Where does your ‘umph’ come from when it comes to persuasion and influence?
Put another way, from where do you derive your power?
The type of power you’re tapping into can either help or hinder your effectiveness, your reputation for being a fair player, and the quality of your relationships over the years (think referral partners, vendors, employees, supervisors… ).
It’s not nothing. And it’s worth being intentional about. If you can sway your real-world negotiation simply by bringing in an expert, why wouldn’t you? Or if you can build some commonality by dropping the name of a mutual well-respected associate, why not?
The trouble is, if you don’t know what you’re doing, things can go horribly awry with stunning speed. You might make yourself sound pompous or uninformed, putting a solid ding in your reputation. You may make extra work for yourself, losing out on the bottom line in the process.
By the end of this article you’ll have a grasp of the basic types of power that can be employed in a negotiation, and some ideas about when each is (or isn’t) appropriate.
Classic negotiation texts reference a few basic types of power:
- Reward or Coercive
- Legitimate
- Expert
- Referent
- Indirect
- Associative, and
- Informational
The best type or combination of power will — sorry to say — depend on your specific circumstance and what you need to get done. Perfect practice makes perfect, as they say, and if you’re a Premium Plus member, make sure to take advantage of office hours to practice your skills!
Let’s take a brief look at what each type of power is, and when it might be best employed.
Reward/Punishment Power
This is the basic carrot/stick approach, and is most obviously employed if you’re managing a team of subordinates. Rewards are meant to induce desired behavior: win a trip to the Bahamas if you exceed your sales quota! Punishments, meanwhile, are meant to discourage undesired behaviors. If you don’t meet your sales quota, you’ll be docked 10% of your expected commission.
Rewards and punishments need not be material or quite so obvious. A public acknowledgment of a job well done or a private reprimand for a mistake can be equally effective, depending on the culture of the organization and relationships between the folks involved.
In the course of a deal, rewards or punishments may boil down to granting a concession (reward) or refusing to engage on a particular agenda issue critical for the other party (punishment).
Legitimate Power
Consider the communities of which you are part. Who holds authority, and why? Anyone in uniform, be they police or military personnel. Your boss. The CEO of the company you work for. The professor who teaches your Tuesday night Spanish class, or the TSA agent at the airport.
Why do these folks hold power?
As a society, we agree that they have a legitimate claim to their power. Because you wear a badge and I don’t, I defer to your judgement. You have a diploma and I don’t — you get to call the shots. Our company has hired you into the C-suite, and now you get to tell me if I still have a job or not.
In negotiation, legitimate power can only be used if it’s… legitimate.
If you’re doing a merger and acquisitions deal of two companies of roughly equal size and clout, the legitimate power card is unavailable. Everyone’s on the same playing field.
Consider, though, a buy-out of a floundering company. The organization putting down the money has more legitimate power — they’ve got the budget, they call (for the most part, and in a very over-simplified situation) the shots.
Expert Power
More likely, you’ll do what your doctor tells you to keep your blood pressure down, rather than whatever latest health craze your Aunt Sue says will cure you of your ills. The doctor is the expert when it comes to heart health… Aunt Sue, while perhaps an expert in antiques, is not.
Similarly, in a negotiation, whoever has the expertise has a great deal of clout. A lawyer who has experience with trying to enforce crappy contracts is going to improve your negotiation outcome compared to having a.) no attorney or b.) a lawyer who has yet to write the type of contract you need.
Meanwhile, if you’re buying a car, doing some research beforehand so that you know the average market price of the car you want helps to bridge the gap in your own expertise (Check out the Deal Points Checklist for more on this regarding your own negotiations).
Referent Power
Ahh, the power of relationships. It’s too late to build a relationship when you need it. It’s true of networking, and it’s true of negotiations. This type of power takes time to accumulate, simply because it takes time to build solid relationships.
This is something to keep in mind even when you’re not negotiating if you want to leverage it in any way. Send thank you notes. Be liberal with compliments, directly to someone’s face, and behind their back. Be kind with your words, and generous with your attention.
Caveat: be genuine and authentic as you go. If you didn’t like working with someone, don’t talk them up — be silent on the issue if it should arise. Folks can smell the phony light years away.
If you are genuine and coming from a real place of kindness and generosity, learning to use this type of power is how you build an excellent reputation within your professional communities..
Associative Power
You can get to know a lot about someone based on who their friends are. If you have powerful friends, you have associative power. If you’ve ever walked into someone’s office and seen photos of them with recognizable, powerful people, they’re displaying their associative power.
Pro tip: be careful how you deploy this type of power, lest you come off seeming desperate and thoroughly underpowered for your need to rely on name dropping. Rattling off name after name tends to annoy folks rather than boost your credibility. If you do drop a name, do so in a way that is genuine and truly relevant to the conversation you’re having.
This type of power is exceptionally well leveraged when it comes to getting face time with folks who might not otherwise give you a second look. Introductory or connection emails are a great example.
Wishing you winning negotiations!