Understanding and improving your influence and persuasion skills.

The level of your influence and persuasion skill is a vital factor in your success with your career, personal and professional relationships. The power of influence offers an advantage to induce others to adapt to your opinions and pursue certain actions.

You need to have significant influence in order to persuade somebody to change his views especially if you are in a leadership role.

A mother has to have a certain influence over her children, a manager toward her subordinates, and the salesman on his prospective client. It involves the ability to affect the listeners' emotions.

Influence and persuasion strategies.

• Communication style.

Adopt a communication style that appeals to others. People perceive you from the way you talk and present yourself.

Is your communication domineering, intense, graceful or polished? Do you portray as a person who is positive and trustworthy? Do you speak at or to your listener? How do you make people feel when they hear or see you or when they are around you?

How you come across to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear make a difference in other people's decision making process.

You can improve your style by understanding that different people have different and preferred style of communication and perceiving. Some prefer to listen, others would want to see, while another group are affected only if they could feel you or what you are suggesting.

If you are presenting your ideas to a group of people, you should negotiate your power by adapting your style to suit all. Let them hear, see or feel your views.

• Using the right words.

A few people may get turned off when they hear a certain word repeated. When you consistently use "I" in your conversation, people assume that you are self-centered and care more for yourself than their interests.

Avoid using negative words or phrases if you intend to lead, influence and persuade. Your language affects your ability to influence. Pay attention to your language and gestures and use those that will encourage others.

• Tell a good story.

You can narrate a good story or use humor, to expand his mind. You can use a good story to motivate and inspire people to take action. You can use humor and wit to make others feel comfortable and interrupt patterns of thoughts.

Reading the writings of inspiring people and events give you the added material to share with others. People in general do not like to read and by sharing your vast storehouse of knowledge and stories, you appeal to them, become believable and improve your influence and persuasion skill.

People are lazy to think and story telling allow them to open up their minds to picture a situation or feel an event.

• Your image and the first impression.

A good self-image and having a significant amount of self-esteem build your self-confidence. Your personality, charisma and attitudes are contributing factors in influence and persuasion.

People make an immediate decision to like you or otherwise from the first few second when they meet you. You need to make a good first impression in order to create the power to influence and the ability to persuade.

• Give people the reasons for change and a different point of view.

The need for influence and persuasion happen because you need to change a person's point of view. It is either to agree to do something that they are not motivated to do or to get someone to buy from you; your product or ideas.

Without knowing why he should do what you want him to do, he is not inspired. You need to induce him to change how he feels by giving him strong reasons to do so. You are able to do so by telling him the benefits of the action.

• Give before you take.

Listening attentively is a gift of friendship and shows that you are interested in others. Before others will listen to you, you need to hear. People need attention and by giving that you become likeable. When people like you, they listen to what you have to say and model your behaviors and attitudes.

You can give money, time or commitment, depending on your capability. Do it sincerely and you will not only gain more friends but you will improve your influence and persuasion on others.

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