The Power of Persuasion
Lydia finished putting her notes in a neat stack on the desk while a few students finished finding their seats in the small, packed classroom. Other staff tried to convince her to hold her classes in bigger rooms, but she refused. She liked the personal touches of addressing fewer students. She could see their faces, learn their body language, determine how interested they were, and make changes along the way to pick up interest. Some students would even repeat an occasional class, because she never held the same class twice. A plethora of knowledge, she would always reveal different things each time. Even though she seemed to have rigidness in her lesson plans, she would customize each presentation based on the students present.
Lydia walked to the front of the class and calmly waited until the students hushed their conversations. It never took much time. She took a deep breath and began.
Good evening.
My name is Lydia Tolmay.
I will be spending the next hour with you discussing the powers of persuasion when it comes to business politics. I thank Mrs. Anderson for allowing me to guest lecture for this part of her eight week course.
I will continually reference the 2003 Harvard Business Review article entitled "Change the Way You Persuade" by Gary A Williams and Robert B. Miller. A copy is provided with your course syllabus. Williams and Miller explain that we are each different people. A trivial idea, I know. We each have entirely different viewpoints on the world around each of us. This gives us different motivations. The true art of persuasion is tailoring your arguments to fit the person you are trying to persuade. When approaching someone in business, or in any area, you have to address their personal concerns and show them the benefits of what you are trying to achieve.
Lydia finished putting her notes in a neat stack on the desk while a few students finished finding their seats in the small, packed classroom. Other staff tried to convince her to hold her classes in bigger rooms, but she refused. She liked the personal touches of addressing fewer students. She could see their faces, learn their body language, determine how interested they were, and make changes along the way to pick up interest. Some students would even repeat an occasional class, because she never held the same class twice. A plethora of knowledge, she would always reveal different things each time. Even though she seemed to have rigidness in her lesson plans, she would customize each presentation based on the students present.
Lydia walked to the front of the class and calmly waited until the students hushed their conversations. It never took much time. She took a deep breath and began.
Good evening.
My name is Lydia Tolmay.
I will be spending the next hour with you discussing the powers of persuasion when it comes to business politics. I thank Mrs. Anderson for allowing me to guest lecture for this part of her eight week course.
I will continually reference the 2003 Harvard Business Review article entitled "Change the Way You Persuade" by Gary A Williams and Robert B. Miller. A copy is provided with your course syllabus. Williams and Miller explain that we are each different people. A trivial idea, I know. We each have entirely different viewpoints on the world around each of us. This gives us different motivations. The true art of persuasion is tailoring your arguments to fit the person you are trying to persuade. When approaching someone in business, or in any area, you have to address their personal concerns and show them the benefits of what you are trying to achieve.