How does persuasion help?“I think I should drop my work half the way” Keerthi was lamenting to her father. She continued “Two years have passed by, but I haven’t had any break-through. There are several roadblocks” Her father was listening patiently and then he replied calmly “Life is all about meeting challenges. Nothing will come and knock at your doors if you don’t try. Be brave and fight it out.” Keerthi was pursuing her research in the field of genetic engineering. She found her team members were not quite supportive and her coach wasn’t giving much time to her. Nevertheless, the persuasion of her father gave her the spirit to challenge, and she got her research degree and is a leading scientist.
Simon wrote a letter to his father from Kota. “Dad, I want to be honest with you. I don’t think I will be able to make it out to IIT, “The course is quite tough, and I am just not able to compete with my classmates. How do you think I would be able to compete in a larger context? I would like to return home and accept a lesser challenging course and taste success than failure.” Simon’s father was worried. He had spent a lot of money on him already. He counselled Simon “You seem to be suffering from a truncated opinion about your own self, I know your capabilities. All that you need is focus, attention and the willpower. I am convinced that you are capable of much more and you will certainly make it. Don’t suffer from a sense of self-defeat.” Well, years after Simon became the chief Engineer of an MNC after completing his Masters in IIT, thanks to his father.
There is someone always behind everyone just to persuade, give a word of encouragement, a word of advice, a word of hope or to suggest a way out to overcome our fears and our sense of despair. Persuasion is the lubricant one applied to the resistance in our mental machine. That lets us to rethink, reengineer, discover and navigate through difficult situations.
Like Keerthi and Simon, there are many people waiting for a little of persuasion. In one’s studies, in one’s workstation, in one’s competitions, in one’s life struggles, persuasion helps. Persuasion helps-
It could do magic in several other dimensions.
“Persuasion, indeed, is a kind of force. It consists in showing a person the consequences of his actions. It is, in a word, force applied through the mind” says James Fitz James Stephe It is a few minutes of time that one allots to the needy, it is a few powerful words of hope that one gives the depressed, It is one direction that is shown to one appears lost, It is one single opportunity that is given to a person to realize his identity and realize the potential, that is the story of persuasion. I have heard in several cases “Sir, you lighted the fire in me,” “Madanm that ray of hope you had shown me” are words frequently transacted from the beneficiaries.
“Persuasion can be implicit or explicit and can have both positive and negative effects. In this chapter the importance of ethics will continued to be reviewed, especially related to presenting motivational arguments to your audience so that they will consider your points, adopt your view, or change their behaviour.” Says a source from the Open Library.
Persuasion often awakens the spirit of an individual, it fires the sense of enterprise, it heals the sick mind, and it makes the convalescing person to get up and walk. “Persuasion is often more effectual than force,” said Aesop. “A little more practice, you win” – the athlete draws all the inner energy to reach the winning point. “Never think, because you come from a poor family, you will not be able to do like the rich”- many rural students have excelled and demonstrated competencies better than the underprivileged.
“Persuasion is not a science but an art” said William Birnbach, the person who persuades needs to understand the design of his words, the power they carry, the context in which it is said, the implications and impact it will make on others, the extent to which it could be applied and the time to withdraw such persuasive acts. Sometimes an overdose of persuasion could also create frustration.
Edward Murrow remarks “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful” If the profile of the individual persuading others is fragile, its value will be insignificant. The amount of trust the listener has on the persuader is directly proportional to the impact it makes.
How does Persuasion differ from Motivation? Here is where one finds the answer in the literature at the Open Library - “Motivation is different from persuasion in that it involves the force, stimulus, or influence to bring about change. Persuasion is the process, and motivation is the compelling stimulus that encourages your audience to change their beliefs or behaviour, to adopt your position, or to consider your arguments.”
“Don’t persuade me to do this. I will crumble” -the words and feelings of the person who is being persuaded needs to be taken note of. Any act excessive persuasion could lead them to escapism and truancy. A doctor persuading a patient to take up a surgery, a dietician persuading a patient to follow a prescribed diet, a salesman persuading a customer to buy a product, a boss persuading an employee to take up some additional work, a teacher persuading a student to better his performance, a mother persuading a daughter to follow a cultural perspective, a leader persuading his followers to vote, a change manager persuading the team to adopt a new technology, a spiritual guru persuading the listeners to accept a belief system are but a few practical examples of how persuasion is in play in social dynamics.
Thomas Carlyle said, “Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.”
To the question of a friend whether persuasion is an act of influence, I must reply through the words of Robert McKee “Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.”
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