What are influence tactics?

Influence tactics refer to the strategies that leaders and individuals use to persuade, motivate, or guide the actions and attitudes of others within an organization or group. These tactics can include a range of techniques such as appealing to logic, emotions, or using authority to gain compliance or support for initiatives.

The use of influence tactics is crucial in leadership because effective leaders must be able to navigate interpersonal relations, drive team performance, and initiate change. By employing various influence tactics, a leader can engage others, foster collaboration, and enhance their ability to achieve organizational goals.

While unwritten rules of conduct within an organization and methods to establish a hierarchy may be related to organizational culture and structure, they do not specifically describe the actions leaders take to influence others. Similarly, increasing organizational complexity does not fall within the scope of influence tactics, which are fundamentally about persuasive interactions rather than structural changes.