Persuasion is a major form of influence and managers must often influence people for whom they have no formal responsibility. The seven principles described next have accompanying tactics that can be used to supplement the other approaches to persuasion. As a leader, you have a better chance of influencing group members who like you. Emphasizing similarities between you and the other person and offering genuine praise are the two most reliable techniques for getting another person to like you.

Managers can often influence group members to behave in a particular way by serving as a model of trust, good ethics, or strong commitment to company goals. In short, give what you want to receive. People follow the lead of similar others. If you as the leader want to influence a group to convert to a new procedure, ask a believer to speak up in a meeting or send his or her statement of support.

People need to feel committed to what you want them to do. After people take a stand or go on record in favor of a position, they prefer to stay with that commitment. People defer to experts. The action plan here is to make constituents aware of your expertise to enhance the probability that your plan will persuade them. People want more of what they can have less of. An application of this principle is that the leader can persuade group members to act in a particular direction if the members believe that the resource at issue is shrinking rapidly.

Persuasion is likely to be the most effective when you get others to agree with a message before it is even sent. A practical approach to pre-suasion is to solicit other people’s advice before proposing a key initiative. The developer of these principles explains that they should be applied in combination to multiply their impact. Another principle of persuasion of potential use to leaders is altercasting, in which you characterize another person as a certain type of person to encourage him or her to behave in a desired manner. The approach can work as a persuasion, or influence, tactic because many people want to rise to the occasion.