How to influence, negotiate, connect with others, and build relationships using the Animal Leadership system

by Rad Watkins

We all have people we would like to have a positive influence on, whether we are a leader, salesperson, spouse, employee… you get the idea. We also all have occasions where we are trying to persuade others to get on board with our ideas, often times for their own good. BUT, many times we fail to connect with others because we don’t understand what they want.

Imagine you want to convince your spouse that a vacation to Jamaica would be a good bonding experience for the whole family, or you are trying to get someone to start using a nutritional product that you know will benefit them, or you are offering a home study course that will change lives for the better. As we all know, sometimes this works out just fine and others times it explodes in our face and people doubt our intentions.

Why is it that sometimes we don’t connect, and people don’t understand our purpose, or agree with our logic? The simple answer is that there are different kinds of people in the world and they differ in terms of what they associate with pleasure and what they therefore want. As I explain in the book Animal Leadership: Leadership Lessons Learned from Wildlife for Leading Yourself and Others, by Rad Watkins, people’s wants are akin to one of the four great animals of power: the bear, wolf, eagle, or horse. Each of these animal personalities has different pleasures that drive their wants.

This is VERY important to remember when connecting with others and presenting any sort of offer. Here is what you need to know about naturally relating to people’s animal personalities so that you can connect, influence, negotiate, and build relationships.

As the book explains, bear people are independent, result-seekers. They are not focused on the niceties of a presentation, but rather the bottom-line results being offered. Wolf people are fun loving and social. They are most concerned with knowing that the process will be fun, playful, and will involve others. Eagle people are interested in making the right decision, and they want a proven system or plan in place before they take action. Finally, the horse people value security and the companionship of their herd. They want to know things will work out, and they will look to the actions of those around them to determine if an appeal is appropriate to act on.

You can see that what might help you to connect with a bear person, does not necessarily make a negotiation appealing to a horse person. What often happens is we assume everybody is just like us, and base our pitch (if you will) on the same benefits that we ourselves find attractive. This is a HUGE mistake, but one you can correct.

If you are appealing to a group, you MUST make sure there is a little something for everybody in your presentation. As a public speaker I keep this in mind as I am up in front of an audience asking people to believe in the natural secrets that will allow them to be the leaders of their own lives, so that they will be the kind of people who are capable of serving and leading others. I hit on all the animal aspects of pleasurable associations, and you should too. Remember to present the benefits in terms of results, an enjoyable process, a proven system, and in a way that makes people feel secure.

My friend Ed Rush is excellent at this. He offers a done-for-you internet marketing program. In his presentations he lets people know that his clients are now making good money, many over $250,000 a year – Results! Ed goes on to describe how internet marketing can make you money while you are on vacation with your family – Fun! He lets people know that his system is based on the techniques he learned in the military when he was a trainer of fighter pilots – a Proven System! Finally, he uses lots of testimonials and offers a guarantee – Security!

Whether appealing to a speaking audience, or some other group, you MUST CONNECT with as many members as possible, especially if you are trying to sell something, and let’s face it, we are all trying to sell! As a speaker I sell life-style changes, as an agency employee I sold environmental policy, and as a parent I sell values. Selling just means presenting something you believe in to someone in a way that you hope they will buy into, whether literally or figuratively. We all sell people on ideas we ourselves believe in and hope to turn others onto. Hopefully we are not negotiating for something we don’t believe in, and I honestly rarely see this as a problem.

This lesson of Animal Leadership will serve you. Use it to connect with people in your life so that you may lead others to the life of their dreams.