Description
There are seven influence tactics an individual can use to influence others: silent authority, assertiveness, information control, coalition formation, upward appeal, persuasion, impression management, and exchange.
Instructions:
- Select a well-known leader, alive or deceased, and conduct research on the influence tactics he or she has used to influence others. Identify the tactics and the specific situations in which they were used.
- Based on your research, determine which tactics were the most successful for this leader.
- Write a paper which examines the leader’s use of tactics to influence followers.
Requirements:
- Your paper should be 4-5 double-spaced pages including introduction and conclusion.
- Remember, you must support your thinking/opinions and prior knowledge with references. Incorporate two scholarly references
- In-text citation used throughout the assignment and APA-formatted reference list.
- Please no plagiarism and sources should not be older than 5 years.
- Include headings organize the content in your work.
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Trump’s Influence Tactics
Thesis statement: American presidents have been known to use a variety of the
influence techniques. President Donald Trump, for example, has previously used information
control, assertiveness, persuasion, and coalition formation in his campaign as well as the
presidency of the United States of America.
I.
II.
Introduction
Information control
III.
Persuasion
IV.
Coalition
V.
VI.
Assertiveness
Conclusion
Running head: TRUMP’S INFLUENCE TACTICS
Trump’s Influence Tactics
Name
Institution
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TRUMP’S INFLUENCE TACTICS
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Trump’s Influence Tactics
Good leaders commonly face the challenge of having to influence the ideas of their
subordinates to accomplish the goals of their respective institutions. Therefore, over the years,
researchers have identified behavioral means that various leaders use to communicate as well as
persuade their followers. The leaders use the methods in combination with their intentions of
changing the attitudes, values, values, and behaviors. The tactics that the leaders use offer logic
work as threats, demands or at times, they appeal to the values of the followers that are held
deepest (Plouffe, Bolander & Cote, 2014). In some cases, the leaders examine the situations to
know whether or not it would be good to change the behaviors of the team. Therefore, for every
leader, picking the best influence tactics is very important in getting the outcome that the leader
desires. American presidents have been known to use a variety of the influence techniques.
President Donald Trump, for example, has previously used information control, assertiveness,
persuasion, and coalition formation in his campaign as well as the presidency of the United
States of America.
One of the most important techniques that president Donald Trump has used in his
presidency as well as in campaigning is information control (Johnson, 2016). The president that
was a successful businessman before joining politics has been known to use his business tactics
like marketing in his campaign and push for agendas. During the campaign period and even after
he became president, Trump commonly communicates with his followers via his social media
handles. Therefore, he controls his information rather than let the departments in charge of
official communication to communicate for him. The use of social media allows the president to
communicate directly with his followers across the country without someone else editing his
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message. The use of social media to directly connect and therefore control what followers know
was very important in the election of Trump as the president against Hillary Clinton. The
information control of Trump is detailed in an article in the Washington Post by Jenna Johnson.
According to the article, during his campaign, Trump frequently chose the journalists to talk to
and also called while various talk shows were on air to give firsthand information to the listeners
and also answer follow up question to the issues raised about him (Johnson, 2016). The article
also talks about Trump threatening the Fox News Channel to ensure that the channel stayed in
line with what the then Republican Candidate wanted. The examples are just a few of many
others of Donald Trump being in control of information regardless of the fact that at times the
results were disastrous on his part.
Coalition formation is another method that Trump used in his campaign and still uses in
his presidency. The presidents of the United States of America, just like leaders in other
democratic countries can not lead without being in alliances with other people that share
opinions or interests with them. Unlike President Obama who was supported by Democrats,
President Trump is a Republican and therefore gets his influence from Republican support
(Watson, 2017). When Trump wanted to become the president, he first had to find the political
party that will embrace his ideas and joined it. Therefore, he joined the Republican Party. It is
not a must that he joins a political party. He would have vied for the American Presidency as an
independent candidate. However, his chances of entering the White House would be very
minimal. The country has two main parties which are the Democratic Party and the Republican
Party. Therefore, him joining the Republican Party was very wise. It enabled him to gain
influence over the people that support the Republican Part which includes very many people in
the various states. After winning, the allegiance of the president to the Republican Party enables
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him to get support from the lawmakers that are allied to his party. For instance, Republicans have
been in the forefront of trying to pass bills that are in line with the promises of the president
during the campaign period. Reforms like the Tax Reform and the replacement of the Universal
Healthcare Bill passed by the Obama administration have been pushed forward by Republicans
in support of Trump because he is a member of the Republican party. Therefore, it is clear that
as the president, Trump gets a large part of his influence from his coalition with the lawmakers in
the Republican Party.
Trump also uses persuasion to influence his followers. Being a political leader in a
democratic country, people only vote for the leaders that convince them that they are good
enough. In his campaign, the president had to persuade people that he was better than his
opponent. Therefore, he used various persuasion techniques to ensure that as many people as
possible voted for him (Watson, 2017; Oc, & Bashshur, 2013). During the presidential campaign,
Trump had several scandals that surfaced concerning his past life and women. The presidential
candidate had the task of convincing people that he was not as guilty as they said he was and that
he was fit to become the president of the United States of America. Also, Trump used his tweet
and numerous speeches to convince various groups that he would care for their interest. For
instance, he talked about several things that he would do to make America ‘great again’. He
persuaded people to vote for him by proposing a variety of changes that appealed to some
people. For instance, he spoke about controlling immigration to ensure that the country was safe.
Trump also spoke about improving the lives of the people in the American Middle class. The
middle class is most of the Americans. Therefore, strategically targeting them when hunting for
votes was very important. The persuasion techniques and ideas of the president were taken
negatively by some people. However, they were convincing to some group of people who ended
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up voting for him. The candidate’s ability to convince voters was pu...
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