Tag Archives: Persuasion

06-Building a case

Life is a Negotiation, Come out on top

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One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my career is the power of being an effective negotiator.  Some people will say that their job doesn’t entail negotiations but I would argue every job involves negotiations.  Whether you are trying to make a sales pitch with a formal presentation, doing a price negotiation with a supplier, trying to get your cross functional team to use your project idea, or even trying to convince your boss you need a raise.  If you talk to anyone at work at some point you are doing some sort of negotiation.

Being persuasive is another way to view negotiations.  If you are trying to persuade someone of your point of view then you are doing a negotiation.  The quicker you realize you are negotiating with someone the quicker you can begin to use some of these tips of how to be more persuasive:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-persuasive-and-get-what-you-want-easily.html

For the basis of MP we are primarily talking about how to be more persuasive during presentations.  Every time we present in MP we are trying to persuade the audience to think our solution to the problem is the best solution out there.  Before you put together any presentation you should ask yourself “What do I want from the audience?” and then tailor your presentation to achieve that.

As I mentioned above I like to look at being persuasive as an important skill set to being successful in business.  Being an effective negotiator can get you on the projects you want, have the processes you want implemented, working with the people you want, and ultimately getting you that job and promotion you covet.

Some people don’t like negotiating, initially myself included, but the more you practice it and use these techniques the more natural it will become.  Before you know it you will be negotiating with people without even realizing it.

What have you negotiated for lately?

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, metaphors, Uncategorized

Storytelling: Displaying the Struggle Between Expectation and Reality

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Most of us in the evening MBA program are knowledge workers.  We don’t work with our hands, we don’t physically produce goods, we either create, analyze or transfer knowledge. Transferring knowledge from one person to another is the most challenging, because no two people think in the exact same way, but also the most important, because it is what drives change. Whether its giving a presentation, writing an important email, or having a tough conversation, my instinct is to fall back on my engineering background and rely on data and facts – and more often then not, doing this doesn’t inspire action.

The Harvard Business Review conducted an interview with screenwriting coach Robert McKee called “Storytelling That Moves People.”  In the interview, McKee talks about how storytelling is a crucial skill for business leaders to be able to motivate their coworkers, customers and partners to navigate through business challenges. McKee describes two types of storytelling that business leaders use.  The first uses conventional rhetoric and statistics, which, if successful, persuades people only on an intellectual level, which doesn’t inspire people to act. The second method of storytelling is to unite an idea with an emotion to persuade people on an emotional level and get them to act.

In the conversation, McKee describes the most difficult part of effective emotional persuasion through story-telling:  discussing the struggle. We all have a tendency, especially at work, to paint a rosy picture.  We want to be viewed as always succeeding, always in control, and always right.  McKee argues that story without a struggle doesn’t inspire because it doesn’t connect people on an emotional level about the challenges we all face.  To be a good storyteller,  according to McKee, “you want to display the struggle between expectation and reality in all its nastiness.”  McKee goes further to say that “the energy to live comes from the dark side…as we struggle against these negative powers, we’re forced to live more deeply, more fully.”

As an engineer working for a marketing company, the most difficult part of my job is persuading others to act while not falling back on data and statistics, and not painting a rosy picture.  Even though its challenging, telling stories that include a struggle has a tendency to unite people as they think about adversity in their own jobs, which usually causes them to rally around your goals.

As McKee says in the article, being a great storyteller alone won’t make you a great leader, but it is a skill that will help make you a better leader and help you to inspire action in others.  You can access the article through the Goizueta Business Library website, through the “Business Source Complete” database (search “Storytelling That Moves People”).

Source:

Fryer B. Storytelling That Moves People. Harvard Business Review [serial online]. June 2003;81(6):51-55. Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed July 12, 2014.