Six Sources of Influence — Source 3 Social Motivation

The Six Sources of Influence framework instituted by the book “Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change” gives insight into critical elements that facilitate change at personal, social, and structural levels.

This article focuses on the third source of influence.

Social Motivation: provide encouragement.

The persuasive power of our social networks is an unparalleled and readily available source of influence. The praise and derision, inclusion and rejection, endorsement and disapproval of our peers can either assist or doom our change endeavors more than anything else.

Three best practices for influencers across the world to provide social motivation:

1. Lead the way:

When you invite people to change, they begin to inspect your credibility and evaluate your every move to decide whether to trust and follow you. If your behaviors appear equivocal, they rarely give you the benefit of the doubt since people’s interpretation of others’ behavior is often biased by their…