How to Influence a Skeptical Audience in Three Simple Steps
May 11th, 2021
@11:00 AM EST
Being influential can be challenging in-and-of-itself; being influential with a skeptical audience poses its own unique difficulties. Engaging with people who seem dubious or doubtful in the face of your really good ideas can feel like being in a mental tug of war.
Andrea P. Howe, co-author of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook and Founder of The Get Real Project, will lead an interactive “deep dive” discussion on three critical steps required to help a skeptical audience hear what you have to say. Specifically, you’ll learn:
- Why you should actually celebrate that they’re resistant;
- How to open the conversation or presentation in an unexpected way that’s unexpectedly effective;
- Specific techniques to listen masterfully while your audience has their guard up; and
- How and when to bring your perspectives into the exchange.
A celebratory recap (con’t): four personal favorites
This post is part of our Weekly-ish Tips series.
The celebration of my recent 300thWeekly-ish Tip continues a little longer. Last time I shared seven “fan favorites”; this time I offer a recap of my own personal favorites.
I started with a list of 25 or so in a few different categories: my favorite rants, my favorite explorations of trust paradoxes, my favorite reflections on trusted advisor mastery as personal mastery. In the end, I chose to feature four favorites in the category of “humorous and/or clever but also poignant.” (Which also happens to be my favorite movie formula, but I digress.)
A celebratory recap: seven “fan favorites”
This post is part of our Weekly-ish Tips series.
The celebration of last week’s 300th Weekly-ish Tip continues. Here’s a recap of seven “fan favorites” over the years, determined by number of views and shares and other social media stuff that I’m glad I have others to help me understand.
Scan through the list and see which one(s) might be especially helpful for you right now:
A powerful combo to get unstuck: slack + support
This post is part of our Weekly-ish Tips series.
Image credit: Paul Harrop -www.geograph.org.uk
This is my second tip in as many weeks, following a choppy cadence for a year, and I am 10 times more confident than I have been in months that a more consistent future lies ahead. Reflecting on what’s different, I’ve uncovered a combination of enablers that are worth sharing for anyone aiming to create any kind of personal change—including the kind of change required to walk the talk of trusted advisorship.
