How to Master the Art of Influence

Copyright 2006 Harrison Monarth

Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Representative of the People of the 1st District of Rhode Island, proved his mastery of influence with the use of a powerful influence strategy just this weekend, after crashing his car into a guard rail near the Capitol building in the very early morning hours.

The influencing strategy Patrick Kennedy employed is called "Self-Disclosure".

The communication act of self-disclosure, in order to be defined as such specifically, according to social scientist Paul Cozby (1973), must contain the following three elements:

1. Personal information about the sender must be contained in the message

2. The sender must communicate the intimate information verbally

3. A specific audience must be the target

I would add to this that in order to truly qualify as a strategic influencing technique, self-disclosure must have a firm objective.

Examples of objectives for self-disclosure could be to establish rapport, gain sympathy, inspire loyalty, self-validation, moral obligation, self-defense, et cetera.

In Congressman Kennedy's case, his decision to disclose highly personal information about himself to a national audience can be traced back to the following objectives: