We’ve been discussing the PIP way toward success. PIP which stands for executive presence, influence, and persuasion has a very important role in the success of an individual.  Executive presence is the inspiring quality the individual possesses to act effectively and inspire coworkers to do their work and succeed in the work they do. The second factor ‘I’ stands for influence stands for the ability to change the belief system and attitude of the individual and open up your way towards success. We’ve also come across the 10 factors that affect the influential skill of an individual. The last factor that stands for P is persuasion. 

Persuasion is an act of presenting ideas, arguments, etc to move to motivate or change the audience. Persuasion and influence can often be confusing. Persuasion can be both implicit or explicit and negative or positive. Persuasion can influence both your personal and professional life.  

The effect of persuasion depends on three factors, namely, they are:

•  the source: The source is concerned about who delivers the message
• message: It  is the quality of the message itself 
• the audience or the target represents the one who receives the massage. 

Through these persuasive skills, you’ll be able to impact the audience, boost performance and attain the necessary goals that you desire and thus succeed in your life. By now, you may think persuasion to be a theoretical construct difficult to explain in real life But, let me make it clear for you. 

Imagine you’re working In a multinational company and you’re the team leader of a work. During the onboarding process, you are suddenly hit with an excellent idea. So this might not come into practice without any effort. For this, you might need to pitch your ideas to top-level managers or people so as to get them approved. This is where the importance of persuasion comes into play. When you present your idea, you should be aware and be ready to constructively present the ideas and persuade the people so as to get it implemented. This suggests that persuasion can be an important factor in the success of an individual.

Though the word might sound simple and familiar, it has a lot of significance and inner meaning. Persuasion is generally of three types

1. Logical

When you take into account logical arguments, data, evidence, and testimonials for the act of persuasion it’s generally categorized as logical persuasion. The arguments or ideas are presented using logical frameworks rather than criticizing their perspectives or arguments.

2. Ethics

You are easily able to persuade people who trust and believe in you. This is where your credibility plays a role. Who you are, your qualifications, qualities, etc can contribute to the credibility of the individual.  Building credibility is definitely not an easy task. It might take a lot of time may be years t create that proper image for yourself. Being impulsive can hinder your reputation or profile.

3. Emotions

As the word suggests, emotional persuasion happens when you persuade the individual using their emotions. During emotional persuasion, the persuader is responsible for the actions and is always advised to consider all aspects before proceeding. Religious and political campaigns are often conducted using emotional persuasions.

Steps in developing persuasive skill

Now, in order to successfully persuade you should master the skill. Time, practice, and consistent efforts can help you in mastering the skills. Let us look into some steps that you can adopt to develop such a skill successfully. 

1. Developing communication skills

      Communication skills are the primary step necessary for the act of persuasion. Speaking clearly, avoiding confusion mid-conversation, using simple and positive vocabulary, and maintaining your credibility can all affect how effectively you persuade people.  You should sound simple and appealing rather than complicated and confusing which makes it easier for the listener to listen effectively.

2. Build Emotional Intelligence 

      Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your as well as other emotions effectively and manage them effectively in a positive way. While you engage in persuasion, you should consider and evaluate the feelings and emotions of others and address them. Situations, where you may likely apply the skill, may vary from time to time, but you should be aware of the surroundings and customize the persuasion technique according to the situation.

 By mastering emotional intelligence, you get a hand on the emotions of others and can effectively apply the skills to sound confident and intimidating.

3. Listen actively

    Listening doesn’t just mean being able to hear what the person is saying, active listening involves being able to listen and understand what the person says and also the blind spots.  One should respect their feelings, perspectives, and emotions while listening. It’s important to build trust, talk with confidence, make them comfort the table, and avoid interruptions for effective persuasion.

4. Applying logics

The concepts that seem logical and evidence-based may be easily undertaken by the person. Gathering enough comprehensible data, allowing people it examines and interprets makes a room for the individual to create trust and comfort. Application of logic can help the person in trusting the information as well as the person thereby improving the chances of effective persuasion.

5. Improve interpersonal skills

Maintaining good and effective relationships is an important step toward persuasion. Interpersonal skill is the ability to interact effectively and maintain meaningful relationships with people. it is important to be natural, genuine, and charismatic while trying to create a meaningful relationship.  This improves your chances of developing good credibility opening up for a course of effective Persuasion.

6. Master the art of negotiation

Negotiation is a strategy that resolves an issue in an acceptable way that both find acceptable. It involves compromises from both ends to avoid conflict and arguments. So as to convince people, it’s important to state the positives and the negatives to them so that they have a clear understanding of the topic.

 Once, all the positive and negative consequences and the ideas are stated, people can start identifying the compromises from both sides. Using the principle of reciprocity, compromising a little from your side can help in receiving a good deal from the other person. Negotiations can often be trying and may involve a lot of effort, so be prepared for multiple rounds and being patient are very important.

So persuasion is an important factor that can aid the success of an individual. Though the factor doesn’t ensure success, it can definitely contribute to helping you in achieving success. Thus, over a course of the week, we’ve discussed the PIP way of defining success. Though initially, it didn’t seem to be contributing factors towards success, after evaluating, we’re sure these have some serious roles in aiding it. Executive presence, influence, and persuasion can have a significant impact on productivity and the result of the desired work. 

Key takeaways

• Persuasion is an act of presenting ideas, arguments, etc to move to, motivate or change the audience
• Persuasion should be done constructively and strategically. Any wrong move can have its counter effects
• Persuasion is depended on three factors, namely source, message, and audience.
• Three types of Persuasion involve, ethical, emotional, and logical
• There are a series of steps one should follow to develop this important quality of persuasion.
• Persuasion can have a significant impact on the productivity of desired work.