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Creating An Effective Influencing Statement

Carmen wants to influence her director to approve a new graphic design onboarding process. She applies Conger's four steps of influencing in her opening statement: 1) She provides evidence from new hire surveys that the current process is negatively rated. 2) She frames it as increasing productivity by enabling designers to work sooner. 3) She establishes credibility from her success designing a similar process previously. 4) She connects emotionally by emphasizing support for new hires' overwhelming experience. By addressing credibility, benefits, evidence, and emotions, Carmen's statement sets up her conversation for influencing the director to approve the new process.

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Arnab Tripathy
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63 views

Creating An Effective Influencing Statement

Carmen wants to influence her director to approve a new graphic design onboarding process. She applies Conger's four steps of influencing in her opening statement: 1) She provides evidence from new hire surveys that the current process is negatively rated. 2) She frames it as increasing productivity by enabling designers to work sooner. 3) She establishes credibility from her success designing a similar process previously. 4) She connects emotionally by emphasizing support for new hires' overwhelming experience. By addressing credibility, benefits, evidence, and emotions, Carmen's statement sets up her conversation for influencing the director to approve the new process.

Uploaded by

Arnab Tripathy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Creating an effective influencing statement

Introductions in literature are important. Think of the opening lines of a good book—they help set the
tone for what the reader can expect going forward. Introductions are important in project management
too, especially when you are hoping to influence a stakeholder to consider and approve a new plan or
idea. 

In this reading, we will help you apply techniques you can use to influence others. We will take you
through the steps of creating a strong influencing statement that opens the conversation and sets you
up for success with your audience.

What is influencing?
First, let’s review what it means to influence another person. Influencing is the ability to alter another
person’s thinking or behaviors. If you have ever tried to persuade another person to understand your
point of view, then you know that influencing is easier said than done.

Conger’s four steps


In his article, The Necessary Art of Persuasion, Jay A. Conger identified four steps to effectively influence
another person to consider new ideas. 

As you learned earlier, those steps are: 

1. Establish credibility
2. Frame for common ground
3. Provide evidence
4. Connect emotionally 
Throughout your career in project management, there will be times when you will need to influence
someone to consider an idea, approve a plan, or complete a project task. Conger’s four steps provide a
useful framework for thoughtfully approaching conversations that are important to project success
and influencing stakeholders. Let’s explore each step further before applying them to an influencing
statement:

1. Establish credibility
When trying to persuade another person to listen to you, it helps to establish credibility. Ask yourself,
why should this person listen to you? According to Conger, it is best to draw credibility from both
expertise and relationships. 

You can build credibility by showing a level of expertise on the topic at hand. It also helps to have “a
history of sound judgement.” If you find that you lack expertise on a subject, don’t worry! You can work
to increase your knowledge through education or research, or you can even ask an expert for help.

You can also build credibility through strong relationships with your audience and others around you.
Conger found that influential leaders tend to show their trustworthiness and willingness to do right by
their colleagues over time, and in turn, people are more likely to listen to them.

2. Frame for common ground


The next step in effectively persuading people is to frame for common ground. You can do this by
making a case for how your idea would benefit your audience, and you can determine how your ideas
will benefit your audience by gaining a strong understanding of them and what they value. Pay close
attention to what matters to your audience by listening carefully and gathering information during
meetings and conversations. Then they frame your ideas based on your audience’s needs and
interests. 

3. Provide evidence
The third step is to provide evidence that supports your ideas. As Conger notes, though numbers are
important, the best persuaders pair numbers with vivid language. They share stories, examples, and
metaphors to help influence their audiences. Using vivid language can help bring your figures to life
and draw stakeholders’ interest to your proposal.

4. Connect emotionally
The fourth step is to connect emotionally with your audience. In this step, you illustrate that you are
emotionally invested in the idea that you are presenting. But crucially, Conger notes, you must also do
your best to determine and match the emotional state of your audience.

Applying Conger’s steps to an influencing statement


Conger’s four steps—establish credibility, frame for common ground, provide evidence, and connect
emotionally—are meant to be applied throughout important conversations with those whom you aim
to influence. But to set yourself up for success during these conversations, you can apply the four steps
to the influencing statement that sets the stage for your idea. 

Let’s discuss how Conger’s four steps come together in the following example: 

Carmen is a project manager at a small marketing agency. She would like to convince a human
resources director at her organization to approve a new process for onboarding new graphic design
employees.

Though the company has an existing onboarding process, this process is the same for all new hires,
regardless of role. As a project manager working in the human resources department, she learns that it
is hard for newly-hired graphic designers to onboard since there are only a few people who hold
graphic design roles at the company. Carmen identifies that there is a lack of information available for
new graphic design hires to turn to for learning about procedures and software specific to their role. 

Carmen would like to propose that all new graphic design hires receive a digital welcome packet
containing guidelines for installing software, processes to be aware of, and other design-specific
onboarding documents. Carmen developed a similar process in her role at a previous company, and it
received a positive response from employees. She thinks a similar process will work for her new
organization too, so she sets up time with her director to present her idea.

To influence her director to approve the new process, Carmen opens her presentation with a strong
influencing statement:

I’d like to propose a new onboarding process for graphic design hires. 
(Provide evidence) In reviewing our new hire surveys, 80% of recent graphic design hires have assigned a
negative rating to our onboarding process. When I followed up  with respondents, I learned that our
graphic designers lack access to relevant information that could help them acclimate to our organization
faster. To address this issue, I would like to create a digital welcome packet containing design-specific
onboarding documentation.

(Frame for common ground) I have met with leaders on the graphic design team to discuss this idea,
and they agreed that a design-specific onboarding process might help increase the productivity of new
hires, since a better onboarding process would enable them to be better prepared to take on projects in
their first few weeks on the job.

(Establish credibility) In my previous role, I designed a similar, role-specific onboarding process, which
increased our new hire satisfaction rates by 60%. I think a new process could benefit employees here, as
well.

(Connect emotionally) It can be overwhelming to join a new company. A smoother, more personalized
onboarding experience might help set the tone for the kind of support new graphic design hires can
expect from our team. 

Key takeaway
In this influencing statement, the project manager:

 Provided evidence from company surveys to set the stage for her proposal.
 Framed for common ground by noting how a new onboarding process might increase
employee productivity.
 Established credibility by outlining her previous experience with launching similar processes.
 Connected emotionally by encouraging her audience to reflect on past experiences they may
have endured as a new hire. 
By opening with a strong influencing statement, you can set yourself up for a successful conversation
that is more likely to persuade your audience and achieve your goals.

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