Add 50% to your Value

https://hbr.org/2019/07/the-art-of-persuasion-hasnt-changed-in-2000-years?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

Yes, it’s a very click-bait title, but also very true. In this HBR article they discuss the keys to conversation and persuasion as relayed by Aristotle and Warren Buffett.

According to the article, Warren Buffet ” once told business students that improving their communication skills would boost their professional value by 50% — instantly.”

At once that seems hard to believe, but upon reflection makes total sense. How you communicate is how the world perceives you and either limits or enhances the opportunities you have.

Take the words to heart especially where the article discusses creating a story. Use this every time. Every powerpoint where you’re trying to persuade should include a client or prospect example to help people relate to what you promoting. Without that human tie-in your story, your persuasion, will fall flat.

Sources:

Original article from Harvard Business Review: The Art of Persuasion Hasn’t Changed in 2,000 Years

Image Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art.  “Aristotle with Bust of Homer” by Rembrandt 1653. Oil on canvas.
Label: “Among The Met’s most celebrated works of art, this painting conveys Rembrandt’s meditation on the meaning of fame. The richly clad Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) rests his hand pensively on a bust of Homer, the epic poet who had attained literary immortality with his Iliad and Odyssey centuries before. Aristotle wears a gold medallion with a portrait of his powerful pupil, Alexander the Great; perhaps the philosopher is weighing his own worldly success against Homer’s timeless achievement. Although the work has come to be considered quintessentially Dutch, it was painted for a Sicilian patron at a moment when Rembrandt’s signature style, with its dark palette and almost sculptural buildup of paint, was beginning to fall out of fashion in Amsterdam.”