Styles of Influencing - Push-Pull
Research over several years into the behaviour of effective influencers has revealed two basic types of influencing called PUSH and PULL.
Push Style
The Push style is characterised by extensive use of three types of behaviour. The influencer spends 70% or more of their time in these activities:
- Proposing
- Giving Information
- Blocking/Shutting Out
The rationale of the Push Style is that people are influenced by convincing proposals which are well supported. The keys to successful use of the push style are: the quality of the proposals; the information given; the ability to get those proposals heard by shutting others out.
The Push style tends to be most effective under one or more of these conditions:
- The recipient has little experience or understanding of the issue and recognises the need for help or guidance.
- There is no vested interest in the status quo and the recipient does not feel threatened by accepting the proposal.
- The recipient recognises the legitimacy of the influencer's power base (e.g. expert, position, physical).
- The recipient trusts the influencer's motives.
Pull Style
The Pull style is characterised by concentration upon three different behaviours. The influencer spends 35% or more of their time in these activities:
- Testing Understanding
- Seeking Information
- Building
The rationale of the Pull Style is that people are influenced more readily by uncovering their needs, motives, aspirations and concerns. The keys to effective use of the Pull Style are: the quality of questions used to test understanding and to seek information, and the ability to build upon ideas and proposals.
The Pull style tends to be effective in most situations, but is particularly useful under these conditions:
- The recipient of the influence attempt has strong opinions and views.
- The recipient has a vested interest in the status quo and could have difficulty in accepting the influencer's proposals.
- It is unknown what the recipient will find acceptable.
- The influencer has no recognised power base, or wishes not to use an established power base.
- It is important that the influence attempt has a long-lasting effect i.e. the influencer wishes to obtain more than compliance from the recipient.
- The relationship between the two parties is new or there is a history of mistrust.
- Previous attempts using a Push Style have failed.
Research evidence suggests that when Push and Pull styles are mixed during an influence attempt the result is a decrease in effectiveness. The two styles appear to cancel each other out. It is therefore important to consciously choose a particular style before attempting to influence another and to stick to that style throughout the meeting.
It is, of course, possible for an influencer to use a different style with the same recipient on another occasion or after an adjournment. Sometimes the two styles can be used together if a pair of influencers, acting as a team, each employ one of the styles.
Self Assessment Questionnaire
Please read each of the following statements carefully and decide the extent to which they describe your behaviour in situations where you need to influence others. Base your answers on typical day-to-day activities which occur in your job.
Please be as frank as possible. The questionnaire will be of little value unless you provide an accurate and objective description of your behaviour.
Against each statement, enter in the appropriate box the score which corresponds to your choice from the five possible responses below.
Enter the score:
- 4 if you definite agree, that is, if the statement accurately describes your actions
- 3 if you are inclined to agree, that is, if the statement describes your actions with reasonable accuracy
- 2 if you are undecided, that is, you are genuinely unsure whether or not the statement describes your actions accurately
- 1 if you are inclined to disagree, that is, if you think the statement probably does not describe your actions accurately
- 0 if you definitely disagree, that is, if the statement definitely does not describe your actions
Please answer the questionnaire as quickly as possible and don' t hesitate to use the extreme score where appropriate.
Interpretation of Scores
The questionnaire gives an indication of the extent to which you use two different styles of influence in your job.
- Box A gives your overall score for the PULL influence style.
- Box B gives your overall score for the PUSH influence style.
Your overall score for each style can be interpreted as follows:
- 54-72 Definite use of the style
- 42-53 Tendency to use the style
- 30-41 Neither use nor avoidance of the style
- 18-29 Tendency to avoid use of the style
- 0-17 Definite avoidance of the style