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In the Classroom II

A Shift in Perspective: Why Persuasion is Vital to Success

Charles Lindbergh was a 23-year-old unknown pilot. But he persuaded a set of backers to support his crazy idea of a solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927. "Lucky Lindy" didn't negotiate with the businessmen who put up the money and equipment for his flight. He won them over. "He persuaded St. Louis businessmen and an airplane manufacturer to believe in his dream of flying across the Atlantic," said Wharton Professor G. Richard Shell, academic co-director of Wharton's Strategic Persuasion Workshop: The Art and Science of Selling Ideas program and co-author of a new book, The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas.

Persuasion and other political skills are vital to career success, even for people who don't routinely sit down at a negotiating table. Inside organizations, "political skills are strong predictors of performance ratings of employees, often outstripping by far both intelligence and personality traits," said Mario Moussa, academic co-director of the program and co-author of The Art of Woo. Since studies have found that 95 percent of organizations are political "to some extent," persuasion skills are essential for survival and success.

Persuasion also is valued by markets and bosses. Research by Harvard economist Lawrence Katz, for example, shows that markets reward people with high social skills. Reporting on Katz's research in The New York Times, David Brooks notes that contractors who are skilled at working with customers more effectively can earn five times as much as colleagues with the same technical skills. An office worker who is charismatic and good at interactions can earn much more than a middle manager "who excels at routine tasks."

Negotiations, Persuasion and Influence

What is the difference between negotiation and persuasion? Shell and Moussa's new program and book on "strategic persuasion" grew out of Shell's work in leading the Wharton Executive Negotiation Workshop (and his related book on negotiations, Bargaining for Advantage). "We found that many of the people who came to that negotiation workshop actually had influence and persuasion problems," said Shell.

Shell and Moussa distinguish between influence, persuasion, and negotiation. Influence is the broadest activity. We are influencing people around us all the time, from a firm handshake to actions that create an impression. A homeless person screaming in the middle of the sidewalk can influence those around him, even though he has no direct impact or power over them. Shell recalled how his father, an Army general, drilled into him as a child the importance of a firm handshake, recognizing that first impressions were critical to influence.

Persuasion is influence with a goal or point of view. It is more intellectual and reason-based than influence. Persuasion is a factor when relationship is part of the equation. It is designed to cause other people to take an action, or remove the obstacles that prevent them from acting. It usually generates a win-win result. The businessmen who backed Lindbergh, for example, shared in his triumph and drew favorable attention to their city (his plane, of course, was called "The Spirit of St. Louis").

Negotiation, on the other hand, is a special case of persuasion — when one side perceives a potential conflict of interest. "One side feels that there is not enough of ‘it' to go around, so they negotiate over ‘it,' " said Shell.

Managers need skills in all three — influence, persuasion, and negotiation — and also need to know how and when to use each one. Skilled negotiators, for example, know how to separate out negotiation issues (points of conflict) and concentrate negotiations on those differences while using persuasion skills in other areas.  "You have to be able to move between these three modes if you want to be successful," Shell said.

Removing Barriers

Influence and persuasion are less about arguing a case than removing obstacles. "Influence and persuasion are not about home runs or magic," Shell said. "They are about removing barriers. If you remove barriers, you can have your case judged on its merits, which is the best you can do." This, of course, won't help a bad case. At the end of the day a masterful salesperson with a bad product may do worse than a mediocre salesperson with a dynamite product, no matter how persuasive.

While it might appear that the facts are the facts, this is not always so. In a courtroom, the persuasive style of an attorney might sway the jury to look at the facts in a certain way. "They make their decisions based on what the facts mean to them, not on the facts themselves," Moussa said. "You can't force people to change their minds. You can remove the barriers. It is getting the bricks out of the way."

Once the barriers are removed, however, the decision is often easy. "People persuade themselves," said Mario Moussa. "Look to create 'pull' rather than pushing ideas."

From Me to We

To be effective at persuasion, you need to see the world through the other's eyes. This shift in perspective is captured by perhaps the shortest poem in the English language, boxer Muhammad Ali's: "Me? We." It is this shift that is vital to effective persuasion.

Executives in the Wharton program examined videos of notable successes and failures in persuasion. These ranged from the hapless Yale graduate who made a videotape touting himself for a job at a financial services firm to the powerful connection between an Irish musician and the NAACP. The Yale grad's self-absorbed performance not only lost him the job, but the video made its way to YouTube where it offered an object lesson in how not to promote yourself. In contrast, musician and "woo master" Bono managed to connect in a very direct and persuasive way to the audience at an NAACP awards ceremony, despite the huge differences in background between the Irish performer and his largely African-American audience.

"One word distinguishes the two," said Shell. "Self-awareness. Bono was a master of self-awareness." He understood his audience and could connect to them in an authentic way.