To be a good leader, you must communicate well.
Cambridge University lecturer Simon Lancaster says that the power of persuasion lies in our ability to manipulate listeners brains. He suggests that we can win support by tapping into peoples cravings for brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. When we do this we boost the feeling of confidence and social connection and ultimately earn their attention.
How do you frame a persuasive speech?
Lancaster outlines the tactics that leaders like Steve Jobs used to grab listeners attention, ignite their emotions and impress their intellect. To do this you must activate and persuade all three parts of the brain, “the instinctive, the emotional and the logical brain.”
| The “instinctive brain” controls unconscious actions, like breathing. It scans our environment for potential danger. | The “emotional brain” makes chemicals that builds confidence or fear. When activated, people act with enthusiasm or passion. | The “logical brain” is the newest but the largest part of our brains. It judges the credibility of information and ideas. |
The first step in winning support is appealing to the brain’s instinctive level.
Leaders fail when they try to persuade an audience with a logic only argument. As listeners, we don’t consider an argument’s logical point until we sift it through our instinctive brain and then through our emotional brain. Most of us are unaware that we don’t pay attention until we’ve made an instinctive judgment about whether the speaker is a credible leader. As a speaker, you should begin every pitch by appealing to your listener’s instinctive brain.
To connect with the instinctive brain, we must focus on its primary concerns of “safety and rewards.” A leader can reduce fear about safety by creating group cohesiveness. In primitive times, gathering in groups was a way to defend against attack. The brain rewarded this behavior by releasing oxytocin, a chemical that enhances feelings of closeness and connection. Leaders who effectively unite groups can unleash the reward system of oxytocin and captivate their audience instinctive minds.
The way you breathe sends a silent message to your audience’s instincts. If you breathe quickly and speak in short sentences, you communicate that you share their fears. If you breathe deeply and talk in long sentences, you reassure your audience’s instincts that you can calmly meet any threats. So, use a lower vocal register and exploit the power of pauses. In normal conversations, pauses feel awkward – but in a speech pausing after each important idea conveys boldness.
The second step is to engage the emotional level of the brain to motivate listeners to take action.
The most famous speeches of all time where given by leaders like Winston Churchill and Martin Luther King who appealed to the emotional brain that rallied listeners to face the great challenges of war and racial inequality.
Story telling stimulates powerful brain chemicals that stir emotions. A story is not actual reality – even if you are relating a historical event, you are asking listeners to imagine the scenes you express – but the brain responds as if the events are real. The brain releases the same chemicals when experiencing imaginary events as it does when experiencing reality. A vivid character in a story can stimulate the secretion of the connection building chemical oxytocin. Conflict and tension induce the stress chemical cortisol. And the resolution of the story stimulates the chemical reward of dopamine.
Every time Martin Luther King repeated the phrase “I have a dream” in his famous speech, it gained emotional power. Churchill achieved the same effect with, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields.” People organically speak repetitively when they are angry or upset. By mimicking that tendency, you convey a sense of genuine emotion even when you’re reading a script. When you set up a predictable pattern for your listeners, you reward them by fulfilling their expectations.
The third step requires us to appeal to the logical brain with facts and statistics.
The logical brain isnt a computer, it doesn’t dispassionately crunch data. The left side of the brain analyzes the meaning of the words, while the right side infuses the argument with rhythm and patterns. Detecting patterns is one technique the brain uses to judge the soundness of an assertion.
You can be more persuasive by incorporating patterns into your speech, such as the “Rule of Three”. Your facts, value points and proposals are more persuasive when you present them in groups of three. This framework builds a perception of completeness, confidence and faith. Advertisers use threes in “Snap, Crackle, Pop” or “Beanz Means Heinz”. Most people naturally use the rule of three to describe what they are passionate about.
Actionable Take-Aways
Persuasion is a process of presenting arguments to move, motivate, or change your audience by connecting to different levels of the brain. The first step is to use the tactics directed at the instinctive level, such as empathy or metaphors. Continue with tactics appealing to the emotional and the logical levels.
Solution in Action :: Imagine you are explaining a strategy to your employees and one of them raises a difficult question. Your first step is to reassure your staff members that you have their well-being in mind, perhaps by using a family metaphor to describe the workplace. Then move to the emotional level. Boost their confidence and sense of connection by praising their work or recounting the story of the company’s founding and mission. Appeal to the logical brain by offering a group of three performance goals. Starbucks describes its mission as “one person, one cup, one neighborhood.”
Figure out what your audience needs, safety, connection or self-esteem. When you provide for their needs, you will win their support.
