The Important Role Of Persuasion In Leadership

Clampitt and Williams describes a good method for disseminating information regarding stakeholders that are not necessarily involved in the process which they referred to as decision downloading. Decision downloading has four phases that attempt to disseminate the decision and implement smoothly. First is the planning stage which seeks to understand how the employees might respond. Next is the announcement phase. Decision-makers should pick a credible person to communicate the decision, and amplify the message so it is understood. Last is the monitoring and responding phase. This is done by communication with the opinion leaders to ensure that the message delivered was the message heard. To also important to digest the announcements before …show more content…
Persuasion is an important skill for those who would lead the generation X population that wants to know the reason why they are to do what they are instructed to. Persuasion does not involve manipulation, but rather incorporating follower’s perspectives into the shared solutions for the new direction. Conger provided for central elements to be effective in the art of persuasion that includes establishing credibility, frame the message to show it is beneficial, reinforce their positions with vivid language and evidence, and connect emotionally with the audience. Therefore, persuasion is not about manipulation, but preparation. This may take weeks to obtain. This is very important for leadership today to ensure that the decision will be accepted by the organization 's culture which will lead to the success of the new …show more content…
The authors assert that the problem often lies within the decision-maker and not the process. The authors describe eight potential biases that they refer to as the anchoring trap, status quo trap, a sunk cost trap, the confirming evidence trap, the framing trap, the overconfidence trap, the prudence trap, and the recall ability trap. The article gives a description of each of the aforementioned traps and methods to overcome them.
Personal Reflection
This article aided in my recognizing that there are concealed bias’s that every decision maker may have. There are heuristic methods that are systematic cognitive biases that limit our intellect and often trap the decision-maker by making decisions based on preconceived notions when a more complex way of reasoning is needed. Because these biases are hardwired into our thinking process it 's important for decision-makers to have the ability to recognize the potential misuse of them. It is important for leaders to recognize that they have these preconceived biases that may influence the way they make decisions. It may be impossible to completely remove the influence of these biases, but they can be reduced by realizing they exist and being open