Am I convincing you?

Often, I do my best to be convincing when I have to, and I place all of my focus into the subjects or the ideas I want to promote to others or defend when they’re being attacked. Yet, after thinking about it, convincing is more a matter of style and approach than it is about rightfulness of the element I’m promoting. 

In other words, I’m far too technical, when I should pay attention to the emotional angles of the issues. This raises a fascinating but counter-intuitive point, as being convincing often does rely more on how we present our ideas than on the inherent correctness or righteousness of them. This is because persuasion operates much more on emotional than logical levels.

While truth or rightness may appeal to logic, human connections, biases, and perceptions often respond more strongly to style, tone, and delivery. One way to explain this is to compare someone presenting an idea with confidence, empathy, and clarity that comes across as more credible, even with highly questionable arguments as we see it all the time with politicians. 

Conversely, a perfectly valid point might fall apart if it’s delivered in a hesitant or disorganized way. This doesn’t diminish the importance of promoting truthful, meaningful ideas—on the contrary, it shows how vital it is to pair substance with an attractive approach. 

Tomorrow, we’ll explore how we can achieve that…