The Art Of Persuasion: Effective Communication Strategies For Founders
As founders, we tell stories to make our ideas come to life. We tell stories to pitch ideas, get buy-in from stakeholders, and convince people to join our companies. Effective communication and persuasion is essential in moving people to action and critical for any founder’s success.
Many people get extremely anxious about public speaking. We don’t always know how to communicate in ways that are engaging, memorable and that result in action we want. It’s easy, but wrong, to assume that effective communicators like Steve Jobs were born with those skills. There are small things we can tweak about the way we craft and deliver messages that will make them vastly improve and resonate.
According to Stanford Strategic Communication Lecturer Lauren Weinstein, what creates influence in order of importance: passion, knowledge, voice, presence, and content. People communicate visually, vocally, and verbally (the actual content of what we say). Here are four ways to make yourself a more effective communicator.
1. Lead With Warmth
According to a Harvard Business School study, there are two qualities that form 90% of others’ impressions of us: warmth and competence. When speaking publicly, we tend to pepper our speeches with logic and data to prove we are rational and knowledgeable. However, this creates distance between us and our audience and can lead our audience to label us robotic and untrustworthy.
Instead, we should first exude warmth and then over time show competence. Warmth appeals to people’s emotions and makes us appear likeable and trustworthy. Use stories during your speech to convey warmth. Nonverbal cues matter more than the actual words we say. According to cognitive scientist Jerome Brunner, “Stories are about 22 times more memorable than facts alone.” Therefore, we are more likely to remember and embrace a fact when it has been conveyed in a story.
2. Convey Big And Open Body Language
Surprisingly, how you convey your message is much more important than the content. Research shows that nonverbal communication carries more impact than actual words spoken. We make snap judgements to determine whether a speaker is competent, credible, or trustworthy based on subtle, nonverbal cues according to Gary Klein’s The Power of Intuition.
To communicate effectively visually, focus on your body language. Women tend to cross their arms and legs making them appear small and withdrawn when on a panel or giving a talk. Take up space — when giving a talk on stage; stand in the center of the stage with your feet parallel to each other, legs hip-width apart, and your hands flat by your sides. Walk from one side of the stage to another when you are transitioning from ideas in your talk. Use your body language to convey openness by using expansive gestures to emphasize your points. If appropriate, place your hand over your heart to convey warmth during your speech.
If you are speaking on a panel, maintain excellent posture to convey gravitas. Cross your legs at the ankle to appear confident. Connect with your audience and demonstrate warmth by making eye contact with individual people in the room.
3. Include Vocal Variety And Pace For Impact
Nonverbals allow for greater impact. Delivery gets you off the ground, and content gets you where you want to go. Then focus on vocals and align your content and voice. Your vocal variety, or the tone and energy we put in our voices must match the content of our talk. Pause and slow down when speaking to give weight to what you are saying.
The free mobile application VoiceVibes Recorder enables you to upload your speeches to get feedback on your pace and vocal variety, filler words like “um,” “like,” and offers tips to improve. Another recommendation is the $4.99 mobile app LikeSo which acts as your personal speaking coach. LikeSo offers fun and effective exercises to train against bad verbal habits and helps you practice speaking articulately and confidently.
4. Use Persuasive Frameworks For Content
Lastly, here are two structural frameworks to help you form the content of your talk. These are particularly useful for impromptu speaking. The first persuasive framework is “Problem — Example — Relevance.” Start with a problem, give a story as an example to bring it to life, and then explain why it is relevant — why it matters and is important.
During Q&A sessions, the second framework of “Answer — Example — Relevance” is useful. When asked, “How does your product work?” use this framework to explain how it works, provide a relevant example, and why it should matter to your audience.
