Step 3 – Gather Information
This book’s final chapters will directly address analyzing people, including
yourself. For now, it is enough to include it as part of your manipulation
strategy.
Consider the goals of the people whom you need to influence – those who
will decide whether or not you are promoted. Map out all of their actions,
starting from now and as much of their previous behavior as possible. Look
for patterns and attempt to relate each of their actions to what you perceive
as their goals. Then look for ways in which they don’t align and reassess
their goals to see pinpoint what matches.
Make an assessment of your own assets. Include hard facts, such as your
time at a company, your currently salary and your qualifications, as well as
soft skills, such as charisma and persuasion.
Profile all the parties involved, including those who have the power to
promote you, your rivals and anyone in orbit of your path to success.
Include their goals and try to record their actions, spotting patterns and
connecting them to their goals. Keep organized notes of all of this
information and conceal it from everyone.
The aim here is to give your brain as much information as possible. Once
again, imagine your brain as a machine. It has the best chance of producing
the correct outputs (actions) if it has access to the best inputs (information)
and the better you can objectively organize this information, the easier it
will be to make smart decisions, rather than subjective decisions based on
instinct.
After a while, say a few days, you should start to build a picture. Take more
time if you feel like you need it. However, you don’t need to have a perfect
understanding of the situation to begin the next stage of information
gathering, which is to identify key figures among those who you are
profiling and start doing the same thing for people related to their goals. In
the case of those who have the power to promote you, this may very well be
the people who have the power to promote them.
Going a step further is going to give you an even deeper understanding of
the way that these people operate, what drives them and what is likely to
impact their decisions.
You will continue gathering information indefinitely, even as you begin
manipulating others. Make it a habit and you will get better at identifying
the goals and behavioral patterns of others faster and more accurately.
Focus on understanding where power lies and how the parties involved
reach their decisions – try to identify what provokes them to take certain
actions. Relate this back to their own goals.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |