You Can Change the Minds of the Powerful

Where You Are is Who You Were

We are all busy, in a state of “constant partial attention.” And powerful people are busier than average. They make a very quick assessment as to whether they will listen to you. They pay attention more to who you are than what you say. Your reputation matters. A good reputation becomes a shortcut to determining the merits of your argument without weighing it in a mindful way. Accessing someone’s reputation is easier than plodding through data and arguments. Fair or unfair, we all think we have a great sense of “gut feelings” and intuition---and powerful people even more so. Their intuition determines whether you’ll get access. So put your good reputation on display and talk it up every chance you get. Be thinking now of what you want one, two and even five years from now. Manage your reputation as if your future success depends on it, because it does. Translation: watch those social network posts and photos!

Proximity Power

Research reveals that being near your prospects increases the probability of influencing them. Corresponding with this finding, not one of the underdogs in The Underdog Edge changed the minds of their top dogs using remote influence tactics. It’s one thing to make noise (electronically) and another to get a “yes” from a recalcitrant opponent. While today’s fascination with remote technologies is rampant, it’s wrong to think that because of the prevalence of electronic communication, being in front of your prospect should be jettisoned. To change the mind of a top dog, it’s vital to engage the power of proximity. Researchers have even found that people are more likely to respond to emails based on the geographic proximity between the sender and receiver! Get in front of your influence target – out of Facebook and into someone’s face.

Pack Your Passion

Contrary to popular opinion, passion is not the panacea when influencing up the food chain. In fact, it hinders your efforts. Top dogs view excess passion as anger and deem your future behavior unpredictable. When your influence prospects don’t know what to expect, they like you less, trust you less, and are less likely to say “yes” to your request. What’s the key? To pack away your passion and exercise self-control. Don’t say everything that pops into your head. Passion only works when your request either gains your prospect new allies and makes him or her look like a hero. Exercise self-control and use your passion to motivate your team vs. expending it on your influence prospect.

Give Before Asking

Powerful people are methodical. They know that achieving their goals is a long-term process, so their methodology includes building long-term relationships with their influence prospect. To do this, they give something before asking for something. Whether exclusive information or positive word of mouth, they seek ways to build a trusting relationship before asking for help. We all do it, and powerful people are no different. In fact, they rely on relationships even more than most people because they’re inundated with requests from people they don’t know. Listening to those with whom they have relationships accelerates decision making because they don’t doubt the credibility and trustworthiness of the underdogs they know. What can you do to make life easier for your top dog? Do it and ask for something later.

Be Nice

Why does being nice even matter to high-powered people? Don’t they make decisions based only on facts and evidence? Actually, no. As I interviewed powerful people whose minds were changed by “ordinary” people, a theme emerged: persuasive underdogs are, quite simply, nice. And they’re not doormats or pushovers! I like to think of them affectionately as people who have “feet of cashmere and hands of steel.” They will get to you, but you’ll never feel like you’ve been had. Their definition of nice includes: respecting their background and belief systems, knowing when to stop asking, and being their PR agent –tell others when they help you. Acknowledge your prospect’s background ---- never denigrate their history or path to their current position, don’t nag, and tell others of their good deeds. (And tell them that you told others!)