One of the most underutilized communication skills during the influencing process seems to me to be the valuable skill of painting a verbal picture. The idea for the influencer with this technique is to engender enthusiasm for a course of action or point of view by ‘painting a picture’ of a desired future state.
This skill is particularly handy for influencing where a common purpose, vision or another’s enthusiasm is missing, poor commitment levels are evident, “ho hum” attitudes exist or desired behaviors (required for success in a task) are not being demonstrated.
So how can we use this skill to influence others and what are the behaviors we need to adopt to use it effectively?
Firstly we must show appropriate enthusiasm
Share your own enthusiasm through your voice, intonation and body language when selling the benefits of the desired course of action for the individual you are trying to involve. If you just stand up and factually state what you want things to look like or outcomes you are seeking in a formal boring tone you satisfactory or inspiring picture will be created.
Paint a verbal picture of the future using descriptive language
Much as you would develop a corporate or private ‘vision’ you need to paint a picture of how where you and the other person will be or what things would look like and how much better they would be, especially for the individual involved if he/she (or they) comply, or better still commit, to what you are proposing.
Be brief or “broad brush” about your vision and don’t get bogged down in the details
Exactly how things will be done or the details can come once commitment has been obtained. Others are more likely to be enthusiastic about a ‘broad brush’ or ‘big picture’ ideas about a more satisfying future. I have seen this proven many times when conducting company vision sessions, great enthusiasm until the detailed WORK has to be done. So details should only be approached when “buy-in” is truly achieved.
Include the person you are trying to influence in the picture
Find out what benefits or situations are of interest to the other person by asking questions and carefully listening to the answers. Find out how you can align your desired future state with their aspirations and desires. Focus specifically on how they could contribute or become involved. Ask questions such as, what interests or excites them about the future and how they can see it contributes to their future.
If you would like to read other blog articles by Ric and you came direct to this page you can go to main blog by clicking on the white “orglearn.org” in the header panel above!
While you’re here if you can’t align your vision of the future with your current employer take a look at the free blank resume form and perhaps to paint a new future for yourself by following the link!
I recently read a great quote that I feel is appropriate here:
“The empires of the future are empires of the mind.” – Winston Churchill
Finally according to Marty Latz of the Negotiator Magazine: “Our tendency to be unduly influenced by such visual, emotional and flashy language (essentially verbal pictures) and to be less influenced by dull, statistical evidence, is called vividness bias.” So want to be influential and have people buy into you propositions? Perhaps this summary will help:
Enthusiastically communicating using descriptive language to paint a verbal picture of a desired future and placing the other person in the picture will help you to influence others to your vision.
4 comments
free magazines by mail says:
April 29, 2010 at 11:27 pm (UTC 0)
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Anonymous says:
May 2, 2010 at 10:16 am (UTC 0)
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Rozanne Grice says:
May 21, 2010 at 4:50 pm (UTC 0)
Hi Ric,
I know this may be a little offf topivc however need you know that there are some websites out there that let you view private Facebook profiles and you should beware of those that are trying to illegitimately access your confidential information.
Rozanne
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