Recently, I had the opportunity to experience 3 powerful principles of persuasion at work in a coaching mastermind. While the details aren’t important in themselves, they can be illustrative. I believe that perhaps the members of the group were unconsciously in the thrall of the 3 persuasion principles I noticed working that day.
Authority is tough to challenge
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In the context of any group, including a coaching mastermind, the leader, of course, is an authority figure. Studies have shown that human beings have a deep-seated internal directive to obey authority, even in the face of logic, pain or otherwise unacceptable consequences to themselves or to others. In my coaching mastermind example, the leader reminded the group that they had made a decision about a particular option, and stated that he thought they should stick to the decision. Then he asked if anyone had anything more to say about it. He invoked the power of authority and no one challenged him.
You can use this persuasion tool in many situations. For example, to keep people awake and engaged when you are speaking from the front of the room, you might say “turn to your neighbor and give him a high-5.” Most of your audience will do it.
The allure of consistency
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Look carefully at how people behave and you’ll often see that we stick to a decision we’ve made even if the reasons change and another choice might make more sense. It’s human nature to think in ways that are consistent with our choice in order to justify it, rather than to change it.
As Robert Cialdini says in Influence, his classic book on persuasion, “it is obvious that internal consistency is a hallmark of logic and intellectual strength, while its lack characterizes the intellectually scattered and limited among us.” This drive for consistency showed up in the coaching mastermind, individually and collectively, as an unwillingness to deviate from the agreed plan. This was a great demonstration of the power of a public commitment, which is a very important tool in group coaching.
Internal social proof in the coaching mastermind
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The third principle of persuasion evident in the coaching mastermind example is social proof. When the mastermind leader offered the opportunity to volunteer dissent from his opinion, no one spoke up. Possibly everyone felt the same way he did. But it is equally possibly that some group members felt differently. They might have been willing to speak up if someone else had provided the social proof that it was OK to challenge the leader’s authority. Since no one did, there was no social proof that speaking up was really OK. In this case social proof worked to support everyone’s silence. In your coaching business, social proof, in the form of testimonials for instance, is a major encouragement for potential clients to choose you as their coach.
The principles of persuasion are worth knowing. Get familiar with them and you can use them to good purpose in many aspects of your coaching business, including a coaching mastermind. And, you are more likely to realize when they are being used to influence you.
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Dorine G Kramer
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach
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