Winning 'em Over: A New Model for Management in the Age of Persuasion [Hardcover]

Jay A. Conger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 1998

Selected in 1993 by Business Week as one of the best teachers of business management in the world, Jay Conger explains the current revolution in management that is radically reshaping the way we work -- and shows managers on all levels how to thrive in its wake.

In today's business world, an historic shift is taking place in the nature of management. Until recently, bosses could direct and order their subordinates simply through the power of their position. But this approach of command authority no longer works.

There has been a generational change in our attitude toward authority. Baby Boom and Generation X employees are far less willing than previous generations to obediently follow orders from the top. In addition, the work unit of the future -- the cross-functional team -- is a place where no one has formal authority over anyone else. Instead, as Jay Conger explains with insight and conviction, today's most effective managers are influencing others through novel forms of persuasion -- and are getting levels of commitment and motivation from their employees that their predecessors could only dream of.

Conger exposes the most commonly held myths about the art of persuasion and shows how to constructively influence others without manipulating them. Most important, he details the four keys to becoming an effective persuader: building credibility, finding common ground so that others have a stake in your ideas, developing compelling positions and evidence, and emotionally connecting with your coworkers so that your solutions resonate on a personal level.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Winning 'Em Over: A New Model for Managing in the Age of Persuasion, by University of Southern California management professor Jay A. Conger, champions the cause of "teamwork" over "hierarchy" as the proper paradigm for effective leadership in our changing corporate environment. The key, he writes, is using constructive forms of persuasion rather than old-style methods of command to gain levels of commitment and motivation that otherwise might prove unattainable. Conger lays out four steps--building credibility, finding common ground, developing compelling positions, and connecting emotionally--that he contends will help managers more effectively direct their employees toward this goal. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

By and large, today's executives understand that the command-and-control style of management, in which they simply order someone to do something and expect to be obeyed because of their position, doesn't work well anymore. Today's labor market, the author notes, requires managers to lead differently. Conger, a professor of management at the University of Southern California, attempts to show them how. Using simple examples and an approach reminiscent of the One Minute Manager series, he sets out a four-step model to explain ways to persuade the people who work for you to do what you want. Be credible. Employees must believe you know what you're talking about. To find common ground, couch your arguments in terms employees understand. Present compelling evidence to show why your schemes are appropriate. And fourth, connect emotionally with the people you're trying to convince. Although the structure is straightforward, the book would have been stronger had Conger not relied so heavily on secondhand sources and could have shown executives the quantifiable payoff in taking his approach. Still, he goes a long way toward detailing how to communicate with today's workforce.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (June 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684807726
• ISBN-13: 978-0684807720
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,670,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A paradigm shift from stereotypes of persuasion, April 29, 2001

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winning 'em Over: A New Model for Management in the Age of Persuasion (Hardcover)

"One important aim of this book is to challenge your stereotypes of persuasion. We usually think of persuasion as something reserved for salespeople-certainly not for managers. What I am going to propose to you is that, quite to the contrary, persuasion skills have become absolutely essential to the job of managing-far more than we might imagine. Much of what a good manager does today is sell: sell their ideas to coworkers; sell their organizations on change; sell their bosses on new investments. But it's not traditional selling. A large part of what we do as effective managers is to find optimal solutions for problems through investigation, discussion, and debate. We then convince our organization to get behind them. It is in the convincing part that we face our greatest hurdless-getting buy-in. This is where the skills of constructive persuasion play a vital role. So leave behind your older notions of persuasion. It's time for a paradigm shift. Your effectiveness depends on it" (pp.14-15).

In this context, in Chapter 2, after listing wrong ideas about persuasion as following:

1. persuasion is simply mustering the best arguments for something;

2. persuasion almost always involves stating your position up front;

3. persuasion means being assertive-often very assertive; and

4. negotiating and deal making are at the heart of it.

Jay A. Conger writes that "These are some of the stereotypes people have about the act of convincing. There are several others. Together I call them the 'killer myths' of persuasion-'killer' because they can kill our ability to be effective and our motivation to become better persuaders."

Killer Myth 1- The most effective persuasion is the hard sell.

Killer Myth 2- Persuasion is a one-way process.

Killer Myth 3- Effective persuaders succeed on the first try.

Killer Myth 4- Good persuaders don't need to compromise.

Killer Myth 5- Great arguments are the secret to successful persuasion.

Killer Myth 6- Persuasion is pure manipulation.

As a result, he writes that "Now that we know what persuasion isn't, we may be wondering what constructive persuasion really is." Hence, he shows four distinct steps such as (i)building your credibility, (ii)finding the common ground, (iii)developing compelling positions and evidence, and (iv)connecting emotionally to becoming an effective persuader, and he discusses these steps/the four elements of effective persuasion throuhout the following four (3-6) chapters.

Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars USED TO BE Heartbreakingly Out of Print, March 18, 2001

By 

Mark A. Horstman (Fredericksburg, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winning 'em Over: A New Model for Management in the Age of Persuasion (Hardcover)

As an indication of how good this book is, I bought five copies when it came back in print. There are less than a dozen business books I have more than 2-3 copies of (Drucker is half of them.) It's that good.

As a leadership consultant who regularly has to assist Directors, Vice Presidents and above - many of them in technology-heavy companies - this is the book I used to recommend most often, and it breaks my heart it is out of print. It is good enough that I have contacted Mr. Conger directly. Here's what I've found: it speaks in language that most executives can understand, and with a litle bit of coaching this book provides a framework for them to see what they are doing and not doing when it comes to internal communications, relationships, and, yes, politics. I am no longer amazed at the lack of caolition-building and relationship development skills of executives, but I come across it constantly. As such, I often find that great ideas are NOT being implemented either do to a lack of understanding of, or blatant disregard for, the need to PERSUADE others of the viability and effectiveness of the recommended course of action.

If you're a bright executive who wonders why someone with less technical depth than you has gotten promoted in front of you, this book is a good place to start looking. Ask yourself whether you are as good interpersonally as you are technically.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Winning 'Em Over" should be required B-School reading!, December 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Winning 'em Over: A New Model for Management in the Age of Persuasion (Hardcover)

As a recent MBA graduate, I found "Winning 'Em Over" to be a perfect complement to my formal education. By drawing on the disciplines of rhetoric, communication studies, management, and even storytelling, Jay Conger weaves a provocative and compelling argument for a fundamental and generational shift in the nature of management - from an Age of Command to an Age of Persuasion. Conger proves with contemporary examples what Aristotle knew thousands of years ago - that the author/audience (or persuader/persuadee) relationship is a covenant based on trust and mutually beneficial outcomes, that the audience must be an active participant in the process of persuasion, and that persuasion is a subtle art form. The beauty of "Winning 'Em Over" is that Conger explains the essence of this art in the context of the modern-day manager. In doing so, he provides the tools by which we can begin to understand the route to effective persusasion and, by extension, exemplary leadership. To become effective managers and leaders, we NEED to understand and adopt the principles examined in this book.