The art of persuasion Viewpoint careers advice blog

The art of persuasion George Kohlrieser, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), explains how hostage negotiation skills can make you a better leader. I have worked as a hostage negotiator for over 40 years, first for the Dayton Police Department in Cincinnati, Ohio, and have since trained teams and worked as a consultant in the area in several countries. Hostage negotiation is a really good foundation for leadership, because you learn to talk someone through their pain and persuade them to give up their hostages and weapons and come out, even though they know they’ll probably go to prison. That really is an act of leadership and to do it, you have to train yourself to be proactive rather than reactive. You need to manage their mindset and be capable of influencing other people. A hostage negotiator has to create a bond with someone that they don’t necessarily like. Through that bond, in order to create a relationship with them, you get into a dialogue, ask questions and find out what motivates the hostage-taker. The negotiator then starts to deal with their grief and pain, which have motivated their actions, and gets them to see hope and reason. You don’t need a weapon to your head to feel like a hostage; you can be a hostage to a boss, a colleague, a goal, or any other situation in the workplace. The same techniques we use in real physical hostage situations can be used in these psychological scenarios. At IMD, we teach people key hostage negotiating techniques, such as learning how to ask questions and changing a negative to a positive. It’s the process of managing emotions, stress and resilience. Leaders in an organisation have to ask questions: what is it you want, what did you expect and what were you disappointed with? You get people to change their behaviour by asking questions and getting their mind focused on the positive and the possibilities. The person in charge also has to be positive, inspiring, realistic and able to deal with all kinds of individuals to bring out the best in them. The heart of the hostage negotiation process involves creating a relationship â€" an emotional bond â€" with the hostage taker. Many leaders lack the ability to understand the pain of other human beings and show empathy and compassion. Just like hostage negotiation, leadership requires the ability to care and to demonstrate that you do. When the leader cares, the employees feel more confident to dare to take risks and stretch themselves to achieve great things. The techniques of hostage negotiation provide a powerful framework for leaders. It is about leading yourself and leading others by creating a bond, keeping a positive state, focusing on constructive outcomes, engaging in dialogue and encouraging others to speak about their pain. When you’re a hostage to your own emotions, anger, resentment or fears, you won’t operate at your very best. Just like hostage negotiation, you need to be able to lead people through difficult realities and get the right result. Hostage negotiators achieve a 95 per cent success rate. Leaders can achieve similar results by using the same techniques. View the  Hays Journal online, via the Hays Journal iPad app or request a printed copy from  haysjournal@hays.com