Styles of Influencing
Tough Battler, Friendly Helper, Logical Thinker
This model is based on work by R W Wallen in which he identified three types of executive personality. Charles Handy summarised it in his book "Understanding Organisations" 1986.
The model describes three types of executive personality, each of which employs quite different styles of influencing others, and each of which needs to be influenced in particular ways. They are:
Tough Battler
- has drive, energy, commitment,
- self-assertion using power, leverage points,
- concerned with winning/doing it my way.
Has a "Distributive" world view - a world of conflict, fight, power and assertiveness
Typically they Influence through behaviours such as:- giving orders, offering challenge, threatening, asserting, and repetition.
Friendly Helper
- friendliness, openness,
- co-operation, include others,
- appeal to emotions, trusting,
- concerned with "positive" relationships
Has an "Integrative" world view - a world of helpfulness, cooperation, love and sympathy.
Typically they Influence through behaviours such as:- appeasing, appealing to pity, trading favours, making friends, and lateral appeal.
Logical Thinker
- Calm, logical, thoughtful, organised,
- use logical argument/debate,
- appeal to commonsense, precedence.
- Concerned with facts and information
Has a "Rationality" world view - a world of understanding, logic, systems and knowledge
Typically they Influence through behaviours such as:- appealing to logic, presenting ‘facts’, swamping with detail, quoting rules and regulations, and using the hierarchy.
This is a nice simple little model with the advantage that in many cases one can "spot" quite quickly the preferred style of someone else, and then adjust ones own influencing style to suit.
The key questions are:
- What is your own "natural" style of influencing - the one that you prefer to employ?
- What is the "natural" style of the person you are trying to influence?
- Do the two styles match (logical thinker against logical thinker) or clash (logical thinker against tough battler)?
- If they clash, how should you adjust your style to be more effective in influencing that person?