Week 8 Leadership and Interpersonal Skills

Master: What are the key theories, models and frameworks for influence and persuasion?

Influence; persuasion; influence vs power; assertive, aggressive and passive influence styles; French and Raven’s sources of power; compliance, conformity, obedience, resistance and commitment; social media influence; nine influence tactics (Kipnis, Schmidt & Wilkinson); hard vs soft tactics; Falbe and Yukl’s frequency of influence tactics; rapport and Cialdini’s liking principle; Balance Theory (Heider); Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger); Inoculation Theory (McGuire); ACE Theory (Reardon); ethical persuasion vs manipulation.

What is influence in leadership?

Influence is a social process where one person’s actions, attitudes, beliefs or behaviours are affected by others without coercion. It is relational, affects thinking and behaviour, and works best when people feel they are acting by choice rather than being forced.

Why is influence stronger than control?

Control produces external compliance, but influence creates internalisation and commitment. When people believe the decision is in their own interest, behavioural change is more likely to last because it is linked to internal motivation.

What are the three styles of influence?

Assertive influence is direct, confident and respectful, making it the most effective leadership style. Aggressive influence relies on pressure, dominance and intimidation, creating fear or resistance. Passive influence is avoidant and indirect, producing weak influence and low impact.

What is the difference between influence and power?

Influence is relational, two-way and based on persuasion, while power often relies on authority, control or coercion. Influence builds commitment, whereas power often produces compliance, conformity or obedience.

What are the possible effects of power and influence?

Power and influence can produce compliance, conformity, obedience, resistance or commitment. Commitment is strongest because it involves identification or internalisation, while compliance and obedience may only last while pressure remains.

Why is influence important in modern leadership?

Modern organisations are flatter, digital and cross-functional, so leaders often need cooperation without direct authority. Influence is essential for selling ideas, managing laterally and upward, gaining buy-in and practising relational leadership.

What role do social media influencers play in modern leadership?

Social media influencers operate without formal authority but shape beliefs, behaviours, norms and identities. Their influence comes from visibility, emotional connection, repetition and audience trust, showing that leadership now extends beyond formal organisations.

Why does “relationship over reach” matter in social media influence?

A large audience does not always mean strong influence. Smaller, more trusted audiences may produce greater behavioural impact because followers feel connected to the influencer and are more likely to internalise their messages.

How does the manosphere example show problematic influence?

Manosphere figures act as online leaders through large audiences, ideological messaging and high engagement. They often link wealth, status and lifestyle to specific beliefs, creating false causality and potentially spreading harmful or misleading narratives.

Where can power come from?

Power can come from positional authority, expertise, charisma, wealth, access to resources, information, relationships, performance, family, reward, coercion and referent power. Modern power also comes from platforms, audiences, voter bases, oil, technology and control over information.

What are the costs of compliance, conformity and obedience?

Power-based leadership can reduce creativity, initiative, satisfaction and performance because people stop thinking independently. This contrasts with transformational leadership, which promotes development, engagement and intellectual stimulation.

What are the key skills needed for influencing?

Influencing requires communication, persuasion, motivation, inspiration, appropriate reward and reinforcement, context awareness and developing others. These skills overlap with transformational leadership, emotional intelligence and authentic leadership.

What are the nine influence tactics?

The nine tactics are request, legitimating, coalition, rational persuasion, socialising, exchange, personal appeal, consultation and inspirational appeals. Request, legitimating and coalition are harder tactics, while the others are softer and more relational.

What is the difference between hard and soft influence tactics?

Hard tactics rely more on authority, pressure or power and often produce compliance. Soft tactics rely on relationships, reasoning, consultation, personal appeal and inspiration, making them more likely to build commitment.

What did Falbe and Yukl (1992) find about influence tactics?

Rational persuasion was the most used tactic at around 51%, followed by request and personal appeals at around 12%. However, logic alone is not always most effective because persuasion also depends on emotions, values, identity and relationships.

What is persuasion?

Persuasion is the intentional process of guiding people towards a behaviour, belief or attitude preferred by the persuader through reasoning, urging or convincing rather than force. It is goal-oriented and central to leadership because leaders must bring people with them.

What does persuasion aim to achieve?

Persuasion aims to make people accept views, change views, feel comfortable with new views and change behaviour. Strong persuasion changes beliefs and creates internal acceptance, while weak persuasion only produces surface-level behavioural compliance.

What is the process of persuasion?

Persuasion begins by understanding the other person’s values, attitudes, beliefs and motivations. The leader then involves them, reinforces progress and bridges the gap between where the person is now and where the leader wants them to move.

What does the persuader need to establish?

A persuader needs credibility, common ground, logic and emotional connection. Credibility comes from trustworthiness, expertise and consistency; common ground reduces distance; logic gives evidence; emotional connection creates human engagement.

What makes someone a good persuader?

Good persuaders listen actively, give and receive feedback, read people, think creatively, act for the common good, prepare carefully, show empathy and use emotional intelligence. Persuasion is therefore more about understanding people than simply speaking well.

What is rapport and why does it matter?

Rapport is a sympathetic relationship or understanding that makes people more willing to trust, listen and be persuaded. It works through similarity, familiarity and emotional connection, meaning influence increases when the leader “feels like us.”

How is rapport built and what are its limitations?

Rapport is built through presentation, behaviour, communication skills, values, beliefs, character and purpose. It builds trust and long-term influence, but it takes time, is hard to scale, can be faked and may create bias toward people who seem similar.

What is ACE Theory?

ACE Theory argues that persuasion depends on Appropriateness, Consistency and Effectiveness. The message must fit audience values, align with identity or past behaviour, and offer a visible, meaningful benefit so people see why the change matters.

What is Balance Theory?

Balance Theory explains how people prefer psychological consistency between themselves, another person and an idea. If followers like a leader and the leader supports an idea, they may adopt the idea to maintain balance, showing why trust and rapport increase influence.

What is Cognitive Dissonance Theory?

Cognitive Dissonance Theory explains the discomfort people feel when beliefs, attitudes or behaviours conflict. Leaders can influence by highlighting inconsistency, increasing the attractiveness of the preferred option, or reframing change so people feel aligned with it.

What is Inoculation Theory?

Inoculation Theory suggests people can be made more resistant to later persuasion by being exposed to weakened opposing arguments in advance. Leaders can use this by forewarning concerns, addressing objections early and strengthening belief before resistance appears.

What are the ethical issues in influence and persuasion?

The key issue is where persuasion becomes manipulation. Ethical persuasion is transparent, accurate, two-way and empowering, while manipulation is deceptive, one-way and controlling. Leaders must ask who benefits, whether information is accurate and whether people genuinely have agency.