According to Joseph Grenny of Businessweek.com, a CEO can increase their influence by understanding executives' behaviour. He argues that if the wrong causes are attributed to their behaviour then any attempt to change it will result in failure.
Grenny says: "Almost all of the chronic problems we face in business, in our personal lives, and in our communities are... problems of influence. They are issues that will never improve until we become more effective at influencing behavior — our own and others'."
Accoring to the author, you can't influence behaviour you don't understand. He insists there are six unique sources of influence that account for both successes and failures and that when people use four or more of these sources of influence in combination, they are ten times more likely to produce "profound, rapid, and sustainable change in behaviour".
These six sources of influence are:
* Personal motivation
* Personal ability
* Social motivation
* Social ability
* Structural motivation
* Structural ability
Grenny explains: "Until we get all six of these sources of influence flowing in the direction of change, we'll continue to not only fail, but even more damaging, pin the failure on moral deficiencies rather than mental proficiency — an insufficient understanding of human behaviour."
Increase Your Influence Tenfold
Joseph Grenny, BusinessWeek.com, 31/07/09
