I/O Psych

So every once in a while I read something that is applicable to more than 1% of the world's population. Today I read all about leadership and persuasion for my Industrial/Organizational Pscyhology course (Psych 164 for all of you who're actually interested in this stuff). Here're some interesting facts:

• It has been estimated that somewhere between 50% and 75% of all leaders are ineffective.
• Hogan et al., 1994 found that if you ask workers what the most stressful aspect of their job is, 60% to 75% of all workers will say it is their supervisor.
• There are 4 essential steps to effective persuasion...
  1. Establish credibility -- managers generally overestimate this. Credibility grows out of two sources, expertise and relationships
  2. Frame for common ground -- effective persuaders must be adept at describing their positions in terms that illuminate their advantages
  3. Provide evidence -- supplement numerical data with examples, stories, metaphors, and analogies
  4. Connect emotionally --have a strong and accurate sense of the audience's emotional state and adjust the tone of your arguments accordingly.

Now wasn't that all exciting?

Tomorrow's (and Sunday's) Topic: Union/Management Relations. Let's here a w00t w00t for all the union geeks in the crowd! What? No one there? Funny how that doesn't surprise me... if I learn anything transferrable, I'll be sure to post about it ;)

P.S. Joshua Harris has published another book. This one is on the importance of commiting to a community church. I think confirms the anxiety I had regarding his dating views expressed in his earlier books even more... sorry for all you who like his book... I'm voting that 99.9% of you are from Christian families... when you're not so much, the books lose a lot universal applicableness (if that even is a word, but you know what I mean) ...