Persuasiveness
Persuasiveness is a soft skill that concerns the process of convincing a person to carry out an action or agree with a particular idea.
In fact, persuasiveness is strictly connected with the concept of influence. This is the ability of a person to affect, to shape, to change the opinions, the behaviours, or the actions of other people without necessarily having a formal authority over them. In other words, influencing is a soft or a personal power, independent of one’s positional power. Persuasion skills allow an individual to get a good job done and to achieve desired outcomes without coercion. This skill can be learnt, and it’s a key part of the ability to influence others to achieve your goals and objectives.
Persuasion involves several other common soft skills. To indicate a direction, you must design a path, align, and support your followers, creating a group commitment through interactions with others. Specifically, a person with persuasiveness must be skilled in the following areas:
- Clear communication. Well-developed communication skills are the basis for building your persuasive skills and entail writing and expressing yourself clearly, briefly, using nonverbal gestures, applying a variety of communication styles and a vocabulary that a large amount of people can understand.
- Emotional intelligence. It’s a skill that allows us to understand the feelings of others and respond appropriately. A person with a developed emotional intelligence should be able to find out when others are feeling upset or intimidated. Thanks to this new information, you will be able to adjust your persuasion tactics to try to calm them or ease their concerns.
- Active listening. Listening also involves being attentive and respectful during conversations. Before persuasiveness happens, you will necessarily need to know and understand the concerns, the arguments, the thoughts of the others. Giving them time to share their opinions will make them feel comfortable, considered and valued and can contribute to building mutual trust.
- Motivation. Motivation is useful for creating a climate in which people become engaged and empowered. In general, people will be more receptive to the influence of a person able to motivate and spurred on.
- Logic and reasoning. Many effective and persuasive arguments are constructed using logic and reasoning. The use and the share of logic and reason, using facts to support your view, are fundamental. A logical mindset is useful for designing convincing persuasive arguments.
- Interpersonal skills. They are based on the ability to create positive interactions and maintain meaningful relationships with other people. In this sense, being persuasive means genuineness, being natural, charismatic, able to begin conversations or establish relations.
- Negotiation. You may need to be able to facilitate a compromise to persuade them to participate. To do this, you will have to understand the needs, find a way to meet those needs and negotiate an arrangement that pleases both sides.
Activity
Name of the activity:
Why not?
The aim of the activity:
Turning a “no” into a “yes”
Skills that the activity develops
Persuasiveness, interpersonal skills and communication
How many people the activity is suited for:
2 or more
Time requirement of the activity:
1-2 minutes
How many instructors are needed?
_
What is the role of the trainer or instructor?
_
Other requirements for the activity (space, equipment…):
Open floor space
Describe the activity in a clear and concise manner:
Why not? Technique is useful for turning a “no” into a “yes”. You should propose something to a person, and he/she must not be convinced. Then you ask this simple question to force him/her to think and express concrete and logical objections. These objections are easier to manage instead of a straight answer; in this way, you can find arguments to counter them and, little by little, weaken them. The final step is the agreement between the parts.
References
- Mongeau P.A., Stiff J.B., Persuasive Communication, 2002
- www.ccl.org/articles/white-papers/learn-persuasion-skills/
- www.efficacemente.com/lavoro/persuasione/
- www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/persuasion-skills
- www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/persuasion-skills.html