Posts in category: Vinita Gupta

An organization is only as good as the people it employs; those that want to survive and thrive in 2022 will need to respond to the new power dynamic.

As per Korn Ferry, there are new and increasing pressures on the workforce: remote working, increased collaboration, digital transformation, and more. To stay ahead, most businesses will need to transform their workforce to meet these demands.

However, no single solution fits every company and every situation. The only certainty is that we will need to do different work differently. But we can learn from the lessons learned and take inspiration from those organizations seizing the moment.

Let’s look at some facts (from Korn Ferry research) which have never changed:

The future of work is human..

Many see technology as the key to future success. But new research from the Korn Ferry Institute demonstrates:

• Human capital is 2.33 times more valuable than physical capital globally
• Human capital is valued at $1,215 trillion; physical assets are valued at $521 trillion
• For every $1 invested in people, $11.39 is added to the global economy

(source: https://focus.kornferry.com/report-the-future-of-work-is-human/)

Why In a WFH culture the excitement and enthusiasm for talent management turn to apathy?

organizations and leaders, with great positive intent, end up going through the motions of a process that delivers little in terms of results or fulfillment. In search of a solution, companies tweak what is already flawed and outdated and force it on the employees, who go through lots of challenges working from home, and for most of them is not a treat

So, What should Talent Management Function do?

Well, there are many ways to Dash Apathy and create a performance-based culture as below:

• Lead by Example. One should never underestimate the power that a manager or leader has to lead. If you’re in charge, leading by example is an important aspect of inspiring people to reach new goals while working virtually
• Foster a healthy work-life balance. Fostering a healthy work-life balance can yield happier and more productive employees. You can accomplish this important task by providing workers with personal time and encouraging them to use it
• Learning Opportunities. It’s important for companies to inspire workers to learn new skills. Providing the right environment for learning can inspire employees to abandon stagnation in favor of growth and discovery
• Do not focus on the number of hrs. Disrupting talent management means rethinking the fundamental purpose of HR and talent functions through the lens of business and workforce value. So, focus on deliverables’ not the login hours
• Employees Personal Health & Safety There’s always been a social contract between employer and employee, but COVID put the focus in new and unexpected ways on our most basic rights i.e. personal health and safety. As the personal and professional become more intertwined than ever, organizations can engage and motivate their people by creating experiences that connect individuals to

Conclusion: No company has truly figured out how to completely empathize and foster an environment that creates a culture of performance and loyalty both. However, it is certain that yesterday’s talent practices won’t hold up in today’s dynamic business environment It is only possible when companies adopt a more person-centric approach to drive their talent and business strategies, they will drive better results. And by putting individual purpose at the heart of the talent process, organizations will gain the competitive advantage needed to succeed in the new economy

An Accurate assessment improves your sales and marketing performance towards accelerating growth

How much time in the last week, month, or year, have you used to strategically view the overall health of your organization?

When is the last time you took a deep dive into the data, analyzed the metrics, and evaluated your long-term goals for success?

How long do you work in a week managing salespeople and client issues?

The answers to these questions above help you decide if the Sales Diagnostic is right for your organization.

However, Companies have difficulty objectively assessing the capabilities and performance of their marketing and sales organization to determine areas in which the function is falling behind.

And often, they are not able to answer these questions

Which value levers to pull?

 How to measure impact? and

How to sustain the change over time?

Sales Growth Diagnostics solutions help companies accurately assess and improve their sales and marketing performance, concentrating their efforts on the areas that drive the fastest growth.

It goes, beyond the sales department to look at the whole company. Sales-driven organizations need every department working in the same direction, and when issues arise outside the sales team, diagnostics can identify hard-to-find issues and correct them.

It helps organization to see the big picture, measure current strategies, and evaluate new opportunities after looking at the operations from all sides so Sales Heads can identify bottlenecks and keep revenue climbing.

Companies need accurate data on best practices and top performers to benchmark their sales and marketing performance, both internally and externally, and identify areas for improvement.

STEP 1 is to identify the gaps and opportunities for commercial improvement

STEP 2 is to create a comprehensive solution that identifies high-priority improvement areas, embeds performance measures into business processes, and helps determine the capabilities needed for sustainable competitive advantage.

Diagnostics require more than just a casual review, however. To execute effective diagnostics, teams must understand what they want to accomplish and the established best practices to do so.

The Key Elements of an Effective Sales Diagnostics:

• THE NUMBERS LOGIC :

Revenue Goals by territory, right categories or industries, Average order size, Key Account Level

• YOUR BUSINESS PROCES :

Your Performance review process, Sales Structure, Job Roles, Ideal Prospect Profile, Decision-Making Process, Valid Business Reasons, Sales Process, Key Sales Collateral

• YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE PRICING:

Standard pricing, Negotiating elements, discounting stage

• YOUR PERFORMANCE METRICS :

Performance Measures, Lead Indicators, Lag Indicators, Compensation Plans

• THE BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY :

Core Values, Mission, Visison,Problems You Solve, Common Objections, Reason for Being, Elevator Speech, Top competitors & how you compare

• YOUR SERVICE CAPABILITY:

Service team, On boarding a new client etc.

Once you follow these, the critical part is “KEEPING IS ACTIONALBLE” everyday

Sales Diagnostics like this creates an efficiency and effectiveness in the sales process which separates good sales teams from great ones.

Diagnostics help the CXOs to identify issues and make corrections, ensuring the sales department makes the most of its opportunities and keeps driving revenue.

Contact us (info@auxano-consulting.com, +91 9820668179) to learn more about the Sales Diagnostic and how we can transform your sales and marketing performance and give it an accelerate growth!!

How to be the Best and Learn from the Worst…

A must reading for all who has – or is – a boss.

75% of the workforce reports that their immediate supervisor is the most stressful part of their job

Professor of management Dr. Robert I. Sutton, the best-selling author of The No Asshole Rule, explores how good and bad bosses affect the workplace and what distinguishes one from the other

Dr. Sutton says that as more people shared with him their asshole stories, about working and dealing with assholes (as a result of reading or hearing about “The No Asshole Rule”), he realized that everything came back to one central figure — the boss. It was from the countless workplace asshole stories and the desire to share how to be a skilled boss or how to work for one that led Dr. Sutton to write “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”

How Bad Bosses creates Negative Impact?

The prevalence of bad bosses is confirmed by careful studies. A  Zogby survey of nearly 8,000 American adults found that of those abused by workplace bullies (37 percent of respondents), 72 percent were bullied by superiors.Stories about the damage done by bully bosses are bolstered by systematic research. University of Florida researchers found that employees with abusive bosses were more likely than others to slow down or make errors on purpose (30 percent vs. 6 percent), hide from their bosses (27 percent vs. 4 percent), not put in maximum effort (33 percent vs. 9 percent) and take sick time when they weren’t sick (29 percent vs. 4 percent).

A boss can be bad in many ways, but whatever the permutation, ill behaved bosses make people sick. In England, researchers tracked 6,000 civil service workers for 20 years. Those with bosses who were hypercritical, poor listeners or stingy with praise experienced higher rates of angina, heart attacks and death from heart disease than those working for benevolent bosses. Finnish and Swedish studies show similar results. Employees working for bad bosses frequently report feeling angry, stressed out, emotionally numb, depressed or anxious. On the flip side, employees are more satisfied and productive when they feel their bosses care about them. Organizations with good bosses enjoy healthier employees, more profitability and greater employee retention.

Balance, Determination and “Small Wins”…

Good bosses are not micromanagers who stifle creativity and interrupt work flow, and they’re not lackadaisical, like bosses who fail to achieve company goals. Good bosses walk the line between stepping in when necessary and letting their employees work without interference. Good managers have determination, or “grit” – that is, “perseverance and passion toward long-term goals.” Bosses with grit regard work as a marathon, not a sprint. They sustain effort through adversity and never stop learning.

Good bosses don’t just plan to meet long-term goals. They also set out to achieve small wins along the way and to motivate staffers to reach for lofty goals. For example, some people “freak out or freeze up” when their tasks become overwhelming or too complex. People are more effective when they conquer smaller tasks and celebrate small victories. Helping staff members stay calm and confident is one reason to break projects into manageable, contained segments.

The 10 commandments For Wise Bosses:

1. Have a Strong opinions and weakly held beliefs.
2. Do not treat others as if they are idiots.
3. Listen attentively to your people; don’t just pretend to hear what they say.
4. Ask a lot of good questions.
5. Ask others for help and gratefully accept their assistance.
6. Do not hesitate to say, ”I don’t know”.
7. Forgive people when they fail, remember the lessons, and teach them to everyone.
8. Fight as if you are right, and listen as if you are wrong
9. Do not hold grudges after losing an argument. Instead, help the victors implement their ideas with all your might.
10. Know your weakness and flaws, and work with people who correct and compensate for your weakness, Express gratitude to your people.

Conclusion:

“Good Boss, Bad Boss” is about the best bosses and what they do. It’s not about incompetent or even mediocre bosses. As Dr. Sutton puts it, it doesn’t matter if you’re a boss whose team brought in the highest sales number or a principal of an award-winning school, if you treat people badly, you don’t deserve to be called a great boss.

About Author: Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering and a Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy) at Stanford.  Sutton has been teaching classes on the psychology of business and management at Stanford since 1983. He is co-founder of the Center for Work, Technology and Organization, which he co-directed from 1996 to 2006.  He is also co-founder of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (which everyone calls “the d school”). He has published over 100 articles and chapters on these topics in peer-reviewed journals and the popular press. Sutton’s books include Weird Ideas That Work: 11 ½ Practices for Promoting, Managing, and Sustaining Innovation, The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Firms Turn Knowledge into Action (with Jeffrey Pfeffer), and Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (with Jeffrey Pfeffer).  The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t and Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best…. and Survive the Worst are both New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers.

How to stop putting things off and start getting stuff done (feature image source: studyguides)

In my last blog, I wrote about The Procrastination Equation by Dr. Piers Steel who is creator of one of the best motivation and procrastination books – an equation that is able to explain every scientific finding on procrastination ever.

The equation teaches us:

“What can be done at any time is often done at no time.”

The next question is very important with which I ended my part – I of the blog, which is:

How to beat Procrastination?

Simple Maths, In this equation

Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) / (Impulsiveness x Delay)

Increase the numerator and decrease the denominator to have more control, i.e

• Increase your expectancy of Success.
• Increase the task’s value(make it more pleasant and rewarding).
• Decrease your impulsiveness.

Research shows that there are several useful methods to achieve each of these, though you may think these are out of your control

Let’s see how to achieve it..

Increase your expectancy of Success.

I agree, it is same as telling someone “Be Positive”, But How?

Researchers have identified, three major techniques for increasing optimism:

1. Success Spirals – Making use of “Success Spirals” means achieving one challenging goals after another, it gives you confidence in your ability to succeed. So give yourself a series of meaningful, challenging but achievable goals, and then achieve them. You can acquire a skill, go for adventure like rafting, camping; volunteer for more social or professional work, give a level to your hobbies etc. When you achieve goals one after another, your brain will reward you with increased expectancy for success and finally a better ability to beat procrastination
2. Vicarious Victory – Pessimism and optimism both are contagious. So try to be a part of community which fosters positivity, watch inspirational movies, read inspirational biographies, listen to motivational speakers and so on
3. Mental Contrasting – While most of us do creative visualization of what we want to achieve: Money, Car, House, High paying Job etc.Research shows that it may drain our motivation unless we do “Mental Contrasting” after visualizing what you want to achieve with where you are now with a rusty car, rented house etc. This will help you to overcome obstacle to achieve your dreams and jumpstarts planning and effort towards it.

Increase the task’s value (make it more pleasant and rewarding)

If we don’t like gardening, how can we water the plant? it doesn’t have much value to us. Right?

However, study shows that, Value is to some degree constructed and relative. Psychophysics actually, advice for how we can inject value into necessary tasks

1. Flow – it’s all about making a boring job more difficult, to the point that matches your current level of skill and there you achieve your “flow” just like how Myrtle Young made her boring job at potato chip factory more interesting and challenging by looking for potato chips that resembled celebrities and pulling them off the conveyor belt.
2. Meaning – Connect the task to something you care about for its own sake, as a chain: Read the subject in your curriculum (you don’t like) to clear the exam and get a job, buy a house for your loved ones. Once you break the chain, it makes a task meaningless, so you do it through a chain.
3. Energy – It’s simple, Low energy make a task harder. So take it up when you are mot alert, may be in day time or afternoon or evening, you know your rhythm. Don’t forget to sleep well, and exercise well!!
4. Rewards – It’s simple, pat your back, reward yourself for completing a task. Treat yourself with special coffee after you achieve it.
5. Passion – The value of task increase itself, when you do what you love. It’s the most powerful way to achieve  your goals

    Decrease your impulsiveness.

“The Achilles Heel of procrastination turns out to be impulsiveness; that is, living impatiently in the moment and wanting it all now.”

           It is one of the biggest factor in procrastination

           Here are two solid method’s to deal with it:

1. Commit Now
   • “Throw away the key” or close off tempting alternatives
   • Make failure really painful, set aside money you will lose if you don’t meet your goals and ensure you have an outside reference to decide whether you met your goal or not. Set things up so that your money goes to an organization you hate, if you fail and your chosen referee will post the details of it on Facebook if you don’t meet your goal.
2. Set Goals – You are smart so set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Anchored) goals, but remember Attainable is Redundant with Realistic, and Specific is Redundant with Measurable and Time-Anchored. However, goals should be challenging, meaningful and output focused, in X time, product is Y.

Conclusion:

To beat procrastination, you need to be increase your motivation to do each task on which you are tempted to procrastinate. To do that, you can (1) optimize your optimism for success on the task,(2) make the task more pleasant, and (3) take steps to overcome your impulsiveness. And to do each of those things, use the specific methods explained above (Set goals, pre-commit, make use of success spirals, etc.)

About Author: Dr. Piers Steel is one of the world’s leading researchers and speakers on the science of motivation and procrastination. Winner of the Killam Emerging Research Leader award, he is considered the top new professor at the University of Calgary, where he teaches human resources and organizational dynamics at the Haskayne School of Business. He has been studying procrastination and its impact for more than ten years—and spent the decades before that as a procrastinator himself. Dr. Steel’s research has been reported thousands of times around the world, ranging from Psychology Today and New Scientist to Good Housekeeping and The New Yorker. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife and two sons.

“The Procrastination Equation will teach you how to bust the excuses that are preventing you from doing your best work and living your best life….So don’t put it off any longer

 —Daniel H. Pink

How to stop putting things off and start getting stuff done…

95% of us procrastinate, but interestingly perfectionists aren’t the guilty ones.

Sam, quite talented, positive, but yet to make his first sale, the rejections after rejections demoralized him. He organizes his desk, surfs the internet, keep presentations ready, and puts off his cold calls until potential clients are leaving for the day

In other department, Sarah, stares at the blank page of word doc, her write up for VP speech is due tomorrow is boring. She takes a break, go out, watch movies to find herself even less motivated to write than before. She dives in at mid night, pressing deadline, results into a terrible essay

Next lane, Jobish, Got all his preparations done for his vacation to Singapore, visa, plane tickets, shopping for wife and kids. He still needs to book a hotel room, which can be done anytime, it hardly takes time.  He keep delaying it, work projects deadlines took over and forgets about it altogether. It’s time to leave tomorrow, while packaging he recalls to book the room, but there are none by the beach, which his wife needed specifically.

“This book is about every promise you made to yourself but broke.”

The Procrastination Equation by Dr. Piers Steel is one of the best motivation and procrastination books.

Steel is one of the world’s leading researchers on the science of motivation and procrastination and the inventor of the procrastination equation – an equation that is able to explain every scientific finding on procrastination ever.

This book is about hacking motivation and getting ourselves motivated for anything we want. It’s a great read with lots of practical advice for improving our lives.

Sam, Sarah and Jobish are procrastinators, but in different ways.

Sam’s problem is “low expectancy”. He expects failure, and low expectancy of success from making next round of cold calls. Results from 39 procrastination studies show that low expectancy is a major cause of procrastination.

Sarah’s problem is “low value” of task for her. Taking a break, watching shows is easy, but it’s not easy to start doing your taxes. Dozens of scientific studies shows that, we put off things we don’t like to do.

However, Jobish’s problem is strongest predictor if procrastination. Jobish could have booked the hotel in advance. Work and other distractions with urgency, until last minute, left him with poor selection of rooms. Several Studies have shown that procrastination is closely tied to Impulsiveness

Impulsiveness fits into a broader component of procrastination: time.

An event’s impact on our decisions decreases as it’s temporal distance from us increases. We are less motivated by delayed rewards than by immediate rewards, and the more impulsive you re,the more your motivation is affected by such delays

Expectancy, Value, Delay, and impulsiveness are the four major components of procrastination. Author Piers Steel, a leading researcher on procrastination, explains:

Decrease the certainty or the size of a task’s reward – its expectancy or its value – and you are unlikely to pursue its completion with any energy. Increase the delay for the task’s reward and our susceptibility to delay – impulsiveness – and motivation also dips.

This leaves us with “the procrastination equation”:

Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) / (Impulsiveness x Delay)

Increase the size of a task’s reward (including both the pleasantness of doing the task and the value of its after-effects),and your motivation goes up. Increase the perceived odds of getting the reward, and your motivation also goes up

Hence the denominator, which covers the effect of time on our motivation to do a task. The longer the delay before we reap a task’s reward, the less motivated ware to do it. And the negative effect of this delay is amplified by our level of impulsiveness. For highly impulsive people, delays do even greater damage to their motivation

The Procrastination Equation into Action

As an example, consider a final semester student who has an idea to make some products wants to get into startup world after graduating. Unfortunately, for him, there could be lots of components storming into procrastination.

Getting into startup is exhaustive (low value)

The results are uncertain (low expectancy)

And you never know how long it will take to get traction (high delay). Until then how will you survive?

But there’s more. Parents, relatives, friends in general, might be the most distracting people on earth. There are always pleasures to be had with a job and fixed salary income (weekend party’s with friends, clubbing, games, events, outing with family etc.). Now wonder that starting one’s own company is hell of a job to think and venture into and it can’t be done. These potent distractions amplify the negative effect of the delay in the task’s reward and the negative effect of the student’s level of impulsiveness.

So the question is How to beat Procrastination?

But How?

Stay tuned to learn this in Part-II of this blog

Till then, happy reading…!!

About Author: Dr. Piers Steel is one of the world’s leading researchers and speakers on the science of motivation and procrastination. Winner of the Killam Emerging Research Leader award, he is considered the top new professor at the University of Calgary, where he teaches human resources and organizational dynamics at the Haskayne School of Business. He has been studying procrastination and its impact for more than ten years—and spent the decades before that as a procrastinator himself. Dr. Steel’s research has been reported thousands of times around the world, ranging from Psychology Today and New Scientist to Good Housekeeping and The New Yorker. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife and two sons.

(feature image source: www.learnfromblogs.com)

(feature image credit: www.brainvire.com)

Global SaaS market is expected to reach $436.9 billion in 2025 !!

As per CrunchBase There are 15,529 SaaS companies in the world until june 2020.

What is SaaS?:

• The Software as a Service (SaaS) market consists of sales of cloud based software services.

• SaaS is a software solution which can be purchased on a subscription or pay per use basis to use an application for organizational purposes

• Customers can access this application over internet, mainly through a web browser

SaaS allows an organization to run an application at minimal upfront cost and speeds up overall functionality of the organization, get better performance, compliance and customer satisfaction.

The introduction of artificial intelligence is also gaining great popularity in the SaaS market

AI helps SaaS companies create better user experience through predictive analytics, automate manual functions and personalize user interface features

Major global players in the software as a service (SaaS) market are Salesforce, ServiceNow, Microsoft, Google, Cisco etc.

Rapid changes in business dynamics like economic uncertainty, competitive rivalry, increasing adoption of mobile, changing regulations, internet usage and applications in the market are expected to benefit the software as a service (SaaS) market

Basic Product Management Skills required for SaaS!!

1.  General understanding of data – Not much expected!! But just how to read data and interpret data accurately

2.  Industry insights & KPIs – One need to have the market knowledge and industry trends and also being able to set and track key KPIs which depicts performance

3.  Strategic thinking – Much Needed!! In understanding and defining the company’s vision and then working towards that vision with realistic and achievable goals

4.  Business Acumen – It doesn’t demand a degree but basic business skills to know about ins and outs of your product, company performance which directly or indirectly impacts your product and its development.

5.  Design & User Experience Knowledge – To create an awesome experience for customers, a decent knowledge of UX design is mandatory as it dictates the success of the company

6.  Core skills – A Communicator, Negotiator, Listener, able to handle criticism and feedback.

The Pros and Cons of SaaS based products

Here are the answers:

The Pros

• Cost – Fixed, Small, affordable, easy to absorb, no surprises, feature based, makes it apt for SMBs
• Maintenance- Publisher’s responsibility, Automated, latest version advantage, no additional cost
• Mobility – Accessible from anywhere where there is a network, attentive to a mobile work place

The Cons

• Security – safeguarding the data is business’s responsibility. Mobility has been creating challenges for business wrt data security. There is a need for strong endpoint security with rise in the SaaS applications. Today the apps are required to be used on the go by employees making it more vulnerable to malicious attacks

• Contractual Obligations – It needs to be monitored by Business on terms of over usage which may lead to surprise cost or penalties. Hence over-usage needs to be tracked

•  Loss of control-Unlike perpetual apps, SaaS apps are controlled by publishers and compliance are being audited and may result in financial repercussions

Confused?

Whether to use it or not?

The answer is YES. It’s worth..

Just have a proper process in place to manage the software assets. Monitor it, Track it and ensure compliance

(feature image credit: scientips.com)

“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”

“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush”

In this case, where someone stands behind another person in a queue to use the photocopy machine.

The first question worked 60% of the time compared to the second question, which worked 94% of the time. People like to have a reason for what they do. Give them a reason and they’ll more likely comply with your request

This is called the “Weapons of Influence” where  Showing potential customers the most expensive item first then working downwards in price leads to an increase in the amount spent (as the next products seem cheaper in comparison).

Says the most cited social psychologist, Robert Cialdini who has explained how people use psychological weapons to influence orders in their day-to-day life through his book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Have you ever wondered about the Psychology, when people say “Yes” – and how to apply these understandings?

Influence is all about human psychology and how we, as humans, can be persuaded to do different things based on different stimuli and information.

Cialdini has identified six core principles that affect these decision making short cuts, particularly in relation to purchasing and consumption decisions. The main message that he delivers is that if you understand these six principles, then you can use them to your advantage when trying to persuade others to take a specific action or buy a specific product.

These principles are so powerful that they generate substantial change in a wide range of circumstances. Some of these principles you are probably aware of, while other principles of persuasion you might be learning for the first time.

Now, let’s understand each of the 6 universal principles of persuasion identified by Cialdini:

1. Reciprocity

The first universal principle of persuasion is reciprocity.

People are more willing to comply with requests (for favors, services, information, concessions, etc.) from those who have provided such things first. The rule of reciprocity is essentially, I do something for you, and in return, you do something for me. If you receive a gift, a service, a free sample or a favour from someone else, then you are more likely to give something back to that person.

We as humans naturally hate being in debt to someone else, and so even a small gift or favor can lead to larger reciprocation.

Companies offering you a higher price then follow up with a lower price by making this concession, it seems like they are doing you a favor! – It’s another way reciprocation works to persuade you

Give and you shall receive! That’s the power of reciprocity.

2. Scarcity

The second universal principle of persuasion is Scarcity.

“only 5 seats left at this price”

“limited edition shoes”

“All flats are sold, only 2 are left, they are filling fast”

The less of something there is, the more people tend to want it. This holds true for experiences as well as for material products. There’s not really much more to say about this one.

From a persuasion and influence perspective this means that to increase interest in your product or service, you may benefit from reducing its availability (or at least creating a sense of scarcity).

In the world of work it may be possible to create a sense of scarcity around your own availability. This may lead to an increase in desire for what you have to offer. Of course, not everyone is in a position to do this, only those with power. Doing so when you don’t have that power may simply lead others to tell you you’re inefficient.

3. Authority

The third universal principle of persuasion is Authority.

This principle of persuasion is something we usually learn early on.

The principle of authority is that the greater the perceived authority of the person, the more likely you are to comply with their demands and comments. People are more willing to follow the directions or recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant authority or expertise. These authorities include doctors, lawyers, businesspersons, police officers, etc.

We generally trust people with credentials and a lot of education.

Authority is very powerful and should be used carefully.

4. Commitment and consistency

The fourth universal principle of persuasion is Commitment and Consistency

This principle is about our “…desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done. Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.”

e.g You tell everyone you’re launching a product in 3 months. The public announcement, or what I call “forced accountability,” will motivate you to be more consistent in your execution so you hit your goal.

5. Liking

The fifth universal principle of persuasion is Liking.

Do you like Cricket? Me too…

Simply what it means is, we prefer to say yes to the request of those we like over those we don’t. There are several key properties that determine our view of people: Attractiveness, similarity, compliments, contact & co-operation, conditioning and association. Studies found we automatically attribute traits such as talent, kindness, honesty and intelligence to attractive people. It is no co-incidence that ‘attractive’ political candidates received two and a half times the votes of unattractive rivals.

We like people who are similar to us, with the same views, interests, beliefs and values. We therefore need to find areas of shared interest to increase rapport and connection.

6. Consensus (or social proof)

The sixth and last universal principle of persuasion is Consensus or Social Proof.

“best-selling products”

“117989 People has already bought it”

“ 5 rating by 9 out of 10 people”

What does it reflect?

Humans are social by nature and generally feel that it’s important to conform to the norms of a social group. This means that when it comes to decision making, we often look around us to see what others are doing, before making our mind up.

Interestingly, the more socially specific communications of this type are, the more effective they are.

REFLECTIONS…

The Psychology of Persuasion is all about“how you communicate” and “how you use your words”

One side, now that You’ve learned about these six principles of persuasions, you will be able to have a better understanding on how to use it at work and in your professional environment

On the other side, you’ll also be able to get the skill of handling people who are trying to make a quick buck through deceitful techniques.

About Author: Dr Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Dr. Cialdini received his PhD from University of North Carolina and post-doctoral training from Columbia University. He holds honorary doctoral degrees (Doctor Honoris Causa) from Georgetown University, University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Wroclaw, Poland and University of Basil in Switzerland. He has held Visiting Scholar appointments at Ohio State University, the University of California, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. Dr. Robert Cialdini has spent his entire career conducting scientific research on what leads people to say “Yes” to requests. The results of his research, his ensuing articles, and New York Times bestselling books have earned him an acclaimed reputation as a respected scientist and engaging storyteller. His books, including “Influence” and “Pre-Suasion”, have sold more than five-million copies in 41 different languages.

(Feature image credit: www.gse.harvard.edu)

Critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information, and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve problems or make decisions.

We know that critical thinking is necessary and crucial for our work, but how do we get to the

 “Oh! I know!” or

“Hmmm, what if we…” moments?

Those “aha” moments don’t always come quickly enough and some specific steps and questions can help us get there

The question is ,What is critical thinking?

It is Simply “Thinking about thinking”

Thus making us able to take charge of our own thinking

Leading researchers defines critical thinking as:

Robert Ennis’s classic definition:

Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do

Matthew Lipman’s definition:

Critical thinking is skillful,responsible thinking that is conducive to good judgment because it is sensitive to context, relies on criteria, and is self-correcting

Richard Paul definition:

Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking, while you’re thinking, in order to make your thinking better

Ultimately all the definitions point towards : An art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it.

As leaders, we use critical thinking to help us make well thought-out evaluations and judgements in tasks such as strategic planning, project management, evaluating business processes, listening to co-workers, mediating conflicts and solving complex problems.

What could be the possible Characteristics of a critical thinker?

• Consider your interactions at work
• Can you answer yes to the following statements?
• I can work with someone new by making a logical plan.
• I can tell the difference between facts and opinions.
• I evaluate evidence to decide whether an opinion is reasonable.
• I change my mind when I find evidence that shows I may not be correct.
• I can look at a problem from different angles.
• I can ask relevant and probative questions.
• I recognize preconceptions, bias, and values in myself and others.
• I can question the bases for my own beliefs and opinions.

Critical thinking processes are most often used with ill-defined problems, i.e., problems that are complex and do not have clear outcomes or an expected solution.

There is no “correct” answer for these problems. However, there are better ways to approach the problem in order to produce the desired results. These types of problems are adaptive and require a systematic approach. Without it the team may fail to reach its strategic goals.

How can you use this systematic process for critical thinking to achieve the best results?

To achieve the best results, it is recommended that you complete the entire process following the steps in order, while diving deeply into the questions provided in the chart below.

All steps are necessary to ensure your team members systematically creates a thoroughly considered solution for the problem.

• PRESENTATION – Team Lead presents the facts of the challenge, problem or situation to the team. Provide previous solutions that have been tried

• INTERPRETATION – Ask Questions, to clarify the problem What is happening?, What is the significance and who is involved?

• ANALYSIS – Discuss the problem, explore each person’s judgement, arguments, opinions, and conclusions. What evidence is provided to backup the team’s experiences, beliefs and opinions shaping the ideas?

• INFERENCE – Brainstorm possible solutions using all data and information available. What facts are used to draw reasonable conclusions? What are the possible alternatives?What are the consequences of these outcomes?

• SLEEPING OVER – Take a break, reflects on it, gather as much additional data possible

• EVALUATION – Have a Recap from previous meeting and lead to ask questions about their reasoning and conclusions. Team members evaluate the validity of their argument or solution

• EXPLAINATION – Formally verbalize and outline their explanation of their proposed decision or solution       

• SELF REGULATION – Lead now questions, confirms, validates and connects the proposed decision or solution to ensure a complete process and conclusion

• ACTION PLAN – Lead now outlines specific action steps and assigns a team member to each task with expected deadlines

It can be helpful to use roles during the process and highly recommended to set a time limit for each section. Consider roles like Team Leader, Facilitator, Time keeper, Note-taker etc. to facilitate the best possible outcome during the critical thinking process.

Using this process will not only aid your team in making well thought-out decisions on complex and ill-defined problems, but it will also provide a foundation for your team members to practice their critical thinking skills.

When asking for feedback on any project, your team will learn to pose a series of questions first rather than stating their opinion. This is a reflective practice that creates deeper thinking and a meaningful conversation about the work. Consider this process for strategic planning, project management, evaluating business processes, listening to co-workers, mediating conflicts and solving complex problems. Find the root cause, make informed decisions, and be sure to execute with trackable action steps!

Sources: (Sources: ; http://cdavisengl.weebly.com/ ; https://www.pearsonhighered.com/ ; http://assets.cambridge.org/ ; http://leadership.hr.ufl.edu/ ; http://www.edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ ; https://facultycenter.ischool.syr.edu/ ; https://www.thoughtco.com/)

The strategy we use for raising children, teaching students, and workers can be rephrased as:

“Do this and you’ll get that”

While manipulating people with incentives may seem to work in the short run, it is a strategy that ultimately fails and does lasting harm.

Drawing from hundreds of studies, Alfie Kohn – the author of the book “Punished by rewards”, demonstrates that people do inferior work when enticed with money or other incentives. Programs that use rewards to change people’s behavior are similarly ineffective over the long run.

“Do rewards motivate people?” asks Kohn. ”Yes. They motivate people to get rewards.”

Does it mean that rewards are just as undesirable as punishment?

By virtue of being controlling, they’re likely to be experienced as disgusting in the long run. The reason is that while students would certainly like to have goody itself – the gift or money – none of us enjoys having the things we desire used as levers to control our behavior. Rewards are most damaging to the interest when the task is already intrinsically motivating. That may be simply because there is that much more interest to lose when extrinsic rewards are introduced; If you are doing something boring, your interest level may be at rock bottom

There are at least 70 studies showing that extrinsic motivators – including A+ grade, sometimes praise, and other rewards-are merely ineffective over the long haul but counterproductive with respect to the things that concerns us most like desire to learn, commitment to good values and so on.

Another group of studies shows that when people are offered a reward for doing s task that involves some degree of problem solving or creativity-or for doing it well-they will tend to do lower quality work than those offered with no reward

That seems so contrary to our everyday experience right?

Everybody is used to getting rewards and giving them. Educators think it’s only right to give rewards; kids who do good things deserve rewards

However, Alfie Kohn, presents an argument unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss.

Now the question is…

How can we expect all kids will find all the curriculum intrinsically motivating?

Though it is not realistic to expect intrinsic motivation from all kids.The author says, a given child is likely to be more interested in some things than others, but we’re not talking about putting something on the chalkboard and expecting kids to jump up and down and say,”I can’t wait to get this!”

Skillful teaching involves facilitating the process by which kids come to handle complex ideas – and those ideas have to emerge organically from the real-life interests and concerns of the kids. ”Which is bigger, 5/7 or 9/11?” Kids will say, “who cares?” But kids care very much about how fast they are growing. Within that context, the skills necessary to figure it out become interesting to most kids

What about praise? Because it’s not a tangible reward.

If you tell one of your staff members that he or she did a terrific job on something, are you giving a reward at that point? Positive feedback that is perceived as information is not in itself destructive and indeed can be and encouragement –helping people feel acknowledged so that their interest in a task is redoubled- is not a bad thing.

However, most praise given to children takes the form of a verbal reward, which can have the same destructive impact as other rewards: it feels controlling, it distorts the relationship between the adult and the child-and between the child and his peers-and it undermines interest in the task itself.

So what author is suggesting instead of rewards and praises?

There are three Cs of Motivation:

• CONTENT –  Our school environment also provided the content of the tasks that the children could do by having a three-year progression of lessons for the three-to six-year old displayed on low shelves. The work at school was meaningful to the children with practical activities such as sweeping, buttoning, cutting an apple, as well as learning letter sounds and shapes, reading, writing, spelling, number work, geography, music and more. Kohn quotes Herzberg, ”’If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do.”’ The classroom content was full of interesting and challenging work.

• COLLABORATION – Our classroom provided for collaboration, as children were free to observe each other at work, free to ask questions and free to move around. The children also knew they were at school to learn to do new things and be with their friends. The children were given basic rules of behavior on how to treat each other and the materials in the classroom and the consequences for not following those rules. Children understood they were at school to learn and work together.

• CHOICE – The element of choice in the classroom was a critical factor in creating an environment of achievement, thus leading to the children’s motivation to learn and challenge themselves. The children knew they were free to choose activities a teacher had presented. The children recognized they could work with their chosen activity all day if desired, without being interrupted or told to ”share” the activity with another child. Children were also allowed to ask for a new or challenging lesson. Kohn cites 47 studies that show that the higher the level of decision-making, the higher productivity and job satisfaction in a work environment. Choice created powerful learning in our classroom.

You show me a school that really has those three Cs in place-where students are working with one another in a caring environment to engage with interesting tasks that they have some say in choosing-and I’ll show you a place where you don’t need to use punishment or rewards

About Author: Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The author of fourteen books and hundreds of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations. Kohn’s criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades and test scores.”