Advice Line | Bob Lewis | InfoWorld | Persuading the C-level | September 19, 2007 06:22 AM

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Persuading the C-level

September 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Persuading the C-level

Dear Bob ...

Great piece Bob ("The causes of greatness," Keep the Joint Running, 9/10/2007).

[Short version: Great organizations are the result of:

Leadership
Great employees
Focus on achievement
Teamwork
Willingness to innovate
Willingness to not innovate
Evidence-based decision-making

- Bob]

My question: how do we get budget minded CFOs and process-minded COOs to understand its point?

- In a pickle

Dear Vlasic ...

The one-word answer is "salesmanship." In both cases, the challenge is to foster a multidimensional view of the company. Budget-minded CFOs focus solely on cost for a reason. Understand the reason and you can encourage a broader perspective. The same is true of process-minded COOs.

Part of the secret of successful persuasion is to always start by agreeing with the other person. Another technique, which is complementary, is assuming agreement in return. It works like this:

"I agree with the point you're making - we can't simply spend indiscriminately on every good idea." [Start by agreeing.] "My point is simply that cost-control by itself doesn't get us where we need to go - it's a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. My point - and I recognize I'm telling you what you already know - is that to accomplish what we need to accomplish we're going to need to make a couple of key hires." [Assume agreement in return.]

Or, to the COO: "You're absolutely right - as a company we need to be more disciplined about how we define and execute well-defined processes." [Start by agreeing.] "I know you and I both recognize that for us to get there just publishing new flow charts won't make them real. We're going to need strong leadership to turn our goal into action." [Assume agreement in return.]

Underneath the conversations is always the need for the strong relationships that let the conversations take place. Which is to say, persuasion is much easier when it builds on pre-existing trust.

- Bob

Posted by Bob Lewis on September 19, 2007 06:22 AM

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COMMENTS

I find two things very helpful in this post: First, validating the other's point of view reduces defensiveness and helps foster a productive conversation. Second, any attempt at persuasion is easier and more effective in the context of trust and credibility. Sometimes we get fooled into thinking persuasion is about technique when it is ultimately more about character. See my comments at http://incrediblemessages.wordpress.com. Thanks for the helpful post!

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