The Necessary Art Of Persuasion Analysis

The article "The Necessary Art of Persuasion.” written by Jay A. Conger offers a new way forward for providing leadership of people. He recognizes that today’s society has changed its expectation on how teams should function. Today’s team members have an expectation that they should be treated as valuable resources, they should be recognized for the unique perspectives they bring, and be able to have some role in making decisions. The concept of a leader’s role has changed as well, it is not about disciplining the troops, using shame or threats to keep them contributing, quite the opposite. A leader is expected to be inspiring and inclusive. It would seem that in this scenario that the leader’s role as been severely diminished, how are …show more content…
The power of persuasion relies of a persuaders credibility. Two focuses for credibility are expertise and relationships. A persuader must be an expert, or employ an expert, to bolster their position on a topic. A persuader must cultivate relationships with their stakeholders, people are wary of strangers, thus are less likely to be influenced. Effective persuaders use this time to develop and understanding of what motivates the stakeholder and to refine or revise the original goal based on their input. By doing this, the persuader develops an understanding of how to properly frame the goal of a project so that the stakeholders involved will see how it benefits …show more content…
Using the developed framing and having incorporated stakeholder input the persuader presents a compelling position to them. This part is nuanced, it is the artful part of the process but is by no means the most important. When the stakeholders see their ideas woven into the solution and when the risks of inaction or action are on their terms the sell easy.
Perceptions
The art of persuasion is a tricky skill to tout. It is my experience that people are ever-vigilant to what in this world is attempting to persuade or manipulate them into doing something they may otherwise not. Taking a reference from the Abrahamic faiths, persuaders are characterized as manipulators or snakes, akin to the devil. Like many of our fears there is some truth to this, but it belies the utility that can be found with this skill.
The truth is that all methods of leadership can be seen as a sort of manipulation. A leader’s function is to provide direction and to make decisions that will lead a team to a profitable future. To do this the leader has to get the team to do what he dictates, to behave in the way he want’s. Bullying manipulates by forcing people to ether lose their job or to do exactly as they are told. Persuasion manipulates behavior by convincing people that it is the best way forward for