Persuading involves trying to convince one or more people of something. At a structural level, Yale University psychologist William McGuire broke the process of persuasion down into five key steps. Each step must be satisfied, or the persuasion process stalls and fails.

First, the speaker must win the attention of the listener, which is best done by creating a message that appeals to the listener.

Second, the speaker must assist the listener in comprehending the message. Clear language and vivid examples are very helpful.

Third, the speaker must secure belief from the listener. If the speaker has pre-existing credibility with the listener, this step is made much easier. Without pre-existing credibility, the speaker usually relies upon evidence that supports his or her message, as well as sincere enthusiasm about the message.

Fourth, the speaker must ensure that the listener retains the message, which is best accomplished by repeating the message several times. Obviously, the best speakers are extraordinary talented at using memorable catchphrases or catchwords that simply do not allow the listener to forget the message.

Finally, the speaker must request clear and prompt action.

Next time: “informing” communications.

Every communication has a purpose or multiple purposes. Even when you don’t think you have a purpose, you actually do. Sometimes it’s just entertainment. Often, it is a desire to learn. You will find it immensely helpful at the beginning of any communication to do a quick mental check of your purpose. Are you trying to persuade? Are you trying to inform? Are you trying to learn? Are you socializing? Or are you venting?

I then suggest forming a strategy to accomplish your purpose. In my experience, this is something very few people do, or at least very few people do well. They have a sense about the purpose of the communication, but they spend little time and energy in developing a strategy for accomplishing it. Ask yourself, what will define a successful communication. What do I need to do to achieve that result? 

Next time: “persuading” communications.

As the Bush presidency winds down, with more wreckage and destruction in its wake than perhaps any before, I am reminded of the 2004 book, "The Allure of Toxic Leaders : Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians--and How We Can Survive Them," in which Professor Jean Lipman-Blumen explains that there is a tendency among contemporary society to seek authoritative, even dominating characteristics among our corporate and political leaders because of our own psychosocial needs.

For Lipman-Blumen “toxic leadership” designates an extremely bad sort of leader. Toxic leadership is not about incompetence, lack of foresight, or run-of-the-mill mismanagement, rather leaders as predatory sociopaths. In business, these are the people who, for personal gain and aggrandizement, unapologetically destroy the companies they are hired to lead; who cook the books to inflate stock prices, use insider information to sell their own shares just days or hours before exchange regulations would make them culpable for doing so; who raid company pension funds as if they were a private treasury. In politics, these are the people for whom no malevolent act is out of bounds in the name of gaining and holding power; who sell access to the highest bidders; who pursue policies that abjectly favor the investment class while maintaining a populist rhetoric and scolding others for raising issues of class warfare; and who take us into prolonged and un-winnable wars on the basis of flimsy and false intelligence hyped to appear as solid information.

Lipman-Blumens’ core focus is on investigating why people will continue to follow and remain leaders, remain loyal to leaders, and vigorously resist change and challenges to leaders who have clearly violated the leader/follower relationship and abjectly abused their power as leaders to the direct detriment of the people they are leading. Lipman-Blumen suggests there is something of a deeply psychological nature going on. She argues the need to feel safety, “specialness,” and community all help explain this phenomenon.