Persuasion is at the forefront of most researched skills in the world. Even from the time of Aristotle and Caesar Augustus to the present scientifically developed world persuasion skill is an immensely Researched subject and a need for the performance of general leaderships. Success is no doubt a natural phenomenon of human beings. Cooperation and support of the other people is inevitable in achieving their goals in success. Persuasion plays a prominent role in the process of approaching a successful life. Regardless of the status & profession you can develop this skill effectively to achieve your ambitions, needs and expectations with firm determination through effective practice and performance.
Effective Influence & Persuasion: Leaders, Businessmen, managers and many other professionals are using persuasion as an effective and powerful method in the management of getting their jobs done. In this context there are most crucial aspects that have to be considered in performance of influencing the other people. You should have a clear understanding of these aspects before putting them into practice.
•Observation of your audience and perception of their attitudes and behaviours.
•Concentration on their interests, desires, needs and expectations.
•Special considerations over the emotional aspirations to satisfy the inborn needs of the others.
•Establishment of credibility and reputation on mutual respect, trust and confidence.
•Patience is one of the best tools in performance of persuasion and influence of others.
•Development of the attitude for caring others.
•Develop the ability to be a better listener as well as a communicator.
•Persuasion is not a thinking machine but a feeling machine for thinking.
Persuasion is a quality of leadership. The traits of your mind play a key role in performance as a successful persuader and a leader. It is essential that you go out of the frame of your mind to perceive the individual characteristics of a person or a group and a country as a whole. Your feeling in touching their hearts is a critical issue in unraveling the mindsets of the other people. In this context you can effectively get your message across to the listener if you bear in mind how they benefit from your advice and direction.
Motivation is an essential part in performance of persuasion. This factor is basically focused on two important aspects of behavioral pattern of an average person. The foremost is the desire of human being to gain more things like respect, money, health and love and many more in satisfying or contending their life. The other is totally different from what you gain. That is fear of losing what you have already gained. People has natural tendency to prevent losing their possessions mainly when it comes to their marriage, money, career, reputation and so on. They are scared of risk and uncertainty of life. This is a crucial point where you could understand properly the motivation criteria in terms of fulfilling their aspirations, needs and wants. You are now in the process of developing and establishing your persuasion skills effectively.
Communication plays an important role in the development of persuasion skills. Exploring your skills in communication tends you to develop the ability of influencing and persuading the other people. But you have to understand that you need not to be a professional communicator to be a successful persuader. You need only a little self-confidence to get yourself across the border of persuasion barrier satisfactorily. Development of effective communication in front of any person with self-confidence at the inception drives you through a smooth flow of communication. This is quite important in your persuasion skill development. Then you will never fail to influence people because you have the courage and confidence to persuade them to ultimately consider your requests and guidance in good faith. They may disagree in the first instance, but you can make them feel over the opinion or idea you want to send across to their minds.
The triggers are certainly involved in decision making process in the brain. This mechanism is quite useful in persuasion of the other people. You can think why people are in acceptance of certain things like doctor’s advice and managerial decisions in their work places in general. It is obvious that their minds are triggered by the authority of the persuader. This sort of triggers we can identify as authority trigger. In this instance you are motivating them quite effectively. But you must have to be fully prepared with knowledge of the subjects or areas concerned for others to trust on your advice or authority. There is a logic and reason behind this phenomenon. The understanding of the other triggers such as Friendship Trigger, Contrast Trigger are also important in the development of your persuasion skills.
Concluding what has been briefed in this article I would like you to understand the importance of persuasion and influence in fulfilling the objectives of your career and other activities as well. You should be positive in rewarding and appreciating of others in terms of achievement of your goals. From the inception of your action you must perform as a consultant. If you clearly understand the minds of other people by consulting them, you will never fail in pursuance of others and you will be successful in getting your jobs done without any difficulty. Even when you are trying to get a loan from the bank you can use your persuasion skills effectively. Miracles can be created if you have fully perceived the breadth & depth of the value of persuasion, and excel the art and science of this important skill. Hence the persuasion skill development is important to make your life successful.
Wasantha de Siolva
Sri Lanka
Author is specially qualified in Marketing at the Open University of Sri Lanka. Presently employed in a leading tourist Hotel in Sri Lanka.
