This activity is important because you will face many situations in the workplace when you hope to persuade others. Yet, people adopt many decision-making styles. As a result, you should learn to adjust your persuasion to various decision-making styles.

The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of the following types of decision makers: followers, charismatics, skeptics, thinkers, and controllers.

Hover over each item to read each decision-making characteristic in its entirety. Then, drag it to the most well-matched decision-making style.

Excited: They get excited initially by new ideas but ultimately make decisions based on simple but factual arguments.

Next steps: They are persuaded by benefits stated in straightforward terms, the use of visual aids, and clear next steps.

Credibility: To them, no issue is more important than credibility. They must trust you to even consider your viewpoints.

Past: They make decisions that have worked in the past.

Uncertainty: They dread uncertainty. They want all the facts in a structured manner, but they want to form their own conclusions. They resent feeling pushed or persuaded by others.

Suspicious: They are suspicious of every data point, especially those that run counter to their own views.

Cost- benefit: They make decisions slowly because they expect to see all possible data and carefully conduct cost- benefit analyses.

Precedent: They are persuaded by references, testimonials, and successful precedents.

Data: To persuade them, make sure to have as much data ready as possible, provide all perspectives, and give them time to carefully evaluate the facts.

Their Solution: To persuade them, give them as much information as possible. You might even periodically provide additional data to keep their attention on the issue. Yet, you should allow them to make up their own minds and ideally feel like they are the ones who came up with the solution.

Excited Followers Charismatics Next steps Skeptics Credibility Past Uncertainty Suspicious Thinkers Controllers Cost-benefit Precedent Data Their Solution Reset