Social Awareness and Leader Influence: A Proposed Model and Training Intervention

Abstract

A leader's ability to influence others is likely related to the leader's level of social awareness (knowing how one is perceived by others in that environment.) Based on perceptions of the social environment, a leader must also alter behaviors as needed to more effectively relate to others, a process which has been termed "interpersonal adaptability". Interpersonal adaptability is central to the role of the leader who must use influence and persuasion to successfully accomplish the mission through the work of subordinates. The objectives of this research are to develop a model of social influence, to propose training, and to pilot test the concepts. To meet these objectives, we first provide an overview of the relationship between social awareness and influence. Second, we describe a model of social awareness and influence. Third, we describe how these concepts link to the leader competencies defined in FM 6-22. Next, we discuss implications of this research for training leaders to enhance their social awareness and influence skills, and we present the concepts that were developed for training these skills. Finally, we describe how these concepts were pilot tested, and we present the results and our conclusions from the pilot. Procedure:Based on a review of relevant research, a model of social awareness and influence was developed and the factors hypothesized to impact the model were identified. The results of an expert rating task revealed that experience influencing others, knowledge of non-verbal behavior and cultural norms, communication/persuasion skills, political skills, social intelligence, metacognition, and self-awareness were the factors that were most likely to have a high impact on the social awareness and influence process and that could potentially be improved through training. Consequently several training concepts were identified: knowledge of the social awareness and influence process, knowledge of/skill in reading verbal and non-verbal cues of others, and knowledge of/skill in using influence tactics. Using a combination of commercially available tools and customized content, we developed and pilot tested a six-hour social awareness and influence training program with 72 NCOs and Company-grade officers.viiiThe pilot test served a dual purpose: (1) to test the various training concepts to determine their suitability for ongoing use and (2) to make some initial determinations about whether social awareness and influence skills could be improved through training. Evaluation data were collected at two levels to assess the effectiveness of the training: participant reactions (level 1) and acquisition of new knowledge and skills (level 2). The level 1 evaluation was conducted using a survey administered at the end of each training session. A pre/post test design was used to conduct the level 2 evaluation -participants were assessed via a test of nonverbal sensitivity and a role-play exercise both before and after the training on their ability to read verbal and nonverbal cues and on adjusting their...

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Military Leader Influence

“…This report presented two process models that seek to describe how different elements from the literature review can be integrated to represent an influence operating system. Similar models of applying influence can be found elsewhere as a means to describe how people evaluate a situation and select and apply influence strategies to address the goals at hand (e.g., Mueller-Hanson et al, 2007). However, the model depicting the process of building influence capital -while representing a relatively simple concept -is neither well-described in the literature nor currently applied explicitly in leader influence training.…”

“…Some researchers provided models of interrelationships for portions of the influence process (e.g., Yukl, 2006). The most extensive model of influence was proposed by Mueller-Hanson et al (2007) and focused on understanding the in-the-moment social awareness processes during influence ( Figure 1). The first three boxes of the Mueller-Hanson et al model depict the influencer's goal, the influencer's evaluation of the situation, and the influencer's selection of an influence strategy.…”

“…The next steps in the model are for the influencer to select and apply an influence strategy, at which point the inthe-moment social awareness process begins. A more detailed description of the in-the-moment social awareness process can be found in Mueller-Hanson et al (2007). While Mueller-Hanson's et al (2007) model focuses specifically on in-the-moment social awareness and how it pertained to influence, the influence model generated in that research can be adapted to address the leader influence process more broadly.…”

“…A more detailed description of the in-the-moment social awareness process can be found in Mueller-Hanson et al (2007). While Mueller-Hanson's et al (2007) model focuses specifically on in-the-moment social awareness and how it pertained to influence, the influence model generated in that research can be adapted to address the leader influence process more broadly. A proposed model for applying leader influence strategies can be seen in Figure 2.…”

“…In the context of influence, leaders with high working memory capacity would have an enhanced ability to perceive and process verbal and nonverbal cues in the environment. Working memory capacity might be important, for example, in a common scenario where the leader must process information "in-the-moment" and then implement or adjust an influence tactic or strategy based on the leader's assessment (Mueller-Hanson et al, 2007).…”