by Margaret Anderson | Mar 20, 2013 | 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....
by Margaret Anderson | Mar 14, 2013 | Blog
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...
by Margaret Anderson | Mar 6, 2013 | Blog
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...
by Margaret Anderson | Feb 27, 2013 | Blog
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...
by Margaret Anderson | Feb 20, 2013 | Blog
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...
by Margaret Anderson | Feb 13, 2013 | Blog
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...
