How can you persuade others and think effectively under pressure?

"2. Understand how to persuade others. Remember: we all must sell ourselves and our ideas to get ahead in life and in business. Influencing others means overcoming objections, igniting passions, or changing minds. The first step is to build esprit de corps, a shared enthusiasm and devotion to the group. Make your vision their vision so that everyone is working toward a common goal. Praise the team as a whole, but recognize the unique contributions different team members have made. The trick is to praise everyone but for different reasons. When you and your team successfully solve a problem, change will result. Persuasion rests on trust. You can build trust by being honest, fulfilling your commitments, being concerned about others, and minimizing problems and pain for others whenever possible. In short, if you have integrity, building trust becomes a simple task. When people raise objections to your plans or ideas, try to fully understand their comments and the motivation for making them. When you feel that you understand the true objection, answer the objection in the form of a benefit: “Yes, you will need to work next Saturday, but then you can have compensatory time off anytime you wish next month.” Determine your persuasion skills by taking the quiz in Table 17.1. Fun Self-Test—Can You Persuade Others? Rate your level of agreement with the statements below using the following scale: Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree 1. I prefer to work in a team rather than individually. 2. I enjoy motivating others to help accomplish objectives. 3. I avoid working with difficult people or trying to resolve group differences. 4. I can learn more working in a team rather than working by myself. 5. I would prefer to work with individuals I have known previously. 6. I give up if my team members do not agree with me. 7. I may not always convince my team members to agree with my opinions, but I will go ahead and do what I feel is correct. 8. I think people who can persuade others always possess sound judgment. 9. I will do the work myself if others do not agree to do it. 10. To get the work done, I will listen to a person to understand how he/she wants it to be done. 11. I can get people to voluntarily make commitments and get the work done. See the scoring guidelines at the end of this chapter to obtain your score. Table 17.1 It will not happen overnight, but you can become an outstanding thinker and speaker. A simple technique is to set a timer for two minutes and ask a friend to begin speaking. When the timer goes off, your friend stops speaking, and you begin talking. The challenge is to use the final thought that your friend spoke as the first word of your two-minute talk. Another technique is to have someone supply you with a series of quotes. Then, without hesitation, give your interpretation."