Influence Others Using Leverage

By Roy Snell
roy.snell@corporatecompliance.org

According to Wikipedia, “The earliest remaining writings regarding levers date from the 3rd century BC and were provided by Archimedes. ‘Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth with it’ is a remark of Archimedes who formally stated the correct mathematical principle of levers (quoted by Pappus of Alexandria).”

Influence is one of the most important skills a CCO has.  Many of the biggest regulatory failures that have accrued were problems that were known well before the government intervention. However, the people who knew about the problem and wanted to fix it when it was first discovered were unable to influence leadership to fix the problem.  It is my belief that all the elements of a compliance program are not new, what is new and may be the main reason the CCO profession has been established… is to influence others.  And one of the greatest tools of the CCO can use to influence others to look for, find, and fix problems is leverage.

Dan Roach and I have bought property and are building cabins in remote Canada.  There are no roads to our lake.  We have hauled tens of thousands of pounds of building materials deep into Canada past a town called Ear Falls, and then 55 miles into the woods down logging roads, and 15 miles up a river through three lakes to get to our Papaonga Lake.  We have used 33 foot tall trees to build some of the cabins.  There are countless opportunities to do things the hard way or the easy way.  The easy way often involves leverage.  We are all handy, but only Dan’s brother-in-law, Kevin, truly knows what he is doing.  He has built homes for many years.  While everyone else is grunting and groaning he stops and thinks.  He analyses the situation and often solves the problem by grabbing a lever, setting up a fulcrum and moves or lifts something with ease.  I stand and watch with amazement at the simplicity of the concept and marvel at the knowledge and experience that I don’t have.  Dan prefers the exercise and does things the hard way.  We are all relatively smart people, but only one of us has studied the concept of using leverage to accomplish things.  My point is that CCOs need to study influence and the concept of leverage to solve our compliance and ethics problems.  We are not born with the skill, it must be developed.

Despite the fact that Dan has no concept of, or interest in, physical leverage, he happens to be incredibly skilled at using leverage to implement a successful compliance program.  When we get to a tough issue at our board meetings, most of us are grunting and groaning while trying to fix something.  Occasionally, someone’s hair bursts into flames.  Dan sits back and studies the issue just like Kevin does in Canada.  Then at the right moment, he will make a suggestion and everyone in the room stops grunting and groaning and says… “Yes, that’s it.”  Some of us look on in amazement as to how he did it.  He uses words as a lever and a fulcrum.  He has studied leverage.  He has studied influence.  He uses the tools to be a better compliance professional.

Dan also uses his organization’s leadership as leverage.  He was asked to review all requests for exceptions to their travel policy.  He envisioned the pain involved with people coming to him with what might be considered an unreasonable exception and having to say no.  He said that he would take on the task under one condition, that all the exceptions he approved would be reviewed on a regular basis by the audit committee.  I would never have thought of that and would have grunted and groaned my way through the next year.  Dan simply told those who were coming forward with a questionable exception to the travel policy, “Well… I could approve this, but I need to remind you that this will be reviewed by the audit committee, are you sure you want to do that?”  Problem solved with leverage.  There is no grunting and groaning.  No one’s hair burst into flames.

The reason our profession was created is because those who came before us failed.  In many cases they failed to influence others.  Some people try to influence people by running down the hall with their hair on fire.  Some give up because it’s hard or they become discouraged.  Some do not want to engage in conflict.  Some grunt and groan their way through the influence process and are successful, but may become unhappy and occasionally burn themselves out.  Study influence.  Ask others how they use leverage. Terry Bacon wrote a book called Elements of Influence and developed 28 influence factors that are listed below.  There are many unethical influence techniques.  Not only does Terry take the high road, he also listed ten ethical influence techniques that are listed at the bottom of this post.

Influence Skills from Terry Bacon’s book, Element of Influence

Convincing people to help you influence others

Resolving conflicts and disagreements among others

Using a compelling tone of voice

Bargaining or negotiating

Using authority without appearing heavy handed

Taking the initiative to show others how to do things

Building consensus

Behaving authoritatively

Using assertive non-verbal’s

Having insight into what others value

Probing

Finding creative alternatives

Supporting and encouraging others

Building rapport and trust

Building close relationships

Showing genuine interest in others

Conveying energy and enthusiasm

Asserting

Listening

Behaving self-confidently

Logical reasoning

Willingness to ask others for favors

Being sensitive to others’ feelings

Analyzing and displaying data

Willingness to do favors for others

Being friendly and sociable with strangers

Speaking conversationally

Persisting

Ten ethical influence techniques from Terry Bacon’s book, Elements of Influence

* Logical persuading – the most frequently used technique, but not always effective because nothing human beings do is entirely rational.

* Legitimizing – essentially involving appealing to authority, a technique which works only in situations where people respect authority.

* Exchanging – offering others something in exchange for what you want, a useful technique for those who do not have any other form of power.

* Stating – asserting your views or positions, the simplest way of trying to influence someone else.

* Socializing – building rapport and trust through interpersonal interactions, one of the most effective influencing techniques.

* Appealing to relationship – family and close friends are most likely to help when you need immediate assistance.

* Consulting – asking questions which might provoke insight and prompt change.

* Alliance building – providing social proof by demonstrating that others are in favor of a proposition or action.

* Appealing to values – an appeal to the heart rather than the head, inspiring people to action.

* Modelling – acting as a role model or teaching or coaching people, a technique used by people who are skilled at influencing others.

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