Myth three: To influence we must make recommendations<\/strong><\/p>\nAs I see it, there are three big problems with making recommendations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Problem one: No one likes to be told what to do, especially by finance<\/h3>\n
And you know this because how do you feel about recommendations from the\u00a0auditors? Or from\u00a0HR? Or the expensive\u00a0consultants\u00a0that just asked you a load of questions, turned them into a flash presentation, and told your executives what you\u2019ve been telling them for years?<\/p>\n
I’m sorry to tell you this, but that’s how sales, marketing, and operations often feel about\u00a0you and\u00a0your\u00a0advice. That\u2019s a harsh truth, but I wish people had told\u00a0me\u00a0this when I worked in finance.<\/p>\n
I had to become a\u00a0sales director\u00a0and experience ‘recommendations’ from my old finance team (who I had trained and led to do that by the way) to realise. And what I realised very fast in sales was that recommendations create\u00a0resistance and limit your ability to\u00a0influence.<\/p>\n
Problem two: Not invented here syndrome<\/h3>\n
At work this is even more of an issue, as everyone is keen to show their value and to\u00a0control and defend\u00a0their area. Going with other people\u2019s ideas is a problem for some. Because we see it as saying that the other person adds more\u00a0value\u00a0than us.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re getting resistance, it probably isn\u2019t because your idea is bad. It\u2019s probably because the other person didn\u2019t come up with it themselves.<\/p>\n
Problem three: People don’t really want our opinion<\/h3>\n
This is probably the\u00a0biggest\u00a0problem with making recommendations: most of the time people don\u2019t actually want your opinion, even when they ask you for it.<\/p>\n
When people ask for your opinion, they don\u2019t actually want your opinion? Are you crazy? Of course people want my opinion, I’m finance. I’m a subject matter expert. And they’ve just asked me.<\/p>\n
The thing is, even though they asked for your opinion, what are they actually\u00a0looking\u00a0for? Validation\u00a0of their own opinion. If your view matches theirs, all good. If not, you\u2019ve got the start of a\u00a0resistance.<\/p>\n
What did I learn in sales?<\/h3>\n
I learned that if you want to create\u00a0resistance\u00a0with someone really quickly, kill your\u00a0rapport\u00a0with them, and\u00a0limit\u00a0your influence, just shoot off the hip and make a recommendation.<\/p>\n
So what do I do instead?<\/p>\n
One: Before giving your opinion, find out what the other person thinks<\/h3>\n
It\u2019ll help you build\u00a0rapport. And you\u2019ll find out how far apart your view and their view is, allowing you to\u00a0plan\u00a0your approach. And also, you might well\u00a0learn\u00a0something new that\u00a0changes\u00a0your view and that’s the real value here.<\/p>\n
Because I’ve been using this approach for over 10 years now, and every time I learn something new that changes my view.<\/p>\n
Two: Let the other person think it\u2019s their idea<\/h3>\n
This is a big one because it means not taking personal credit, at least not\u00a0immediately and directly. Ask\u00a0questions, float\u00a0solutions, and\u00a0seed\u00a0new ideas to create the recommendation together. Let the\u00a0other person\u00a0come up with the final recommendation.<\/p>\n
Sure you may feel like you miss out on the credit there and then, but what happens is you become known as someone who\u00a0helps\u00a0people (good karma), rather than\u00a0tells\u00a0them what you think they should do (bad karma).<\/p>\n
You’ll get involved in more stuff, and your influence will soar.<\/p>\n
Final thought<\/h3>\n
So the next time you want to\u00a0influence, don\u2019t recommend your fully worked-though, costed out, analysed solution. Instead, have a\u00a0coffee\u00a0and a chat.<\/p>\n
Find out what the other person is\u00a0thinking\u00a0and if you want to get really advanced,\u00a0feeling. Perhaps go with a part-worked through idea and ask for\u00a0their\u00a0help and input to\u00a0shaping it. Create\u00a0together, so the other person makes your recommendation to you.<\/p>\n
Now that\u2019s a totally\u00a0different\u00a0level of influence, reserved for the elite.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The psychology of influence: How to get your recommendations heard Want to influence but feel like the rest of the business just isn\u2019t listening? AccountingWEB\u2019s FD columnist Andy Shambrook reveals the secret to getting your recommendations heard without limiting your influence.\u00a0 In previous columns for AccountingWEB, I\u2019ve talked about the worst advice I ever got as a\u00a0fledgling finance professional: every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sloane.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}