Influence or Authority

Power paths are:

Authority – the legitimate power which is vested in leaders within formal organizations and involves a legal right to make decisions which may be supported by sanctions

Influence – the ability to affect outcomes and depends on personal characteristics and expertise.

This link was thought provoking – Tomorrow’s Professor Blog  and although the blog is applied in an educational backdrop, there are many parallels for other industries including real estate.

Case in Point – a recent Listing Presentation.

The players – two agents teamed together (an older man 30 years experience and his son who has  1 year in the business) to meet with a seller of a higher end property.  This property was located near to another one that had been sold by the older agent.  The connection with this seller had occurred because the younger agent door knocked the neighborhood to invite folks to an Open House and again, when the property was sold.  The seller was himself an older accountant executive with a marketing company.

The story:  The agents arrived to the property to find themselves being peppered with questions by the seller as to where, when, how and why.  The seller, led the interview taking immediate control by asking questions.    The older agents  immediately felt his experience,  and thus his authority, was being questioned.  He  counterattacked.  He reacted by largely ignoring the questions and fire-hosing the seller with all the facts and figures that years of experience can produce.

We both know where this went.

The seller had the authority.  The elder agent wrestled to gain the authority and lost out in the match.

Interestingly to me, the younger agent, in debriefing, and out of range of the older agents hearing commented – the older agent would not allow himself to come under authority and hence lost an ability to influence.

This younger agent had actually been influential to create the appointment but the authoritarian approach of the older agent sabotaged the result!

Older does not always mean wiser!  To listen is not always to hear.