How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Seite 352

the authority to pull this off," the prospect will make sure to show you that
he does indeed have that power! When employing this technique,
however, be careful to avoid damaging the ego. When you cause damage
instead of producing a challenge, you will create an air of indifference
from your prospect.
Another challenge to someone's ego is commonly used by sports coaches
in a team environment. When during football practice a player is not
putting in 100 percent, is late for meetings, or keeps making the same
mistake, the coach has a perfect ego-based solution. He brings the team
together and explains exactly what has happened with that particular
player. He then has the whole team, except for the guilty player, run laps.
This punishment is a challenge to the ego of this football player. Such a
situation only has to happen once to be persuasive for each member of the
team. Of course, the technique also works if the player also has to run
with the whole team, but having him watch magnifies the results.
There are many challenging messages geared toward our egos. Think of a
multilevel marketing meeting, where managers say they are looking for
"go-getters" and "people who can take action." Or what about a teacher
who tells the student, "I'd like you to do these advanced assignments"? I
have seen sales representatives make a subtle attack on the prospect's ego
when they were not getting the sale. They simply say, "I guess you don't
have the authority to make that decision." You should see the egos take
action! Another example is giving people credit for things they don't even
know. When you give people credit for knowing something they really
know nothing about, they generally will say nothing and allow you to
believe them to be smarter or more aware than they really are. The catch
is that they then will try to live up to the undeserved credit that you have
bestowed upon them in order to lead you to believe they really are smart.
You have heard such phrases as, "You probably already know. . . ." or
"You will soon realize . . ." These are direct challenges to our egos.
Respond Instead of React
In persuasion, we are faced with the difficult task of building the egos of
our listeners while placing our own egos on hold. In order to effectively
persuade, you have to let go of your ego and focus on your objective. You
don't have time to mend a bruised ego. Check your ego at the door and
remember your overriding purpose. Focus on persuasion, not on yourself.
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