this something that you agree with, Bob?  Is this something that sounds like it's a part of an ongoing and successful management?"  I would say, "Oh, yes, it is, Helen".  Or, if that sounds a little too obvious, you might tell me about the time you heard me say that, some time that I went on record mentioning the importance of employee empowerment and progression and moving the right people into the right slots to make it all work. 

And we have the internet as our friend.  We have all kinds of options of where people have taken a stand, made a comment, made a choice.  You can even say, you know, "The way you moved Janet up there, that just showed me how committed you are to this process.  And her success certainly validates that for you.  I'm in the same position, Bob, I think", and then you can tell me about the evidence that makes me want to take a similar step with you.

Helen Tupper: So, just one more question for you before we head off and let our listeners keep learning.  If you had one piece of advice to help people learn more at work about influence, or anything else, just be more of a learn-it-all at work, what would your advice to them be?

Bob Cialdini: You're kind of putting me in an uncomfortable position of saying that we just started a new company called the Cialdini Institute.  You can get there by cialdini.com.  And we've got programmes on how to be more influential at work, not only scientifically-based, but ethically.  How do you move people in your direction in an entirely ethical way?  It's something called the Cialdini Institute and cialdini.com gets you to take a look at it, if you're interested.

Helen Tupper: Bob, thank you so much for your time and learning with us in the Squiggly Careers Videobook Club. Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with Bob, we hope you found it useful.  Tomorrow, in the Squiggly Careers Videobook Club, we are going to have our community conversation.  So, if you'd like to join that, you can join us live on LinkedIn or just go to the @amazingif page on LinkedIn and you'll be able to watch it back later.  And then on Friday, we'll have some questions for you to reflect on to close out week two of the Squiggly Careers Videobook Club.