Communicate to Persuade

One of the most common types of business communication is communicating to persuade. From sales representatives persuading customers to mid-level managers persuading workers and upper management, we spend almost every business day involved in some form of persuasive communication. No matter our role, improving our ability to persuade others is vital to our career growth. Effectively communicating to persuade requires us to be adequately prepared, clear on the action we want our listener to take, and able to provide a compelling reason to take the action we desire. Dale Carnegie recommended a simple three-step structure that can significantly improve our ability to persuade a listener. The formula provides the structure to capture attention, build credibility, eliminate nervousness and call others to action, and it increases the likelihood that we will get results with others. The formula is as follows:

Incident: Relive a vivid, personal experience relevant to the point. Aristotle said, "The speaker's character is one of his most effective agents of persuasion." We must be credible in our example and evidence. We must have earned the right to share our example or give direction. A personal incident is a sure-fire way to grab favourable attention: It pulls people in, opens them up to persuasion and provides evidence as to why our idea is worth considering. In persuasive communication, we spend most of our time providing the situation and evidence before asking the listener to do something.

Action: Call on the listener to take a single, specific action. Too often we assume our listeners will know what to do once we have presented them with evidence to change their thinking or direction. We fail to persuade them if we don't clearly explain what we want them to do. Other times, we may give a clear action but may ask them to do several things -- leaving them unsure about which action should be the priority. Effective persuasion requires us to simplify the message and recommend one clear action for listeners to take.

Benefit: Clearly emphasize how the listener will benefit from taking the recommended action. Again, this portion of the communication must be clear, specific and direct. It must also be based in reality. If the benefit we provide sounds too good to be true, the listener will doubt us. If what we are recommending benefits us more than the listener, the persuasion will seem manipulative and self-serving. So consider the listener's point of view to be sure the recommendation is truly in his or her best interest. This balanced approach will be appreciated and will allow the listener to be more open to what we suggest.

Communicating to persuade is a critical skill to master in our daily business interaction. Dale Carnegie Training's three-step process -- Incident, Action and Benefit -- provides an opportunity to gain the results we desire from others.

By demonstrating that we have earned the right to give direction and are communicating from a position of solid character, not only will we be persuasive, but we also will be compelling. These two factors are a winning combination in our ability to communicate to persuade.

To learn more about how to use Dale Carnegie's three part process and to practice it in a classroom environment sign up for the Dale Carnegie Course: Effective Communications and Human Relations.

To find out more Click here.

Dedicating Time to Time Management

An interesting thought in our busy day to day grind, actually dedicating time to time management, it sounds like the age old question, what came first, the chicken or the egg?
Taking the time to evaluate, then focus on what’s really important can be the best 15 minutes of your day.

We all know the modern working world can be a very distracting place, for example last year globally there were 90 Trillion emails sent, 360 billion photos uploaded to facebook, along with an overall 18% rise in internet usage. The stats keep going, but it can be hard to keep up just thinking about it, making it very easy to waste time!

Before we get pulled away into cyberspace, consider these 2 simple techniques for time management.

1) Do your to do list the night before so you can hit the ground running when you arrive the next day.

2) Create time logs. For a 3 day period, record every little thing you do, update it every 15 minutes and analyze where you are currently spending your time. Once this is done, focus on the import tasks which bring you results! Review after 2/3 months again for a 3 day period to note improvements.

Haven't been making time for time management? Want to know more techniques? Join us on the 15th of June for a free interactive session focused on Time Management, one thing I can guarantee is it will be an effective use of your time!!

Angus Firth
Performance Consultant

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Always look on the bright side of life!

The volcanic ash fallout obliterated many people’s hopes of travel, either for business or for a well earned holiday. Suffice to say I was affected by this. My dream trip to the Bahama’s was suddenly pie in the sky as the air space closed and passengers were stuck in foreign countries looking for ingenious ways to get home.

To say I was disappointed was an understatement but there was nothing I could really do about it, other than be grateful that I wasn’t waiting hours at an airport desperately trying to get home. The key to this was acceptance. Accepting what had happened and then trying to make the best out of a bad situation. After some calls to hotels, I was all geared up for a holiday in Cornwall where I would still be able to take some time out and relax.

So what do you do when things just don’t go to plan? Here are five tips that may help.:

• Acceptance – this really is the key to most things in life...once you have accepted the situation then your mind is free to move on to look at your options


• Avoid dwelling on the situation – by churning the disappointment over and over I wouldn’t gain anything other than the continued feeling of disappointment


• Be willing to compromise – a trip in the UK wasn’t what I had looked forward to, but it was still a holiday


• Focus on the positive – the fact that I wasn’t stranded in a country without somewhere to stay and little money was a relief


• Keep your sense of humour – a little light-heartedness goes along way and really helps your body fight stress and anxiety

Needless to say the break was wonderful and although it wasn’t the Bahama’s I was grateful I could still get away.

Helen Mills
Financial Controller

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

Certainty in Uncertain Times

It’s certainly been an interesting 24 hours on the political stage but what are we to make of a potential hung parliament and how it will affect us at home and our businesses?

If you’re interest in politics is the same as mine then perhaps you were also sitting watching the results come in at 4am this morning. Having followed the polls over the past few weeks, I set my alarm for 3.30 am in the expectation of seeing David Cameron taking the stage and forming a government with a small majority. However, as 4am became 5 am there was still no result! So what are we to read into this leadership battle and how can we draw from that experience into our own businesses.

It seems that the big surprise of the night was the lack of gains from the Liberal Democrats. There was talk of gains to perhaps 100 Liberal Democrat ministers and as the night drew on it looks like the party despite good coverage in the press has not moved from its 2005 position. Without question Nick Clegg had the common touch as it came to the leadership debates. He talked to the audience and used questioner’s names in a sincere fashion, he often drew the others back to the question asked and sought to answer it directly. He also did a great job of driving his point home to camera ... the debate around our office was who had trained him in presentation skills.

All that done but no real gains when the votes were cast! So what can we learn?

As has happened in many past elections the word ‘Change’ has been bandied around by most of the parties. Certainly it has been the theme of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat campaigns. Based on the results in so far it would seem that as a nation we have more trust in David Cameron than Nick Clegg to bring change to our country. As leaders in business we are often called upon to lead our teams through change so what can we learn from the experience of the past 24 hours.

I can only speculate what was in peoples’ minds as they cast their votes .... Therefore the points below are my own thoughts and how they might relate to us in business.

1.Perhaps in times of uncertainty people value experience higher than new ideas .... Therefore when leading a team through change make sure we take the time to demonstrate our competence as well as our passion.

2.Did Nick Clegg miss the mark on matters of immigration and national security? We should perhaps remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when it comes to winning people to our way of thinking. Maslow talked about ‘Security’ as one of the base drivers. Remember how important security is to people when leading change.

3.Think about the importance of Charisma when you think about leading your team or business. Labour it seems were the biggest loser on the night. Was that based on track record of the party in power or lack of Charisma from their top man? Who knows?

It’s certainly going to be an interesting few days and hopefully through democracy we’ll find some certainty as we head into next week. From my experience of helping teams and businesses deal with change it’s the uncertainty not the change itself that scares us and stops us making decisions.

Therefore set a clear direction and move your team towards it..... Hopefully our government will do the same!

David Anderson
Managing Director

www.London.dalecarnegie.com