Lesson 5-2: Persuasion, Influence & Impression Management (please answer all of the questions! thank you!)

What is the most important thing that you have learned about yourself and how you influence and persuade others from this lesson? Identify:

• What you learned about yourself and which part of the lesson was important for you to learn this. Be specific and relate this to course concepts from the lesson.
• What you plan do to with this information. For example, perhaps you've realized something is particularly helpful, and now understand why, and so you will continue to do so OR perhaps you see something negative that you didn't know before, and want to make a change. Again, be specific with your action plans to earn full marks.
• Why it is important to your professional development for working in organizations. That is, how will making this change help you in your professional role now, or to come in the future?

(addition sources about this qeustion)

It is important to remember that all organizations are like stages. Your "work persona" is not the same as your "home persona". From the moment of your first job interview until the day you leave an organization you are playing a part. Employees perform on the organization's stage and within that setting they have to make conscious, tactical choices about how to present their character to create the right impression with their audience. How effectively you manage these impressions greatly influences the personal power and reputation you build in your organization.

There are four key elements of Impression Management

1. Determine objective what specific outcomes are you trying to achieve?
   • Are you aiming for a raise or promotion? More responsibility? Help with your work?
   • Who are you trying to influence and what do you want them to do?
2. Construct impressions the image you want to create is constructed by altering audiences perception.
   • The influence tactics discussed previously can be used to influence perception.
   • Another way to influence perceptions is by behaviour and physical displays that signal which category or prototype others should use when viewing us. Researchers have found that new employees tend to adopt the lingo and behaviour of more experienced employees so that others will take them seriously as members of their profession.
3. Understand context the influence tactics you choose must match the person you are hoping to influence and be appropriate for your level of power, for example
   • an employee with a low position power will do better with friendliness than assertiveness.
   • an employee with little expert power would do better with a coalition than with reasoning.
4. Affect the perceptions - others' perceptions of your expertise, likability and professionalism are just that: perceptions. You may elect to deliberately promote the aspects of your personality and expertise that you want people to recognize and downplay those that will not create a favourable impression.

Impression Management and our Digital Footprint

A challenge in today's workplace is the fact that we no longer have distinct separations between our professional and private selves. Our use of social media and our online presence practically guarantee that at least some aspects of our personal life will become available to our work colleagues and managers. Even more sobering is the fact that there is no longer a distinct separation between our current self and our younger, more impulsive, less experienced self. Comments or contributions we may have made years prior may surface to challenge the carefully crafted professional personas we work to create for ourselves.

Our digital footprint is the relatively permanent record we leave behind during social media interactions. In addition to the obvious and intentional things that we post on social media such as photos, articles and check-ins, there are less obvious digital tracks that we leave behind which may be found, saved or shared by others:

• emails / voicemails
• news stories that we are featured in
• comments we make on posts
• blogs
• online reviews
• photos that others take and post of us
• videos that others record of us

The news is filled with stories of employees that have lost their jobs due to things they did, said or wrote in their private lives. It has become commonplace during every election cycle for candidates to withdraw from the race due to comments that they made or pictures they posted years ago which resurfaced during their campaign.

Employers worried about their company reputation and the quality of the people they hire now routinely check the digital footprint of employees and candidates, usually without the candidates knowledge or permission. Being aware of and managing your digital footprint is quickly becoming an integral part of Impression Management.

As a final point to reflect on, ask yourself the following:

• What is in my digital footprint? Where are all of the potential sources of information that others can find from and about me?
• Which social media accounts should I review to see how they might appear to a current or future employer?
• How might this affect my future relationships and opportunities?
• What specifically do I need to change?