Persuasive Communicator

Harvard Business Review Editorial Insert April 2023

PERSUADING OTHERS THROUGH WORDS is a goal rooted through centuries of history. From the time of Cicero to the present day, public discourse is accompanied and supported by this noble and ancient art. But persuasive communication is also the tool capable of resolving conflicts, promoting knowledge and at the same time creating complicity, emotion, enthusiasm. A method can guide us on this path.

Every communication may or may not make a breach, and the choice of whether to accept the new information that is proposed to us, or that we propose to our interlocutor, depends on multiple factors. Many of which are more intimately linked to the forms of the relationship than to the mere information content that is exchanged. These include people’s habits and attitudes, the tone of voice they use, the speed at which they speak, the amount of information they consider necessary to explain themselves (‘straight to the point’ or ‘long, detailed introduction, to facilitate full knowledge of the topic’?), the preferred physical distance, the postures and gestures used, the use or avoidance of glances, the contact (pleasant or unpleasant), the facial expressions in response to the things we say or are said.

Each of these communicative signals determines a difference in the relationship, and this is always the case. Each ‘ingredient’, i.e. each characteristic and behavioural style expressed, can spontaneously create bonding and synergy between people: the ‘perfect recipe’ for building a solid relationship or realising a win-win agreement in negotiations. Or it can turn our encounter into an unpleasant and unproductive social or professional circumstance, which generates frustration, anger, demotivation and a desire to walk away in us and our interlocutor.

Our behavioural styles reveal a lot: what we are like, what we aspire to achieve, our preferences and habits, what or who we like, what or who annoys us ‘by skin colour’. And all this almost always happens outside our awareness, automatically. It is possible, however, to learn to pick up on these signals, in ourselves and in others, and to gradually construct a method that allows us to know what to say and how to say it in relation to the context and the interlocutors, and in this way be able to overcome resistance and acquire full awareness of what is happening in the relational exchange.

The opinion we have of ourselves conditions relationships, it is the pivot on which self-esteem rests. But are we sure that the perception we have of ourselves coincides with what others observe? What words would others use to describe us: cool, open, optimistic, indulgent, careful, impulsive, direct, reserved, patient, precise, energetic, creative, etc.? The adjectives that describe us reveal the behaviours we are used to adopt (even those of which we are less aware): they are the summary of what is remembered about us. It is evident that we perform the same operation when describing others. Being more aware of this variability in perception and understanding how our behaviour is perceived is one of the most frequent requests we receive as consultants.

In recent years, we have introduced into our consulting and training offer a methodology from the United States, which is both innovative and practical, and which allows you to communicate more effectively with your interlocutors in every context.

The Persuasive CommunicatorTM by Persona Global is based on a personalised survey that outlines a detailed profile of one’s behavioural and communication style, and on classroom training characterised by an interactive approach: theoretical moments alternate with exercises and role playing, in a logic of constant and active involvement of the participant. The objective is to acquire a method for recognising the needs of others more quickly and effectively by observing their behaviour, and to develop the ability to adapt one’s own way of communicating to the peculiar characteristics of others in order to improve the effectiveness of communication and one’s own flexibility and relational empathy.