LAERADESALLY

To understand both how to persuade and how to resist persuasion when we should, we must look at how persuasion works. Effective persuasion is a complicated process.
Five stages: awareness, understanding, agreement, enactment, and integration. Familiarity with these stages helps us see that persuasion is not an all-or- nothing affair. A persuasive message may be successful if it moves people through the process toward a goal.
The first stage in the persuasive process is awareness. Awareness includes knowing about a problem, paying attention to it, and understanding how it affects our lives. This phase is often called consciousness-raising. Informative speaking can build such awareness and help prepare us for persuasion. Creating awareness is especially important when people do not believe that there actually is a problem. For example, before feminists could change the way females were depicted in children’s books, they had to make people understand that always showing boys in active roles and girls in passive roles was a serious problem.
They had to demonstrate that this could thwart the development of self-esteem or ambition in young girls. Similarly, Anna Aley had to draw people’s attention to substandard student housing, and Bonnie Marshall had to start listeners thinking about who would make life-and-death decisions for them if they did not prepare living wills.

Effective persuasive messages strike sparks in the minds of listeners.
For instance, an example may remind listeners of a similar situation they encountered. An argument may generate additional supporting arguments or counterarguments. This interplay engages the audience in both critical and constructive listening. It invites listeners to participate in the communication process. Finally, the audience must understand how to put the speaker’s proposals into effect. Bonnie Marshall clearly spells out the steps she wants her listeners to take, enumerating these as she presents them.
The third stage in the persuasive process is agreement. Agreement means that listeners accept recommendations and remember their reasons for accepting them. Agreement can range from small concessions to total acceptance. Lesser degrees of agreement could represent success, especially when listeners have to change their attitudes or risk a great deal by accepting your ideas. During the Vietnam War, classroom speeches attacking or defending our involvement in that conflict were often heard. Feelings about the war ran so high that just to have a speech heard without interruption could be an accomplishment. If a reluctant listener were to nod agreement, or concede, “I guess you have a point,” then one could truly claim victory.
Often you achieve agreement by presenting indisputable facts and well- reasoned interpretations that make your conclusions seem beyond question. You can help listeners remember their agreement by providing vivid images or telling interesting stories that embody your message. While reasoning is important to secure agreement, stories and images will stay with your audience after they have forgotten the details of your argument.

Leadership styles are the various patterns of the manager’s leadership behavior. They describe the way leaders actually exert their influence.
All managers develop a style of leading or motivating subordinates. A leadership style can be defined as a pattern of behaviour designed to integrate organizational and personal interests in pursuit of some objective. For one thing, great success comes from hard work and practical experience. This a common assumption, but it is not always warranted. In such situation, for work group to succeed in attaining its goals, the manager’s leadership styles make the big difference.

Human behaviour in an organization is complex. A manager has to have the managerial capability for stimulating achievement and to exercise innovative leadership within his organization.
A manager possessed with innovative behaviour while maintaining his grip on organizational power, gives greater emphasis on the development of group values and attitudes. With his innovative behaviour and awareness, he solves managerial and organizational problems.
Innovative behaviour is oftentimes not what his subordinates expect. Because innovation creates uncertainty, it is sometimes unacceptable to the majority of the people in the organization. However, a manager should protect and encourage his people to develop to the maximum their potentiality in attaining not only organizational goals, but also personal gains.

Ours is a sceptical and cynical age, perhaps because of large-scale abuses of communication ethics. A4s promise that products will make us sexier or richer. Persuasive messages disguised as information appear in “infomercials” seen on television. Public officials may present suspicious statistics, make dubious denials, or dance around questions they don’t want to answer directly. Television networks have staged visuals to dramatize their stories. Talk show hosts may play fast and loose with facts and use inflammatory language. Our government has more than once subjected us to “disinformation” campaigns that deceive the public. Little wonder that people have lost trust in their major institutions.
As a consumer of persuasive messages, you can at least partially protect yourself by applying the critical thinking skills. As a producer of persuasive messages, you can help counter this trend toward
unethical communication. While ethical questions in communication are often complex, depending upon the interaction of topic, situation, audience, and technique, you can start by keeping three simple questions in mind as you prepare your persuasive speech:
What is my ethical responsibility to my audience?
• Could I publicly defend the ethics of my message?
• What does this message say about my character?
Your responses to these questions should light your way through the complexities of ethical persuasion.
An ethical speech is based fundamentally on respect for the audience, responsible knowledge of the topic, and concern for the consequences of your words. The guidelines in the Speaker’s Notes above should help you apply these precepts to persuasive messages.