Introduction
This paper is written with the aim of outlining a summary of the main points and my reaction to the article “Change the way you persuade.”
Major points
Business executives fall into one of five categories of decision making styles (Williams and Miller, 2002).
Charismatic: these leaders are impressed by new ideas but previous experience has enabled them make decisions based on balanced information rather than just emotions.
Thinkers: these leaders are very intelligent, risk-unenthusiastic and require as much statistics as feasible ahead of making the final decision. They try not to get their emotions involved and they are the hardest to persuade.
Skeptics: these leaders are usually suspicious of any data presented that does not fit their world view making them make decisions based on their gut feelings.
Followers: these leaders make decision based on how other trusted executives made their decisions or their personal experience of making a similar decision in the past.
Controllers: these leaders focus on facts and analytics of decisions mainly because of their personal fears and uncertainties
Agree/disagree and perceptions
I agree with the article’s ideas as studies indicate that business executives have a default decision making style developed early in their careers and it is reinforced following repeated successes or it is changed after several failures. To be an effective persuader therefore it is important to know your audience. However, as opposed to other business settings, the article seems to be geared to those in the sales and marketing department as it describes how to get people’s attention and then focus on the argument. The entire article is appropriate and effective as it illustrates general techniques of becoming a better communicator.
Synthesis
Identification of the chief decision maker in a boardroom meeting is important so as to persuade them and tailor the argument to the business leader’s decision making approach. Most business presentations are disadvantaged based on the fact that they are not designed to acknowledge identified executive decision making approaches. According to the article, almost all sales presentations center on charismatic and thinkers categories of decision making approaches. Knowing the five decision making approach of every leader and the wide range of characteristics and behaviors involved can make a huge difference in the persuasion process.
Personal experience
Application of the ideas discussed in the article into my everyday life classifies me into the “thinkers” class of decision makers since every piece of information has to first make sense backed by enough support before application. I am working hard to be in a leadership position in the bid to convey constructive alteration to the public and studies indicate that leaders are not followers. This is because it is very rare to always find an exact same situation that a previous decision will be applied and be incredibly successful. One would borrow ideas but not the whole decision making approach. However, the article is surprising by giving data that the biggest class of business executives is followers. I would challenge this fact citing the example of many academic and country leaders whom I do not think exhibit characteristics of followers.
Conclusion
When delivering a message, people often make the mistake of focusing on the content of their argument rather than hoe they deliver that message. This leads to wrong decisions because information was presented ineffectively. This article advocates for an employee to be aware of the executive’s preferences for seeing or hearing certain types of information during any given presentation at whatever stage of their decision making process in order to substantially improve their chances to tip the outcome in your favor.
References
Williams, G. A. and Miller, R. B. (May, 2002). Change the Way you Persuade. Harvard Business Review.
