One of the most dramatic and important moments in American history was marked by what did not happen rather than by what did happen, and it’s all because of the masterful persuasive power of George Washington.
On March 15, 1783, General Washington attended a meeting of mutinous officers who were angry about not being paid by the Continental Congress and who were agitating for a march on Philadelphia to take over the government. If this happened, the ideals for which they had fought in order to earn their independence from Great Britain would probably have died. The revolution would have thrown away its high-minded legitimacy and the United States as we know it would probably never have come into existence.
The principal focus of Practical Eloquence is how to communicate your ideas persuasively to others and drive decisions favorable to yourself. But in this post I’d like to switch roles and look at things from the point of view of the recipient of persuasive messages.
In business and indeed in daily life we are often compelled to make decisions based on specialized information provided to us by others. These people have their own persuasive intent when they present their material, so it behooves us to apply certain tests when we listen to them.
There are two ways to approach the question. One is to apply your critical thinking skills to evaluate the content of the presentation: the facts, logic, premises and conclusions. This is of course much easier to do when you are very familiar with the material yourself.
Sometimes, though, you are in the position of listening to an “expert” who knows far more about the subject than you do, and it can be very difficult to evaluate claims and statements that deal with unfamiliar and specialized knowledge. You may be in this position as a business leader who has to make a decision based on a presentation by a technical expert. Of course, as a reasonably informed member of society, you face this challenge daily when you read opinion or editorial pieces in the newspaper or magazines.
Since you can’t always have the luxury of educating yourself thoroughly on the subject matter, is there an alternative to taking what they say on faith alone? I believe there is: you can pay attention to how the presenter goes about their argument, and gain some valuable clues that can supplement your gut feel. There are four things that I believe you should listen and look for when someone is delivering a persuasive presentation—that is, when they are trying to make the case for a specific investment or decision.
Empiricism: There are a lot of excellent books on the market that tout the importance of stories and passion in presentations, and I do believe that most business presentations can benefit from more of both—as long as they are not substitutes for solid content. Do they have facts and measurements to back up their statements, or is their presentation a tissue of unsupported assertions? Like all other listeners, I respond to stories and passion, but when these two are present, I make an extra effort to look a little closer just to make sure I’m not getting carried away by the presenter’s enthusiasm. Stories are great vehicles for presentations, but never forget that the plural of anecdote is not data. Because our minds give disproportionate weight to vivid details, we need to take special care to listen for hard facts when the story is good. And because emotions can be contagious, we also need to take special care when the speaker is especially passionate about their topic. While passion is a very good quality to have, it may also be a sign of emotionalism unsupported by logic.
Precision: This goes hand in hand with empiricism. How well defined are their terms? Can they give real examples? Beware of those who wield long words like decorations, as if to say, “Look how smart I am.”As an example, one of the least precise terms I hear people use a lot during sales presentations is productivity, as in: “My proposal will increase productivity.” What is the precise definition of productivity? It is basically outputs divided by inputs, and therefore is specific to each situation. What outputs will increase or improve, and which inputs will decrease and how will those be measured? In a recent presentation in one of my classes, the salesperson gave real examples of how their customer’s sales force could eliminate specific steps in their processes and accomplish more in every sales call. He showed impressive knowledge of his customer without expressly calling attention to the work that went into acquiring that knowledge.
Humility: I’ve said before in this blog that projecting confidence can have a significant impact on your persuasiveness as a presenter. For that very reason, if you’re on the receiving end of the presentation, you need to be on guard against excessive confidence on the part of the speaker. Sometimes people are very sure of themselves because they haven’t bothered to pay attention to evidence that contradicts their point of view. Researchers who studied over 2000 corporate executives’ estimates of their own knowledge levels found that over 99% were overconfident[1]. That’s why as a listener, you should also want to see if the presenter’s confidence is tempered with humility. Humility is a badge of intellectual honesty. Those who are open to question, who admit that they don’t have the perfect answers, may just be the ones who have arrived at their conclusions after deep questioning and looking at opposing points of view.
Completeness: Your final responsibility as a listener is to think about what the speaker is not saying. Effective presentations are incomplete by design, because good practice dictates that you choose a particular focus and stick to it. So, if you need to make an important decision based on their presentation it’s your responsibility to consider the larger picture. What questions are raised by their presentation? What did they leave out? How does their proposal fit into the bigger picture? If this is an internal presentation, how well does the proposal align with the company’s strategies and initiatives? Have they considered unintended consequences? Have they considered the full range of possible outcomes from worst to best case?
I first started thinking about this article when one of my students asked me for tips on how to listen to a presentation. In this article, I’ve tried to improve that initial inadequate answer I gave him, but in the spirit of humility and completeness, I welcome your suggestions for things to look for while listening to a presentation.
[1] Research by Paul Schoemaker and J. Edward Russo, cited in Why We Make Mistakes, by Joseph T. Hallinan.
Prime time in any presentation is the first 60 seconds after you begin. By the end of this time, most members of your audience have already formed important judgments that will affect how your message will be received, or even if it will be received at all. Just as in competitive diving, your entry will have a disproportionate impact on your score, except that in presentations your goal is to make a large splash rather than a small one.
Unfortunately, the first 60 seconds is also the time during which most speakers are at their worst. They tend to be nervous, boring and sometimes even offensive, and it takes far more time to undo a bad impression than to create one. Let’s take a look at what speakers do wrong when they begin their presentations, and what you can do about it:
I know that a common theme of this blog is that content is king, but there are times it has to take a backseat and let ethos drive the persuasion process.
Along with logic and emotion (logos and pathos) ethos is one of the three legs of Aristotle’s persuasive triad. There are times when the messenger is as important as the message, when the speaker’s presence and behavior provide eloquent testimony to the cause they represent.
The messenger’s credibility and authority is especially crucial when the listener will not respond to logic. The Egyptian regime refused to listen to any logic that would threaten its power, and the Egyptian people had for too long been afraid to act on the logic that finally led to its uprising.
So, when Wael Ghonim spoke on Egyptian TV after his release from detention, it was his ethos that gave his words power. Let’s take a look at some of the components that contributed to his credibility:
