Are you looking to enhance your leadership skills or your ability to exercise influence?
If so this video is for you.
Hi, my name is Michael Gibbs and I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects.
And we're an organization that's dedicated towards building high performance cloud computing and
networking careers. Personally, I've been working in the technology industry for over 25 years
and I've been helping others get their first tech job or get promoted in tech for over two decades.
And my absolute favorite thing in the world is one of my students calls and says, I got cloud
hired or I just got promoted. So today we're going to talk about enhancing your leadership skills.
And the leadership skill we're going to be talking about today is your ability to persuade others or
exercise influence. See whether you're the CEO, a first line manager, an enterprise architect,
a cloud architect, a solutions architect, the better your leadership skills are,
the better your outcomes are going to be. And see the thing is
in a crisis, we can get away with command and control leadership.
Like you do this, you do this. But you know, that's good in an emergency but you do that for
too long, everybody gets burned out and nobody wants to be part of the team. So our ability
to lead is partially influenced by our ability to exercise influence and the greater our influence,
the greater our leadership ability. Meaning, if we can influence two people, we have a team of
three. If we can influence 200 people, we have a team of 200 plus you. So I guess that's 201.
If we can influence 2000 people, then we've got a team of 2001. So your ability to influence,
your ability to lead will ultimately determine your success. So let's talk about how we can
enhance your influence or your ability to persuade or convince others to do things.
See, it's much better for people to want to be part on your team and contribute to your
success than for you to have to ask them. So now we're into the world of exercising influence
and many people have studied influence. And personally, I've spent over 25 years studying
influence, the science of persuasion, any type of behavioral science, whether it be psychology,
sociology, micro or macroeconomics, anything that involves this study of people.
But Robert Cialdini really did a lot of great work here with regards to exercising influence.
It's taught at many universities and quite frankly at Go Cloud Architects, we use a lot of
Robert Cialdini's work because we like it. We're fans of it. So today we're going to talk about
Robert Cialdini's six principles of persuasion to teach you how to increase your influence,
to teach you how to have better leadership skills, to teach you how to have a better career. So
there's realistically speaking six principles, and we'll briefly talk about the principles now,
and then we'll talk deeper about the principles and then how to apply them for best results.
The first principle is the principle of reciprocity. And quite frankly, that says, if
you do something for someone, they're likely to do something for you. The next principle is scarcity.
And that just means things that are scarce resources like gold, diamond or Bitcoins are
more valuable than things that are abundant like sand. The next principle we'll talk about will be
the principle of commitment and consistency. What that really means is if I say I'm going
to do something, I'm more likely to do it. And consistency is I'm likely to do things that are
consistent with my values. We'll talk about more how to use that. Then we'll get involved and we'll
discuss social proof, which really means that people are more likely to do something if a lot of
other people that are doing the same things. Then we'll talk about how to increase your authority.
And after that, we'll talk about how to increase your likeability. Authority is really about an
expert's messages being more perceived. And the likability piece that we'll talk about is people
or more likely to be persuaded by someone or influenced by someone that they like. So let's
begin by discussing reciprocity. Now this is a really key thing to remember. People have
an innate desire to give back after they've been given something. So this is who we are as people
is really important to remember from a perspective of exercising influence. So think of it this way,
it's kind of like a favor bank. If you do a favor for someone else, they will do a favor for
you. So if you help someone, chances are they'll be likely to help you.
So it kind of brings new meaning to your network is your net worth.
So think about it this way, if you've helped a lot of people in your life, there's most likely
a lot of people that are willing to help you. So it's nice to have given things and done things
for others because it's the right thing to do and as an added benefit, people be more likely
to help you later. So how do you make sure that people more likely to help you later?
Well, let's talk about the favors and the favor bank and the value of the favors. So when you're
doing a favor for someone, the size of the favor matters. Meaning, if you give someone a million
dollars, they're going to remember it more than if you give them a dollar. The size of the favor
matters. And they'll be more loyal and likely to repay it based upon the size of the favor.
But two things can devalue your favor, time and you, and the way you actually devalue
the favor yourself. And I'll tell you, most of us devalue the favors and make it less likely
that will people will come back and help us in the end. So I'm going to talk about that next.
So value of the favor decreases with time. Meaning, if I do something for someone a day ago,
it's more valuable to them than if I did something for someone 20 years ago,
but you know, there's not much we can do about that. But here's what we can do, if you do a
favor for someone and they say thank you, this is an important part. If I do a favor for Bill
and Bill says, thank you. And I say, "Bill, it was nothing." What does Bill think of the favor?
He heard me say, "Bill it was nothing" that favors value went down. And as the
favors value went down, Bill's ability or desired ability to want to do things for me in the future
also went down. So if Bill thanked me for the favor and I said, "Bill, I'm sure you would
do the same thing for me. I'm just so happy I could help you today." I showed him that what
I gave him was of value and I also made it clear that, I would hope you would do the same for me.
Further, increasing the likelihood of Bill doing something for me in the future.
So if people do something for you, thank them, but also keep it in your mind that you probably should
be able to help them at some point in the future. When things are a two way street, it deepens your
relationship. The deeper your relationships, the greater your circle of influence.
So keep that reciprocity rule in your mind and think about how to not say
it was nothing, to say I know you would do the same for me,
or I just really wanted to help you. Something to that effect. But don't say it was nothing,
don't say no problem. Keep the value of the favor you've given someone. Now let's talk
about the next principle of scarcity. People value things that are scarce. Why is gold more valuable
than copper? It's scarcer. Why are diamonds more valuable than glass? It's scarcer. Why is platinum
more valuable than aluminum? It's scarcer. So the scarcity seriously affects something's value.
And when something is really important, like an expert, their time is going to be scarce because
the whole world's going to be pulling them from all different angles. Their time will be scarce.
So if you know that and you understand that people want resources that are more scarce,
there are time when you should be in short supply too. For example, if you're applying for a cloud
architect job and you've got a company that calls you and they say, "When can you be available?"
Don't say I'm available from Monday at 9:00 AM to Friday at 8:00 PM, anytime in between. Give them
several hours per day that you might be available, but don't be completely open. Make it look like
you still have something important to do. You'll be more valued. So I'll give you two examples. And
I've seen two sets of LinkedIn posts and I'll show you, they have very different responses.
The first LinkedIn post is what I call the saddest employment LinkedIn post in the world.
I see someone and they say, "I've been rejected from a job.
Rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected, rejected. I've been rejected 427 times.
Please help me by liking, commenting and sharing this post so your network can be helping me."
And a lot of nice people try to help this nice person that's struggling. They like it,
they comment it, the whole world now sees the post that says I've been rejected. And
you know what the whole world thinks? I don't want that person, there's a reason they've
been rejected. And this is the saddest thing in the world. You know why it's the saddest thing?
Because this could be a really great person, but that not only am I not scarce resource,
nobody wants me. It changes everything. Now let's take a second perspective. I saw a Marine, a nice
young Marine. He made a post that said, I'm ready to leave the Marine core, I'm retiring next week.
If anybody's looking for a really hard working person, that can take direction,
that's highly motivated and wants to learn and help your business grow. Please give me a call.
I saw that and I went, wow. In fact, I saw that LinkedIn post, I actually personally called that
Marine and I had a bootcamp that week and I had an extra slot. So I said, please just join that
call. A week later, he was hired. He told me he loved the interview training that we gave
him and it really helped him out a lot. But you know why he was hired and he was hired so fast?
Because he showed he was scarce. I can take direction and I want to work for you.
The world came to him. Scarcity, people like things that are scarce resources. When someone
says I'm the solution to your problem and everybody else is saying, I want this.
Scarce resource. Of course, he did well. So use those scarcity principle
to your advantage. The next principle we're going to talk about is commitment and consistency.
As a leader, there's two really important lessons here.
People desire to do things that are consistent with their values.
So if people desire to do things that are consistent with their values, try not to
ask people to do things that are inconsistent with their values. Because if you do, they may do them,
but they may be upset with you for asking them to do things that they don't believe in.
So keep that in mind. Try to ask people to do things that are in line with their values.
Now, the next thing is, is when people commit to something, they're more likely to do things. So
if you ask someone to do something and they don't respond, you don't know. If they verbally tell
you, yes, Mike, I'm going to do this. Chances are they're going to do it. If they put it in writing
in an email, for example, it's much more likely they're going to do it.
So here's the lesson learned. Try to ask people to do things that are in line with their beliefs,
because they'll be more likely to do them and ask for commitments. That's why when you ask
for commitments, people are more likely to do things. So even if you're not trying to get a
legal contract here, you're just asking for commitment so you know people will be more
likely to do their things. So in the science of exercising influence, keep this in mind.
The next thing we're going to talk about is something called social proof.
And this is interesting. People are likely to follow the path of others. But look at it,
there's some news about a company. The stock price starts to go up. Everybody says, wow, wow, I got
to jump on this bandwagon, it all goes up. And then there's bad news about a different company.
Everybody says I got to sell and as soon as everybody sees everybody selling and they
all sell and the price goes down. People follow patterns, kind of like penguins. If you've ever
seen the penguins, they all move, they follow and they all go in the same direction. People do the
same thing. So here's the best thing, as leaders if we know this, we know to use statistics.
70% of Fortune 100 companies do it this way. That looks awfully compelling. 66% of market
leaders choose this choice. So get some social proof, get some statistics. When you do this,
people will be more likely to be interested and follow your path because people follow the path
of other people. Okay, so let's talk about out some other things that you can do.
Authority. People are much more likely to hear a message when it's delivered from an authority.
And I've got to tell you, if you've ever spoken to someone and it didn't go well. And then you called
your manager and asked them to get on the call and five minutes later it was resolved, it wasn't
necessarily that your manager was so much better or more emotionally intelligent or had better
customer service skills. It was just they're the authority. And sometimes people get the authority
on the phone and say, oh, very good. Thank you. So there's some key takeaways for your career.
If you're a subject matter expert, people are going to be more likely to listen to you.
So think about your career. It might make sense to become a subject matter expert,
a thought leader. Narrow down your focus and be an expert. If you are not the expert and
you really need something badly, you really need to close a deal, you really need help.
Bring an expert with you. If you're a cloud architect, talking to your customer and you're
not sure if the customer wants it, bring the VP of sales with you, bring the EVP,
bring the authority. It will help you because if you need to get your point across, people
are more likely to believe authorities, bring the authority. Now the next one and this is probably
the most important of anything you can do for your career, your ability to exercise influence
or your leadership abilities is the principle of liking. The more will like you, the more they're
going to do for you. And think about it this way. My wife, she can have anything she wants.
Now my cat, Cindy, she just comes up to me, she just looks at me with these eyes. I'll
do whatever she wants. Just buy the look I know to open the door, I know to open a can of tuna.
I know she wants shrimp. I know to cooker scallops, just by a look. Why? Because I like
her a lot. So the point is, is the principle of liking or likability. The more likable you are,
it changes the dynamic so much. So if you want to increase your circle of influence,
be more likable. Work on your social skills, work on being more open-minded, being more
emotionally intelligent, more empathetic. When it comes down to being more likable,
you're on a job interview if they like you more, they'll pay you more, they'll hire you more,
they'll look past weaknesses. So be more likable. Best thing you can do for your
career is develop your emotional intelligence and your likability and the two go hand in hand.
How do you increase your influence? Utilize the principle of reciprocity,
which means if you do something for someone they're more likely to do something back for you.
Maintain some level of scarcity. Meaning, if you're new to your career,
have some commitment of your resources. Don't be available 40 hours a week,
be available 20 hours a week. You're going to have to balance the, I still need to work with the,
I can't be available too often. So try and get some balance there.
Commitment, ask people to commit for things, because that means they're more likely to do it
and ask people to do things that are consistent with their values and beliefs. If you want people
to do something, get some social proof. Show that a large percentage of the population or at least
your target market is more likely to do it the way you suggest, get some social proof. If you're
not an authority, either become an authority or bring an authority with you because people are
more likely to be influenced by an authority. And lastly, principle of likability. Be more likable.
If I can tell you one more thing for your career,
be more likable. Develop your emotional intelligence and be
more likable. Nothing will enhance your career as much as being more emotionally intelligent
and more likable. This is Michael Gibbs. I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects. It's been
an honor to speak to you and I look forward to seeing you in another video very soon. Take care.
It was so nice having you join us for this video today. Let me tell you about some free services
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I look forward to seeing you and I look forward to assisting you in your technology career.
Thank you so much. This is Michael Gibbs from Go Cloud Architects.