LeadingMinds Tip 144: Will mastering this one skill transform your influence?

This week's LeadingMinds Tip was written by our very own maestro of influence, Haider Imam of Kaizen Training.
 
Professor Alex Pentland at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has released a book entitled 'Honest Signals: how they shape our world', which contains some breakthrough research on non-verbal communication, validating many of the skills taught by high-level selling and communicating experts during the last twenty years. Him and his team of researchers invented a device called a 'sociometer' that records the back and forth patterns of 'signalling' in groups of people. His key four groups of signals are:
 
'Influence' - the extent to which one person causes another to match their speech pattern
'Mimicry' - the reciprocation of nods, smiles and interjections during conversation
'Activity'  - the increase in interest and excitement levels in conversation
'Consistency' - the emphasis and timing in speech, conveying mental focus or conversely, openness to influencing
 
MIT research, and that of Stanford University, noted that just ONE of these four groups was responsible for increasing sales results by 20% and salary negotiations by 20-30%. Are you curious to know which one?
 
It was 'mimicry' or what we call 'rapport'!  Stanford University even ran an experiment where a computer animated character gave a three-minute pitch to students to persuade them to carry an ID card. In experiment one, the simulation was able to mimic the students as they listened (with a four second delay) whereas in experiment two, the identical pitch was delivered featuring pre-defined movements.

The take-up (or sale) was 20% higher in experiment one, featuring mimicry/rapport. Only eight of the sixty-nine students noticed the mimicry ONLY after they made a particularly unusual movement and noticed the simulation copy them!

Of course, most of our readers will know about matching and mirroring - but it's interesting to have yet more scientific evidence that it works.
 
Pentland concluded "The impact of mimicry on these interactions dwarfs almost every other factor that has ever been studied." In sales, negotiation, dating, parenting and leading, could it be the one tool that you can't afford to be without?
 
This week's call to action:

Read 'Honest Signals' by Alex Pentland ISBN-10: 0262162563 (be warned: not a 'how to do it' book; more, a book stating the research that highlights the importance of these skills!)

Contact us to discuss meeting up to evolve your rapport skills - as well as finding out about our next-level influencing portfolio for leaders, negotiators and sales people