As a leader, your success depends upon your ability to get things done: up, down and across all lines. To survive and succeed, you must learn four essential skills of persuading people. You must convince others to take action on your behalf even when you have no formal authority.

Persuasion is an essential proficiency for all leaders, requiring you to move people toward a position they dont currently hold. You must not only make a rational argument, but also frame your ideas, approaches and solutions in ways that appeal to diverse groups of people with basic human emotions.

Preparing the Way

Any direct attempt to persuade may provoke colleagues to oppose and polarize. Because persuasion is a learning and negotiating process, it must include three phases: discovery, preparation and dialogue.

Before you even begin to speak, consider your position from every angle. Presenting your ideas takes planning, to learn about your audience and prepare your arguments.

Dialogue occurs both before and during the persuasion process. You must invite people to discuss solutions, debate the merits of your position, offer honest feedback and suggest alternatives. You must test and revise ideas to reflect colleagues concerns and needs. Success depends on being open-minded and willing to incorporate compromises.

Four Steps to Successful Persuasion

Leading through persuasion requires you to follow four essential steps:

1. Establish credibility. Credibility develops from two sources: expertise and relationships. Listen carefully to other peoples suggestions. Establish an environment in which they know their opinions are valued. Prepare by collecting data and information that both support and contradict your arguments.
   
   

2. Understand your audience. Frame your goals in a way that identifies common ground. Your primary goal is to identify tangible benefits to which your targeted audience can relate. This requires conversations to collect essential information by asking thoughtful questions. This process will often prompt you to alter your initial argument or include compromises. Identify key decision makers, stakeholders and the organizations network of influence. Pinpoint their interests and how they view alternatives.
   
   

3. Reinforce your positions with vivid language and compelling evidence. Persuasion requires you to present evidence: strong data in multiple forms (stories, graphs, images, metaphors and examples). Make your position come alive by using vivid language that complements graphics. In most cases, a rock-solid argument:

   • Is logical and consistent with facts and experience
     
   • Favorably addresses your audiences interests
     
   • Eliminates or neutralizes competing alternatives
     
   • Recognizes and deals with office politics
     
   • Receives endorsements from objective, authoritative third parties
     

4. Connect Emotionally. Your connection to your audience must demonstrate both intellectual and emotional commitment to your position. Successful persuaders cultivate an accurate sense of their audiences emotional state, and they adjust their arguments tone accordingly. Whatever your position, you must match your emotional fervor to your audiences ability to receive your message.

In todays organizations, work is generally completed by cross-functional teams of peers, with a mix of baby boomers and Gen-Xers who show little tolerance for authority. Electronic communication and globalization have further eroded the traditional hierarchy. People who perform work dont just ask what should I do? but why should I do it?

Leaders must answer the why question effectively. Persuasion is an essential proficiency for all leaders who want to succeed in the 21st century organization.

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D.

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D., of Customized Newsletter Services, and The Blog Squad, is dedicated to assisting professionals create and maintain quality newsletters, ezines and blogs, as well as to leverage their online presence through intelligent marketing strategies and automated systems.

Patsi has a doctorate in psychology and experience in journalism. She is author of hundreds of articles available for use in coach/consultant newsletters. She custom designs ezines and blogs.

She is author of ?Secrets of Successful Ezines?, ?Build a Better Blog System? and "Confessions of a Reluctant Blogger: from Boring to Brilliant in 30 Days," with Denise Wakeman.

Together as The Blog Squad, Patsi and Denise hold weekly teleconferences, ?Conversations with Experts: Building Your Business Off and Online?. They also run the Blog to Book Project, an online private tutorial blog for professionals to write and create a book using a blog.

She is a graduate of San Diego State University and the Sorbonne in Paris France where she lived for 18 years. She lives in Del Mar CA and Ajijic, Mexico near Guadalajara. She and her husband Rob are avid tennis players.