Influence IQ
By employing the most advanced methods of test development, the Influence IQ Test is designed to measure one’s understanding of how to best change others in desirable directions.
The test does so by comparing a test-taker’s answers regarding ways to move people toward “yes” with the results of scientific studies showing which influence practices actually work optimally.
The test’s feedback offers test-takers a way to recognize which of their assumptions about the influence process are correct and which need to be altered. As well, the feedback provides specific information and recommendations about how to increase one’s success—both immediately and in the long run—through the application of scientifically-proven influence practices.
The Science
The capacity to influence others—to capture an audience, convince the undecided, convert the opposition—has always been a prized skill. But, thanks to a set of revolutionary developments, it is no longer only an elusive art, known just to those with an in-born sense of how to turn a phrase just so.
The delicate art of personal influence has now been transformed into a solid social science. As a consequence, a substantial body of systematic research currently exists on how people can be moved to agree with a request, recommendation, or proposal.
One aspect of this shift is relevant to the achievement of modern business goals. Because of a variety of factors (matrix-based organizational structures, employee empowerment practices, globalization), hierarchically-organized command approaches to business are rapidly becoming outmoded. Increasingly, employees come together in teams to work on a project from different departments within the same organization (sales, manufacturing, marketing, legal, etc.). The varied make-up of these project teams makes unclear who is in charge of whom. Similarly, employees of one company often partner with those of different, cooperating firms on joint projects. Here again, issues of line authority don’t apply. Moreover, savvy managers have always recognized the workplace morale costs of playing the “Because-I’m-the Boss” card. Finally, in sales situations, the sales representative is never the customer’s superior. In each of these instances, where reliance on hierarchical lines of command is inappropriate, something else is necessary. That is why a thoroughgoing knowledge of the science of personal influence can be so valuable. Quite simply, it can produce change without authority.
Accurate knowledge of the science of influence provides a decisive advantage. In business, it gives organizations that undertake training in these approaches the means to outpace their rivals, even rivals with equally good cases to make. And, it gives influence practitioners who know how to employ theses approaches the means to become better, even best, performers within an organization. The Influence IQ Test is designed to assess that knowledge in every test-taker and then, through feedback and recommended resources, to refine and improve that knowledge significantly. Already-performed research on the test demonstrates that it does each of these things very well.
The Ethics
Just because a person knows the findings from the science of influence doesn’t mean that he or she is entitled to use them unethically to create change in others.
Keeping to the “high road” when pursuing influence goals is important to maintaining a healthy sense of oneself as a socially responsible and moral individual.
As well, there is a practical reason to avoid the unethical use of the science of influence: Tricking or coercing others to change can easily boomerang into resentment and hostility, making later attempts at influence futile. It is only through its non-manipulative use, then, that the influence process will be simultaneously effective, ethical, and enduring. And only in this fashion can it enhance a lasting sense of partnership among those involved.
It is for these reasons that the Influence IQ Test is scored so that correct responses are those that take into account the ethical appropriateness of a selected influence practice—that is, the extent to which the practice can be honestly and naturally performed for the benefit of both parties. This approach encourages a focus away from short-term, hit-and-run influence tactics and toward long-term, lasting influence strategies.