Mastering Authority: Leveraging Credibility as a Speaker

Summary

In this episode of Present Influence, host John Ball explores the principle of authority and how it can impact a speaker's credibility. John delves into Dr. Robert Cialdini's concept of authority and shares personal anecdotes and experiments that highlight its power. He provides actionable insights on how speakers can project authority through appearance, associations, and demonstrated expertise, while also discussing the dark side of authority and its unethical uses. The episode includes tips on building authentic authority and a call to embrace vulnerability for increased relatability. Listeners are encouraged to engage with the content and explore resources to improve their speaking strengths.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: The Power of Authority

00:45 Understanding Cialdini's Principle of Authority

02:06 The White Coat Experiment

03:32 Personal Anecdote: The Billionaires Club

05:16 Healthy Scepticism and Authority

06:49 Projecting Authority as a Speaker

10:14 The Dark Side of Authority

12:56 Building Ethical Authority

14:15 Conclusion and Next Steps

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What if all it took to be seen as an expert was a suit and a sales table?

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Well, that's exactly what happened

to me working at a personal

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development event quite a while back.

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Now in this episode, we are gonna

be exploring the principle of

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authority, and how that principle

can make or break your credibility

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as a speaker, how we can utilize it,

leverage it effectively and ethically.

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And what to avoid doing we'll take a

look at how authority is also sometimes

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used unethically Welcome to Present

Influence the show for professional

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speakers and communicators who want

to impact, influence, and inspire.

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My name's John Ball, and I'm your

guide on this journey to mastery

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level communication skills.

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Authority is one of Dr.

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Robert Cialdini's seven principles

of influence, and it's the tendency

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that we all have to follow the

lead of people who appear to be

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experts, leaders, or people in power.

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Now, Cialdini will often use the

example of people wearing white coats,

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and I think that's a fair one to use.

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you'll tend to see them in medical

environments and when we see somebody

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in a white coat, we automatically

start making assumptions that they

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are probably medical personnel.

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They probably know what we're doing.

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So it gives us a level of confidence

that we can trust them and that

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they are who they say they are, and

they're where they're supposed to be.

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Now, we may see those white coats

in other environments as well.

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So, for example, we might see

them at the nail technicians.

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We might see them at the opticians.

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We might see them at the

beauticians and other places too.

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And there's a reason for that.

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It's not necessarily that these

people are medically trained and need

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to have the white coats on at all.

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It's more a case of the confidence and

trust, the assumptions that come along

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with the white coat in those environments.

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The sign of cleanliness, the sign

of assumed technical ability and

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knowledge that comes with that, the

assumptions that we make about them.

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So we're more likely to do what

someone in a white coat says to do

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than if they weren't wearing that.

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And this was proven in experiments that

Cialdini talks about in his book where.

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these were essentially set up

with actors, some in white coats,

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and some of them playing the

part of subjects in these tests.

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And unsuspecting people were brought in to

follow instructions from the people in the

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white coats as part of the experiments.

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they believed that they were administering

electric shocks to the subjects who had

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agreed to have this the subjects were

only pretending to be electrocuted.

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That is really important to know here.

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However, One of the things that this

experiment showed was that a significant

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percentage of the people who were

administering or thought they were

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administering electric shocks, were

willing under the instruction of the

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person in the white coat who they thought

was a doctor or professor, to keep turning

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up the electrical shocks, some of them to

what would, if they were real, would've

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been lethal levels of electric shock.

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Now, not everyone agreed to this, but

certainly a significant percentage,

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and that is the power of authority.

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we may be looking at it in a little

bit of a different context here.

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However, Cialdini said this, titles,

clothes and trappings are all symbols

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of authority and they can trigger

our compliance without genuine merit.

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So picture this with me.

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I was, standing at a sales table at the

back of a personal development event

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wearing a suit and promoting something

that was called a billionaires club.

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Really what it was, was, A mastermind

group where people could come and

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It was a significant investment

for people to join this.

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And they would go somewhere exotic

as a group and they would have

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special guest speakers come in, they

would mastermind their projects.

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They would do some kind of community

outreach whilst they were there.

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And really it was some stepping into

the mindsets and the actions of being

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millionaires, multi-billionaires,

billionaires, and so on.

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So I'm standing at the table to

promote this event and sign people up.

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'cause I was essentially there

to work on sales and some of the

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people who were attending the

event made assumptions about me.

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I'm assuming that they didn't recognize

that my suit was from Marks and Spencer's

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and that my tie was borrowed from my Dad.

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But what they thought was, because

I was in the suit and tie looking

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smart at an event where most people,

were in jeans and t-shirts, And, the

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signs, says stuff about millionaires.

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I can't even remember if it's

millionaires or billionaires now.

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I think it might have been billionaires.

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They assumed that I was a millionaire

or a multimillionaire because of that.

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based purely on my appearance

and my positioning at that event.

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there was no intention to create a

false idea of me being a millionaire or

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multimillionaire or anything like that.

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it was an idea that people got, and I

certainly did not try and leverage that.

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I just found it amusing, as I was

very far from being any kind of

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millionaire or multimillionaire.

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so I think it's a good idea to reflect

on perceptions that are created and

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at the very least have a little bit

of healthy skepticism in our lives.

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If only to consider the assumptions that

we're making and to remind ourselves

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those assumptions might not be true,

the more opportunities in life where

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we can add a little bit of conscious

awareness and thought into things.

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The more healthy, our brains are

gonna be and the less likely we are

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to fall for those times where people

might be using authority principles

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to pull the wool over our eyes and

to give us a sense of them being, of

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them being something that they're not.

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So consider the assumptions of authority

and that they may sometimes be false.

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Now one great example of this I've seen

in a bunch of YouTube videos was people

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selling these tours in particular places

in tourist destinations around the world.

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And often they were selling fake tickets

or, weren't genuine resellers, but

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they would have things that made them

look like they were maybe A Blazer, A

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gille or something that would have some

branding on it, an umbrella that has

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the right coloring and branding on it.

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But they weren't actually

legitimate sellers, and so they were

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scamming people for their tickets.

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And so again, the assumptions were made.

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they looked the part, they have their gear

on, why else would they be wearing that?

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And yet they were ripping people off.

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So I think healthy skepticism

is often a good idea.

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Now there are a number of ways that

speakers can project authority,

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and so we're gonna look at three

key ones here let's explore the

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aspects and speaker expressions.

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the first one really would be around

appearance, which includes things

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like your dress, your posture, your

vocal tone, your physical presence.

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The next would be association who you

share the stage with, event status,

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testimonials, those kinds of things.

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And the third would be expertise.

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So that could be something like,

sharing, demonstrated results,

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sharing credentials, case studies.

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If you were to include all these

elements in some way, shape or form into

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your talks and presentations, they're

likely to give you a credibility boost.

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So looking the part standing like you

are speaking, like you are having a

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presence that says you are, everything

you say you are is gonna be good.

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We want to make sure we're doing that.

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who we are on stage with, like who we

associate with because there's so many

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reasons why that's important, but.

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When it comes to authority, if we are

sharing stages with people who are less

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than ethical operators or who are really

just in it to grind every dollar, euro,

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pound out of their audience that they can.

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We are gonna be guilty by association.

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However, we are sharing the stage with

people who are pros, experts, really great

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at motivating and energizing the crowd.

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We are also gonna be guilty in a good

way by association I do think we're

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in a point in life and in business

where expertise is probably much

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less important than it ever has been.

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However, we still do respect and recognize

expertise when it shows in front of us.

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if you are a speaker who also does

coaching or consulting, sharing some of

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your results that you've had with clients

or people you've worked with, sharing some

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of your credentials credentials sometimes

can be your experience that has led you

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to the knowledge that you have right now.

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It's not always qualifications could be

case studies not necessarily even your

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own case studies, but things that back up,

what you're talking about, it's all still

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gonna give additional credibility and

authority to who you are and what you do.

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There is a degree to which anyone

who steps up onto a stage in front

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of an audience or anyone who being

presented as a guest speaker,

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has been invited to come and

talk or present is automatically

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by those associations being

assumed to be an authority, to

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be an expert in what they do.

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So you are crossing what we could

call the authority or expert threshold

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when you are up in front of a group.

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So unless you do things that

undermine that you will probably

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be considered or thought of and

people will make those associations

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that You are who you say you are.

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but if you are on a stage talking

about high level business concepts

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and you're in Bermuda shores and a

Hawaiian shirt and flip flops, it's

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gonna undermine your authority.

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So we must think there has to

be congruence in what we say,

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how we look, and how we present

ourselves on the platform.

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now we said there was a dark

side to authority as well.

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And as with any of Cialdini's principles,

the tools of influence or weapons of

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influence, as some people will call

them, Can be used to build or to destroy.

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They can be used for good

or they can be used for bad.

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in and of themselves.

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The tools are amoral.

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They have no morality of their own,

which means the morality of them

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depends on the person using them

and what they're using them for.

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So we may encounter things like speakers

who claim false credentials they may

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have, They might be talking about

a degree or doctorate that they've

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awarded themselves or was honorary and

doesn't really make them the experienced

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expert that they're talking about.

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they may well overstate their success

and they may even fake testimonials.

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We have probably all come across

and happy to say, I think it

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seems to be less common now.

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But the people who are trying to

project a level of authority and status,

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we can pretty much sub out the word

authority for status in many cases,

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of the people who would be filming

sales videos with Lamborghinis that

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when it was investigated, turned

out to be rented or hiring out a

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mansion so that they look like they're

multimillionaires, hiring models to

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hang around them, so they look like

they're surrounded by beautiful people.

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All these things were

commonplace 10, 15 years ago.

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Thankfully, not so much now, but all those

things have damaged over time, and chipped

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away at people's trust, which is why

we are now in a bit of a trust deficit,

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especially when it comes to expertise

and marketing ourselves as speakers and

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any products or services that we have.

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audiences Don't always question

things if it looks legit.

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And so often it's only when people get

out and word will spread like wildfire.

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If people get found out,

if trust has been broken.

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People will find out, and I've seen it

in the personal development industry,

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people who were trying to look the

part, people who actually got themselves

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into massive debt trying to project

this image of status and authority.

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So they show up somewhere

with a hired Ferrari or Lambo.

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Have 10,000 pounds spent on a suit

from a top London tailor or fashion

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designer that they couldn't really

afford, so that they could look the

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part and hopefully, I guess, try and

pull the wool over people's eyes.

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That is really where, one of the places

where authority can be pretty dark.

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I hope that you are a bit more

like me and that you wouldn't

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want to use authority unethically.

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let's talk about how to

use it the right way.

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I.

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So being an authority

isn't about pretending.

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It's about earning trust and

presenting it authentically.

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So there are ways that speakers

can build ethical authority.

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You can share real

credentials and results.

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use real storytelling to show and

not just tell about your expertise.

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Be vulnerable and transparent about

what you can and can't do as well.

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I think people often think there's

this need when you are on a platform,

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when you are in public view, that

you should be flawless and it's

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unachievable and it's also unrelatable.

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So we can actually get more authority

by being a little more vulnerable.

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And I've talked about

this in videos before.

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Just by maybe talking about something that

we can't do or something that we failed

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at and learned from that lets people in

and say, all right, they're not perfect.

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They're actually you like

me, I'm not perfect either.

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And, so when we're not trying

to be perfect, we become

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automatically more relatable.

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So as long as the things we share

aren't undermining our general

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credibility, So, authority

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is really a way of allowing other

people to do some of the heavy lifting

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when it comes to your credibility.

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Cialdini said this, true authority

is earned through expertise and

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trustworthiness, not just appearance.

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So if this has helped you to rethink

how you show up as a speaker, or

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how others might be influencing

you or how you might be influencing

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others, leave a comment below.

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And of course if you haven't already,

like and subscribe, hit that notification

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bell 'cause certainly there's more

in this series to come as well as

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guest interviews and more videos

and would love to see you subscribe.

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I've just hit 300 subscribers, which

has been something like 50 people in

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the last month or so to take it up

from where it had been stuck for years.

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I'm looking to, get to 400 now and

I'd love you to help me do that.

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Now, if you want to find out what your

speaking strengths are, you can take my

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speaker Strengths Finder assessment and

you can find [email protected].

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Next time we're going to be exploring

social proof and how other people's

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opinions affect credibility and how

speakers can leverage social proof from

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the platform and make sure things are set

up to make you look as good as possible.

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Again, not perfect, just great.

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Wherever you're going, wherever you're

doing, have an amazing rest of your day.