Not only are you and your team sometimes operating “outside the tent”, you are also influencing with a lack of authority. This means that although you can get the CEO or Board to require something, there is a big difference between the business complying with a directive and willingly engaging with the requirement because they understand the benefit to the organisation, and hopefully to them!

Enlisting the CEO or Board is a push strategy, as shown in the diagram below, which is my version of Robert Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion. Yes, push strategies can be effective but they lack the lasting benefits of a pull strategy. Now take a look at the strategies below and identify how much you have been using push strategies and how you can best shift to using pull strategies.

Push strategies

Push strategies are about imposing your will through some level of coercion, however subtle. They include

• Authority: Having authority is definitely an advantage when seeking to persuade.
• Scarcity: Creating scarcity of your advice forces the business to come to you earlier than later.
• Credibility: If you have credibility, people are more likely to listen to you.

Pull strategies

Pull strategies are about motivating people to listen to you and follow your advice. They include

• Reciprocity: Doing something good or nice for someone inspires them to return the favour.
• Flexibility: Be prepared for compromise and don’t be greedy.
• Desirability: If they like you and the picture you are painting, they are very likely to follow your advice.

If you are an HR, L&D, P&C professional wanting new ideas on how to support internal clients, check out this free 30-minute webinar I am running on Tuesday 11 November, 2025 or forward this on to your learning and development lead if you think they might be interested.

To personally find out more about how I can help deliver more of my tips and tricks on influencing, please reach out via info@bryanwhitefield.com.