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JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

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JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 1 of 7

The Art of Persuasion

What It Means

Have you ever worked in sales? If so, you know there is more to the job than just showing people your product and asking them for money. You have to convince people your product will improve their lives. You need to demonstrate that your product is better than any other product in your market. You must also prove that you have your customers’ best interests in mind. How do you accomplish all of this?

Even if you do not work in sales, your ability to sell your ideas is critical to your success as a leader. If you develop a new product or service, you have to persuade your colleagues to undertake the venture with you. If you are responding to a customer service complaint, you have to persuade that customer to try your solution. If you want a raise or a promotion, you have to persuade your boss that you have earned it. People use persuasive tactics all the time at work and in life in general. Whether they use them successfully is another matter.

In this lecture, you will learn how to hone your persuasive abilities. We will discuss the rhetorical appeals that make up a strong persuasive argument. We will also consider how to engage your listeners through storytelling and other attention-grabbing techniques.

Why It Matters

• You need your colleagues’ full emotional investment to execute your biggest ideas.

• Your pitches will be ineffective if you cannot craft narratives around them.

• Audiences will not respond to your messages if you do not show them that you care.

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”

Edward R. Murrow

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 2 of 7

Communicating Creatively

There is a reason we refer to persuasion as an art. Think about your favorite film, book, or song. Do you like it because it is well-written? It may be, but the real reason you like it is because it stirs powerful feelings inside of you. It reduces you to tears, it makes you laugh uproariously, or it evokes a sense of nostalgia. Like a great work of art, a strong persuasive communication will draw a powerful emotional response from your listeners. They should be moved deeply enough to act on your message – to change their minds, to fulfill a task, or to buy what you are selling.

Last week, we discussed the four communication styles you use depending on what your objective is. Of those styles, you know that Sell is the best way to inspire your listeners to a cause. It is also the style that relies most heavily on engaging others’ emotions. If you are using Tell, you are just imparting information or giving orders. There is no emotional involvement required from your listeners. The same can be said of Consult and Join. Using either of these styles will allow your listeners to offer input and help you arrive at a decision. But the successful use of Sell involves some artistry on your part. You have to create a vivid pitch that illustrates why your message is important and why your listeners must do something.

Rhetorical Appeals

There is no set formula for crafting an artful persuasive communication. The tactics you use will vary based on both your audience and what you are persuading them to do. However, there must always be three critical components to your message. These components can be traced back to Aristotle’s Rhetoric, written twenty-five centuries ago. They are ethos, logos, and pathos. Let us delve into each one.

Ethos

Take a look at your email inbox from the last week. Of the people who sent messages to you, how many included their full job title in their signatures? If they have any special degrees or licenses, such as CPA, SPHR, or MBA, did they include those? Those details are there to enhance the subjects’ ethos, or their credibility. Your correspondents want you, their listener, to trust them. You have to believe they know what they are talking about.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

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Of the three appeals, ethos is the most difficult to establish immediately. It often requires your listeners to know who you are before you even begin your message. This is why celebrity endorsements are such powerful marketing tools. If you watch an athlete like Stephen Curry playing basketball while wearing a certain pair of shoes, you think those shoes must be high quality. In an email, you can list your title and credentials. That is not necessarily something you can do in a speech or a one-on-one conversation.

You can build your ethos throughout your message in other ways. For instance, if your message contains information from outside sources, such as newspapers or think tanks, cite those sources. Your listeners will trust you if they can tell you have done your research. Additionally, use language your audience understands. If there is a certain terminology they are familiar with, use it. This demonstrates that you know how to deliver your message in a way your listeners can relate to. And always take your message and your audience seriously. Do not tell jokes if it is not appropriate for the topic.

On July 12, 2013, 16-year-old activist Malala Yousafzai gave a speech to the United Nations advocating for increased educational opportunities around the world. To establish her ethos, Yousafzai talked about the suffering she had personally experienced as she pursued her education. She invoked leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela, saying, “This is the legacy of change that I have inherited.”1 She struck a tone that was serious, but also inspirational. Even though she was only a teenager, Yousafzai demonstrated that she was a credible figure.

Logos

Especially in election years, you have heard countless politicians talk about the “big plans” they have for their constituents. How many times have you listened to these plans and thought, “How did they arrive at that conclusion?” Those politicians may be credible figures, but they did not inject enough logos into their communications. As the word implies, a subject’s logos is their appeal to logic. A subject is arguing on behalf of a cause. They must establish that their argument is sound and sensible.

Assuming you have established that you are trustworthy and have ethos, you are now in a

1 ABC News, “Girl Shot in Head by Taliban, Speaks at UN: Malala Yousafzai United Nations Speech 2013,” YouTube, July 12, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRh_30C8l6Y.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 4 of 7

position to state your case to your audience. For your listeners to buy into your case, your argument must have a clear and logical flow. Each of your key points must be bolstered with evidence. If you leave your listeners with doubts or questions, your logos is not strong enough.

To use logos effectively, consider the main points of your message. Ask yourself what you need to prove so that your listeners will agree with you. Ideally, you should be able to condense each of your main points into two sentences, a claim and a warrant. Your claim is the position you are trying to argue. Your warrant links evidence to your claim. For example, let us say you are advocating for a bigger HR department at your company. Your claim could be, “Our HR department is far too small.” A good warrant would be, “Our company has a thousand employees, which is too big for an HR department of three people.” It helps if you add details and data to your points, especially if they are very specific. You could say, “We are buying too much printer paper,” but you will sound more persuasive if you say, “According to our accounting department, we are buying 3.5 times as much printer paper as we need.” Remember, if you are introducing data or facts that are not common knowledge, make sure you cite your source of information. Furthermore, if you are giving a presentation, it is helpful to include charts or graphs to illustrate your evidence.

In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting illegally in that year’s presidential election. Shortly afterward, Anthony embarked on a speaking tour throughout Monroe County, New York. In her speech, titled “Is It a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?” she established her logos by using language from the U.S. Constitution. She argued the Constitution said, “we, the people,” not “we, the white male citizens.” She quoted historical figures as well as contemporary politicians from different parties arguing for the rights of all citizens. Anthony even briefly acknowledged the opposing argument that states should decide who can vote; she logically refuted this idea, referring to both national legislation and presidential statements.2 Anthony’s rational appeal bolstered her conclusion that women should be free to vote.

Pathos

Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.” Your audience will respect your message if you are credible. They will listen to your message if it is logical and intelligent. But they will act on your message if they genuinely care

2 “The Trial of Susan B. Anthony,” Federal Judicial Center, 2005, https://www.fjc.gov/sites/default/files/trials/susanbanthony.pdf.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 5 of 7

about it. This is why you must infuse your persuasive communications with pathos, or emotional appeal.

Pathos requires you to be your most empathetic self. You and your listeners must experience the same feelings, whether they are positive or negative. You remember from Winning that a leader must be passionate about what they do. A strong sense of pathos will demonstrate your passion and instill passion in your audience, too.

To be clear, using pathos does not necessarily mean reducing your listeners to tears. It only means evoking an emotional response, which you can accomplish through a number of tactics. Think carefully about your choice of words in your message. Telling someone that sales are “going up” sounds good. But telling them that sales are “skyrocketing” sounds way more impressive. If you are delivering a presentation with visuals, use images to your advantage. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does this extremely effectively in its TV commercials. Instead of just telling you about how many animals are abused in the U.S., the commercials show pictures of those animals. Conversely, if your topic is light enough, feel free to use humor. An audience that can laugh with you will be relaxed and receptive to your message.

In 1999, political activist Elie Wiesel gave a speech in Washington, DC titled “The Perils of Indifference.” His speech was meant to encourage his listeners to reject apathy and act when they see injustice. To accomplish this, Wiesel told stories about his time in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. He used phrases that were memorable and emotionally driven, such as, “So much violence; so much indifference.” He also used vivid imagery and powerful rhetorical questions: “When adults wage war, children perish. We see their faces, their eyes. Do we hear their pleas? Do we feel their pain, their agony?”3 These rhetorical choices touched his audience and urged them never to be indifferent to suffering.

Hooking Your Audience

Have you ever spoken to someone and noticed them getting easily distracted? Perhaps they broke eye contact with you, fidgeted, or yawned. While these actions come across as rude, as a business leader and professional, you cannot blame your listener for being distracted – you did

3 AmericanRhetoric.com, “Elie Wiesel – The Perils of Indifference,” YouTube, March 17, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpXmRiGst4k&t=175s.

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 6 of 7

not properly grab their attention.

Your listeners’ time is valuable. If their curiosity is not piqued at the very beginning of your message, they will be bored. Worse, they will resent you for wasting their time. Hooking the listeners’ attention right away is critical to keeping them receptive to your entire message.

Think about a great presentation you watched. Did the presenter begin by saying, “This is my topic?” Probably not. They found a better way to get your attention early. Hooking your audience is easy if you use the right tactic. For example, surprise your listener with an unexpected fact or a startling statistic. If the topic of your message is appropriate, you can begin with a joke or even a pop culture reference. Always make sure that your hook is relevant to your topic. The hook should not be too long, either. You should be able to grab your listeners’ attention in five sentences, or about thirty seconds of a presentation.

Persuading by Storytelling

Listeners like jokes, and hearing a mind-boggling fact will make them eager to learn more. But the strongest way to win your audience’s attention is to create a narrative. This is an illustrative, detailed story that exemplifies your points or arguments. It demonstrates why your topic is so important and relevant to your listeners. When an audience hears a well-crafted narrative, they should be able to insert themselves into the story.

A strong narrative has three key components:

• Subject: someone listeners can identify with and support

• Action: what the subject does, or what happens to the subject that changes their status quo

• Result: what happens now that the status quo is different

Stories can be hypothetical or even fictional. So many commercials tell these kinds of stories – a character tries a new product and they are instantaneously happier. The best narratives for your messages, however, are real-life stories. Telling your listener about an actual person whose life changed humanizes your topic. It reminds audiences that people just like them are

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Week 7 Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1206) Page 7 of 7

affected by a policy, trend, or idea. One of the reasons Malala Yousafzai and Elie Wiesel’s persuasive appeals were so powerful was because they told anecdotes about themselves. They gave detailed accounts of events that happened to them. Listeners cannot just dismiss their topics and say, “This does not matter.” Not only did they tell stories, the two linked those stories back to their main arguments. Yousafzai talked about the adversity she faced on her educational journey, and then talked about how children all over the world face similar struggles. Wiesel told stories from his own life, and used them to remind his listeners what happens when they are indifferent. By the end of your message, listeners must empathize with you. Listeners should also know exactly what you need them to do in response to your message.

Looking Ahead

In this lecture, we discussed the artistry behind powerful persuasive communication. We analyzed three rhetorical appeals, as well as how to illustrate your message with hooks and narratives. Persuading listeners means reaching them on an emotional level. It also means convincing them their response is essential to achieving a shared goal. They must know what to do and how to do it.

In the next lecture, you will learn how to give powerful presentations. We will discuss how to create visual aids and slides that communicate information effectively. We will also explore how to deliver presentations in ways that impact your audiences.