Six Basic Principles of Influence Essential for Effective Management
Discover why people react differently, how to communicate clearly, and turn weaknesses into strengths. Boost yourself awareness and your team's productivity starting today!
Hello everyone, and it's great to have you back for another round of Tech TrendSetters! If you've been following my "Productivity Tips" series, you know I'm very passionate about finding those little hacks that make a big difference in our work and lives. Today, we're going to talk about management psychology.
You might be wondering, "What does psychology have to do with productivity?" Well, as I discovered in my own leadership journey, understanding the hidden psychological factors that shape our choice is the key to unlocking greater performance in yourself and your team.
So, grab your morning coffee, settle in with your cat, as this one might be a longer read, or feel free to bookmark it and come back to it when you have time to fully absorb the insights. Trust me, understanding these psychological principles will be well worth your time. Now, let's get started!
The Psychology of Leadership
Have you ever wondered why the same management tactic works like a charm one day and falls behind the next? Or why some leaders seem to intuitively get it right, while others struggle? The answer lies in the fascinating, and often overlooked, laws of management psychology – they operate regardless of our awareness or understanding of them.
Unfortunately, many leaders rely on these laws only at an intuitive level. Can this still be considered successful management? Hardly. Organisations may progress despite systems that do not align with management laws, but again the cost of that would be a little bit higher.
So here the list of the main principles of management psychology we are going to learn today:
The Unpredictability of Response or why people react differently to the same situation and how to navigate this uncertainty;
The Relativity of Perception or why we see things through our own unique lens and how this impacts our interactions;
The Paradox of Self-Perception or why we're often our own worst critics and how to develop a more balanced self-image;
The Information Distortion Principle or why messages get distorted as they travel and how to ensure clear communication.
The Survival Instinct or how our desire for self-preservation can affect collaboration and how to create a safer space for sharing ideas.
The Art of Compensation or how we can turn our weaknesses into strengths by leveraging our unique talents.
Let’s examine each of these individually.
The Unpredictability of Response
This principle highlights how external factors can influence our inner thoughts and feelings, leading to different reactions to the same situation. This idea is rooted in psychological concepts like "apperception" (how our past experiences shape our perceptions) and "consciousness stereotypes" (our ingrained beliefs and judgments).
Let's break this down even further:
Apperception, formally, is the process by which new experience is assimilated to and transformed by the residuum of past experience of an individual to form a new whole. In short, it is to perceive new experience in relation to past experience.
Consciousness Stereotypes: We all have deeply held beliefs, often formed unconsciously, that can distort how we perceive reality. These can lead to miscommunication and conflict.
Think of it like this: different people, or even the same person at different times, can react differently to the same thing. One person might laugh at a joke, while another might find it offensive. The way we react depends on our unique experiences and beliefs at the very given moment.
This principle is especially important for leaders. It's unrealistic to expect that you can always predict how someone will respond to your actions. Our moods, emotions, and countless other internal factors play a huge role in shaping our reactions.
Let's look at an example: A boss assigns a task and expects it to be done a certain way. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. If the task is not done correctly, both the boss and the employee will have their own explanations, often based on their own biases and assumptions. The boss might think the employee is lazy, while the employee might have a whole list of "reasons" for why the task wasn't completed.
What's the solution? While there's no foolproof way to avoid these situations entirely, there are strategies that can minimise their occurrence. I will try explore into those in one of the future episodes. For now, let's focus on understanding this fundamental principle of human interaction: reactions are inherently uncertain. And this uncertainty is not a weakness, but a reality of the human experience.
The Relativity of Perception
The essence of this principle is that a person can never comprehend another person with the accuracy and completeness that would be sufficient to make serious decisions regarding this person. Our perception is “structured” in such a way that it is almost never accurate and complete. We never perceive even the most ordinary object in front of our eyes entirely and completely, but always see, and from a certain angle, only that part of it that falls into the field of vision and directly affects our receptors.
But a person is a much more complex system, hardly amenable to complete description:
Man is always in a state of change. It is known that at any given time, any person of a certain age can be at different levels of physical, physiological, intellectual, social, moral, emotional and sexual development.
A person always consciously or unconsciously defends himself against attempts to reveal his characteristics and “weak points.” This is understandable – a psychologically “open” person can become a victim of someone’s manipulation.
Quite often a person cannot give information about himself because he does not know himself. And in some cases, he, often without knowing it, tries to appear not as he really is, but as he wants to be in the eyes of other people. There is, of course, nothing wrong with this, for this is the natural process of self-expression.
The inadequacy of perception and a person’s desire to show himself better than he is must be taken into account when making any management decision. How can one build management activities taking into account the law of inadequacy of perception? Management experts recommend that managers use the following principles to approach people:
The principle of universal talent; From a management point of view, it may sound like this: “There are no untalented or incapable people. There are people who are busy with other things”;
The principle of development; Abilities (both general and special) can be developed;
The principle of inexhaustibility; No assessment given to a person during his lifetime can be considered final.
The Paradox of Self-Perception
Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to truly see ourselves? When we try to evaluate our own strengths and weaknesses, we often encounter the same internal barriers and biases that cloud our judgment of others. It's as if we're wearing tinted glasses that distort our self-image, making it hard to gauge our true worth.
We all know people who seem to have an inflated sense of self, while others constantly doubt their abilities. The truth is, our self-esteem is rarely perfectly balanced. We might overestimate ourselves in some areas and underestimate ourselves in others, creating a complex and often contradictory self-portrait.
Why is this? Well, we are not purely rational beings. Our emotions, instincts, and hidden motivations play a significant role in how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Sometimes, the forces that drive our actions are not even fully conscious to us. This makes it incredibly challenging to achieve a truly objective and accurate self-assessment.
So, to employ more dignified terms – we are not just logical minds but also feeling hearts. Therefore, one's rational analysis (or even analysing others) is rarely fully accurate or satisfactory because it disregards certain emotional elements driving those actions.
The Information Distortion Principle
This principle is also known as the Law of Loss or the Effect of Filtering Information in combination with Selective Perception. The key point about this rule is that the instruction from management often shifts in meaning as it moves down the chain. This change deepens depending on how many channels the information moved through.
Remember, this doesn’t happen because anyone has bad intentions. Below are some reasons why messages lose their original meanings:
Instructions can and will be interpreted differently despite being precise or strict. Even if everyone speaks the same language, words can have multiple meanings and be interpreted differently. Not a surprise – some studies have proven that oral data's accuracy to be only up to 50%.
To clarify, when details are lacking, people start guessing and overthinking, they tend to fill in the blanks with assumptions, leading to misinformation. As a result, there may either be a decrease or increase (making small issues seem bigger than they actually are) in significant content.
Everyone differs in terms of education levels intellectual growth needs physical health and mindset which marks an effect while passing along the message.
That was some explanations for distortion, now let us talk about methods to reduce informational distortions:
Minimising data links involved in dissemination process or simply reduce the number of people a message has to pass through. By doing so you can maintain most of your information intact.
Timely update on necessary intel to people regarding issues they have to tackle. This timely influx will curb invention and speculation among colleagues.
Active feedback for monitoring proper assimilation of messages received is crucial. Encourage questions and clarification – this ensures each one comprehends received messages correctly.
The Survival Instinct
Human behaviour is a fascinating tapestry woven with various motivations, and one prominent thread is the innate desire for self-preservation. This drive encompasses protecting our status, wealth, and self-esteem. When these aspects are threatened, even indirectly, we tend to react negatively.
Let's consider a familiar scenario: a team meeting where the manager opens the floor for discussion. One team member jumps in with a comment, perhaps a bit hastily, only to be met with a dismissive remark from the manager.
In this moment, a subtle but significant shift occurs. The collective focus veers away from the task at hand and towards safeguarding individual reputations. Participants become preoccupied with avoiding similar missteps, trying to anticipate the manager's preferences, and ultimately, holding back their creative potential.
This exemplifies how the principle of self-preservation, when disregarded, can hinder collaborative problem-solving. It highlights the profound influence of psychological dynamics on workplace productivity and outcomes.
So, how can we fight with such situations? One strategy is to adopt a "divided time" approach to complex problem-solving:
Brainstorming Phase: Encourage all team members to freely share their ideas and suggestions, without judgment or criticism.
Critical Analysis Phase: Evaluate each proposal against the established criteria and objectives.
By separating idea generation from evaluation, we create a safer space for diverse perspectives to emerge, ultimately fostering a more innovative and productive team environment.
The Art of Compensation
Let's be real, folks: nobody's perfect – we're all just faking It 'til we make it. We all have our weaknesses, our shortcomings, the things we're just plain bad at. But here's the secret: we don't have to let those things define us. We can compensate.
In psychology, compensation is a defence mechanism where an individual, consciously or unconsciously, attempts to counteract perceived weaknesses, shortcomings, or feelings of inadequacy in one area of life by excelling or overemphasising another area. It's what makes us overachievers, workaholics, and the people who always seem to have it all together (even when we're secretly falling apart).
Think about it: that coworker who's always the first one in the office and the last one to leave? They might be compensating for a lacklustre social life. The friend who's constantly bragging about their latest fitness achievement? Maybe they're trying to mask a deep-seated insecurity about their body.
Important thing to understand: compensation isn't about hiding our flaws – it's about using our strengths to overcome our weaknesses, it's about finding creative solutions to the challenges life throws our way.
Sure, there's the dark side of compensation – the overachievers who push themselves to the brink of burnout, or, the people pleasers who sacrifice their own needs for the approval of others.
But there's also the bright side – the people who use compensation as a springboard for personal growth, the ones who turn their weaknesses into strengths, the ones who find fulfilment in helping others overcome their own challenges.
And let's not forget about those of us who rely on technology to compensate for our less-than-stellar memories. We've got our calendars, our reminders, our note-taking apps – all designed to help us keep track of the things our brains just can't seem to hold onto.
So embrace your flaws, my friends. Lean into your weaknesses. And then find a way to compensate.
So there you have it, folks! A quick compilation tour of some known key psychological principles that can make or break our management game. Now, I'm no psychologist, but I've learned a thing or two from my own stumbles and successes. And I'm convinced that by tapping into these psychological insights, we can all become more effective, better communicators, and all-around cooler cats in the workplace.
So go forth, put this knowledge to good use. Experiment, observe, and never stop learning. Until next time!