Margaret’s Persuasion Coach Blog

The Harry Potter character Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, can teach us muggles (non-magical folks) a lot about persuasive communication, and we don’t need magic wands or spells to emulate him. We only need to keep our wits about us....

As I’ve written in Bridges to Consensus, my “Silver Rule of Consensus” is, “Avoid or minimize wrong making.” When we make others wrong, as by directly contradicting or arguing with them, labeling them with negative terms, or the like, they instinctively resist. Many...

Contrary to popular belief, even mature people who are decidedly bad at the key leadership traits of communication and relationship building can improve dramatically. Two Harvard Business Review bloggers found that executives who were judged worse than 90% of their...

Your e-mail service or ISP goes down. You forget to charge your phone or tablet. Your computer crashes. You’re speaking to someone on the phone, and she says she can't understand you; the signal must be weak. You receive a hard mail letter dated a month ago or an...

A true story from a friend illustrates four principles of effective interpersonal persuasion. First, less is more. Second, people tend to live up to your sincere confidence in them. Third, a special personal touch can be more persuasive than mere words. Fourth, if...

As my clients, trainees and readers know, paraphrasing is one of the workhorses of my communication and consensus building tool kit. Restating another person’s words in different terms proves that you listened to him and got the point. This, in turn, makes him more...

In Bridges to Consensus, I recommended three mental or spiritual values that support good consensus building and communication practices: compassion, calmness, and curiosity.  I recommend regular meditation as a way to foster the second value, calmness. Now I’d like...

I have written in the past about the importance of a positive or optimistic attitude when approaching a consensus seeking conversation, or any other important endeavor for that matter. People tend to live up, or down, to the expectations they sense from us. Moreover,...

A recent study at Case Western University indicates that we can't think analytically and empathetically at the same time. Most people's brains automatically choose the proper network, analytical or empathetic, for a given task. Perhaps more importantly, when the...

In last week’s post, I raised a chicken-or-egg question based on the recently discovered correlation between trustfulness and ease of reading people. Does trustfulness actually improve our ability to spot the bad guys? Or do people with good intuitions have the luxury...