The art and science of persuasion is part of the innovation journey.
It’s one thing to invent something new or better, it’s another to persuade those you seek to serve that you’ve invented something new or better that’s valuable to them. Converting your invention to innovation may also involve persuading collaborators, investors, regulators, partners, and other stakeholders.
If you’re ever struggling to persuade or looking to level up your persuasion skills, there is no shortage of resources you can turn to: an Amazon search alone will pull up over 10,000 results for books on persuasion.
In my experience, asking yourself one simple question can help you solve most of your problems of persuasion:
Have I earned the trust of the person I am trying to persuade?
If you can’t answer that question with a confident yes, work on earning trust and the persuasion is much more likely to follow. And if you can answer with a confident yes, continue working on earning their trust: trust is easy to overestimate and you can never have too much of it.
P.S. My new book co-authored with my Spotlight Trust co-founder Rick Kitagawa is coming to where books are sold soon! It’s called The Future Is Trust: Embracing the Era of Trust-Centered Leadership. For more info on the book and to subscribe to receive exclusive pre-order offers, visit TheFutureIsTrust.com.
