Tag Archives: persuasion

Persuading vs. Convincing: Playing To Your Strengths

Patrick Henry’s stirring call to action — “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech on March 23, 1775 still resonates with history buffs 248 years later.

Imagine if you had a seat in St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA on that Thursday afternoon and you personally experienced that goose-bump, misty-eyed sensation as an impassioned Patrick Henry concluded his speech like a conductor with a dramatic crescendo. And imagine the resolute sense of commitment surging through the veins of his audience during the second Virginia Convention, a surging sense of purpose and principal that prefaced the American Revolution and spawned the birth of the United States of America 16 months later on July 4, 1776.

Fortunately, historians like Joseph J. Ellis have attempted to capture the dynamic scene. Writing in his book American Creation, Mr. Ellis describes Patrick Henry as tall and animated with the “appearance of an actor on stage and an evangelical minister at the pulpit.” His Adonis like 6-feet 2-inch body imbued his words with an inspirational punch.

But what if you are NOT that flamboyant, NOT that energetic, NOT that inspirational, can you still earn the confidence of others in your ideas?

What if you are the diametrically opposite of the tall and affable and loquacious Patrick Henry.

What if you are short, reserved and taciturn by nature. What if you are a 5-foot -4 inches tall -not 6 feet 2?

What if your voice is so barely audible that the stenographer asks you to speak up. And what if you routinely hold a hat in one hand as you are speaking and sabotage your ability to gesture and energize the audience with your body language?

Meet James Madison who would become the Father of the Constitution and the fourth president of the United States. He stood 5-feet-4. His voice was barley audible. His personality more reserved. His lifestyle so very different. In fact, Mr. Madison married for the first and only time at 43 not at 18 like Mr. Henry. And Mr. Madison never had children of his own. Meanwhile Mr. Henry fathered 17 children in two marriages.

And now you are debating the more flamboyant Patrick Henry on federalist vs. state’s rights.

Could you persuade with the zeal of a Patrick Henry who would become the Commonwealth of Virginia’s first governor?

Or rather would you play to your strength and convince others with your well-reasoned, evidence-based argument?

Play To Your Strengths

What if you leveraged your hat as a filing cabinet of sorts for your notes that you regularly consulted in real time to rebut point by point as Madison did “without flourish or affectation”,” writes historian Ellis, “and in a sense more impressive because of their austerity.”

In speaking like a leader, you play to your strengths. Some persuade. Others convince. Indeed, John Marshall,the Chief Justice of the United States, summed up the diversity of leaders, saying : “Mr. Henry had without doubt the greatest power to persuade while Mr. Madison had the greatest power to convince.”

For more tips and techniques to develop your strengths in persuading or convincing, have a mint — a leadership mint and refresh your feeling for leading. Savor 64 individually wrapped Leadership Mints for you in SPEAKING Like a Leader, With Civility, a Leadership Mints Series Book.

SPEAKING Like a Leader, With Civility — the third book in the Leadership Mints Series — develops your ability to gain greater shared understanding and collaborative decision-making through credible two-way communications especially in adversarial situations. The 298-page book is comprised of 52 Leadership Mints -short stories that leadership principles that like a candy mint are quickly savored and immediately rejuvenating to refresh your feeling for leading.

Get Your Copy of Speaking Like a Leader

WHAT IS
A LEADERSHIP MINT?

Consumed like a breath mint — quick and on-the-go- a Leadership Mint is a bite-sized idea, thought or story illustrating a key leadership principle to refresh your feeling for leading and reinvigorate your capability to reinforce your continuous performance improvement with initiatives that are readily remembered, applied and acted on. Like its candy counterpart, a Leadership Mint is easily accessed, quickly savored (average reading time 5 minutes or less) and immediately rejuvenating,

Anticipating The Counter Argument

Ah! Ah! Ah! Don’t touch that dial! That’s what Dagwood Bumstead, would say BEFORE the start of a weekly television program (circa 1957) long before the dawn of the TV remote.

The cartoon character spawned from the pen of Chic Young in 1930 and still popular today in the comic strip BLONDIE, wanted to keep the audience engaged to share in his fun antics —and maybe even share in one of his famous Dagwood Sandwiches stacked 6-8 inches high with a bit of everything from a variety of cold cuts and cheeses to extra slices of bread topped with more cold cuts and cheeses.

Dagwood’s preemptive chant (Ah, Ah Don’t touch that dial!) is an example of how the most effective leaders anticipate the expected negative behavior of others so that they can more readily frame their message or point of view for greater acceptance and adoption.

Imagine that you are a leader in the field of nutrition -unlike Dagwood Bumstead — and you are trying to persuade The Dagwood Bumsteads of the world that it’s better to carefully cook your own food rather than perfunctorily toss a stack of cold cuts between two pieces of bread and call it a meal. Now that’s a heavy lift, especially for those used to lifting a supersized Dagwood Sandwich.

In fact, asking the Dagwood Bumsteads of the world to cook would be like trying to sell a pants presser in a nudist colony. No wonder if you ask the Dagwood Bumsteads of the world what they are making for dinner that night they’ll readily quip: “Reservations.”

However leaders, without reservation, exercise their emotional intelligence, begin building a bridge of understanding between the grab and go finger food folks and the foodies who savor the spoon stirring and slowly simmering aspects of food preparation.

Notice how the authors of the book What To Eat and When –Michael F. Roizen M.D. and Michael Crupain–anticipate that backlash of the Dagwood Bumsteads of the world to their message that preparing your own food is key to your nutritional health.

Now if you are thinking about ripping this chapter out of the book and burning it because you (fill in the blank with) can’t, hate to, don’t want to or don’t have the time to cook, hang with us. It’s actually easier, cheaper, more delicious and more efficient to cook than to pick up takeout or dine out.

For more tips and techniques to anticipate and counter expected negative reaction to your proposal or idea, consider refreshing your feeling for leading. Have a mint — a leadership mint. Savor 64 Leadership Mints individually wrapped for you in SPEAKING Like a Leader, With Civility, a Leadership Mints Series Book.

Get Your Copy of Speaking Like a Leader

WHAT IS
A LEADERSHIP MINT?

Consumed like a breath mint — quick and on-the-go- a Leadership Mint is a bite-sized idea, thought or story illustrating a key leadership principle to refresh your feeling for leading and reinvigorate your capability to reinforce your continuous performance improvement with initiatives that are readily remembered, applied and acted on. Like its candy counterpart, a Leadership Mint is easily accessed, quickly savored (average reading time 5 minutes or less) and immediately rejuvenating,

Smelling the ROSE of Persuasion

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to strengthen your persuasive skills. Reading time: 2:18

Think of a ROSE the next time you’re trying to persuade someone.

ROSE is an acrostic for four distinct initiatives you can use to strengthen your persuasive skills.

R is for Reciprocal.

O is for Opposite.

S is for Scarcity.

E is for Enticement.

Reciprocal

Give something for something in return. Samples in a grocery store. Retailers conduct sales: Buy one get second one ½ price. Fast Food establishment issue BOGO coupons (buy one/get one free). Car dealers offer Continue reading

Ask SAM: Transforming Your Train of Thought

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you gain greater understanding of complex issues. Reading time: 2:52

The toy train whirls around the track. Choooo. Choooo. The wisp of smoke bellows overhead. You turn the orange knob on your electric transformer. Your toy train speeds faster and faster.

And then suddenly your nose is assaulted. A bleach-like chlorine smell pervades.The sparks flying on the track have broken down the bonds of oxygen molecules in the air. You’re now smelling ozone.

Using an electric train’s transformer to recreate a familiar smelling experience is the way scientist Carl Sagan taught us to better understand ozone and its chemical properties in his book Billions & Billions.

Sagan’s analogy is an example of how the most effective leaders bring abstract ideas alive – like a sense of smell—so that audiences can more fully relate and understand the concept.

Here’s how you can be just as persuasive in bringing abstract concepts alive. Ask SAM.

SAM is an acrostic for Simile, Analogy and Metaphor. Continue reading

Playing Your ACE in a Stacked Deck

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you break down inherent barriers to your ideas.

The idea was sound. The hard-working, highly competent manager checked his facts. He had the documentation. He presented his idea clearly and concisely. No one could refute the thinking process or the expected results.

The idea worked elsewhere. It could work here. It should work here. It will work here, he assured anyone and everyone. Yet most of the decision-makers in the company he needed to persuade remained poker faced even though they saw that indeed the company could benefit from his idea.

But his idea never got off the ground, even though he had done the proper research, even though he had earned third-party endorsement from his peers outside the company. What happened? Why didn’t his idea fly?

Perhaps this highly competent manager forgot to EARN THE RIGHT to present a new idea beyond his credentials, expertise and education. I have been in the shoes of this highly competent manager. I learned the hard way that when no one is buying your well researched, well thought-out idea, when the deck seemed stacked against you, the most persuasive leaders play their ACE.

ACE-Acknowledge, Coordinate and Enhance — is a three-step persuasion process. Continue reading