Coaching practices for Pre Suasion in a New Job

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Pre Suasion in a New Job, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I want to invite someone to try a new approach, and I sense it would land far better if they first connected it to how they already see themselves
  • I’m about to walk into a new job and a new neighborhood, and I’m already bracing for it to be awkward, rehearsing how they probably won’t take to me
  • I lead straight in with my pitch and watch people’s guard go up before I’ve finished a sentence
  • I keep raising my important ask at the worst possible moment
  • I tend to drop the whole big request on someone cold, all at once, and they balk

Practices that may help

  1. Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
    Pre-suasion, Robert Cialdini’s term, is the practice of directing attention to a concept or feeling immediately before a message so that the audience is primed to receive it favorably. The core finding is that what people are thinking about just before a message reshapes how they interpret it — making the moment before you speak as important as the message itself.
  2. Prime identity before the ask — "what kind of person are you?"
    Invite the person to describe who they are in terms that align with the behavior you’re requesting.
    Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
  3. Use the anticipation of interaction to create liking before meeting
    Knowing you will interact with someone in the future makes you evaluate them more positively before it happens.
    The Propinquity Effect (Leon Festinger)
  4. Channel attention to the relevant concept before the ask
    Briefly focus the audience on a concept that makes your core message naturally follow.
    Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
  5. Place your message in a context that evokes the right associations
    Context — physical, digital, or conversational — frames how a message is received before the first word.
    Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
  6. Elicit a small consistency cue before the main ask
    Get a small, genuine agreement or self-description before the main request — people act consistently with what they’ve said.
    Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
  7. Ensure the first commitment feels freely chosen
    The self-perception update only fires when the person believes they chose to comply.
    The Foot-in-the-Door Technique, Made Practical
  8. Open with something unexpected to direct attention deliberately
    Surprise briefly resets attention, letting you redirect it to whatever follows.
    Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
  9. Recognize and respect the ethical limits of foot-in-the-door
    The technique can manufacture commitment to things people would not freely choose — that is a misuse.
    The Foot-in-the-Door Technique, Made Practical
  10. Commitment and consistency
    Get a small, voluntary commitment first; people then act to stay consistent with it.
    Cialdini’s Principles of Influence

Related concerns

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