A ristotle’s Model of Communication was primarily aimed at persuasion. If you needed to persuade or influence someone you simply had to follow his principles of Ethos, Pathos and Logos, and voila you have them hanging on to your every word.
What is this?
Ethos is the personal credibility of a person, his competance or a proven track record of achievements would establish this considerably. So obviously when an authority on a particular subject speaks, people listen.
Next comes Pathos or the relationship that one has with the people he is talking to, if he has established a good rapport or connection, then that would go a long way in his ability to persuade people.
Finally we have Logos, which is the logic behind the argument. Now according to Aristotle, he says, nobody will accept your logic or be persuaded by you unless you follow the sequence of Ethos, Pathos and Logos diligently.
Coming to think of it, it’s simple and yet brilliant.First you need to establish your credibility with an audience, then form a relationship with them and only then do you become belivable enough to get your point accepted.
Closer to our time, in 1998 an article in the Harvard Business Review titled “The Necessary Art of Persuasion,” by Jay Conger, an Organizational Behaviour and Research Professor in Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College presented a different view of persuasion. Jay Conger said that to be persuasive you must provide four critical elements: Credibility, Common Ground, Vivid Evidence and Emotional Connection.
Persuasion is important, because when you want to achieve your objective, you need people to help you do that. Now its possible to threaten, bully and brow beat people to do something for you ,but that woud’nt last long, because when they are forced to do something for you, they might let you down at the slightest opportunity.
Jay Conger says, “It’s important for people to understand persuasion for what it is – not convincing and selling but learning and negotiating.”
So in this model too, one can observe the emphasis on establishing credibility, an expert opinion does make a difference in how people percieve the situation. Next there must be common ground, people must see a benefit in the whole idea and it should appeal to them. Further it should be backed with compelling evidence that can bring the idea to life. And finally remember, no amount of persuasion is complete without the all important emotional connect.
R A Nadesan is an executive coach, behavioural and soft skills trainer with a pan India presence. He can be reached at ranadesan@yahoo.co.uk