HOW GREAT PR PEOPLE SELL THEIR IDEAS

Stop and ask yourself "How well am I doing at winning the hearts and minds support of those most important to my success?"
Then ask "What is the cost to me and my organisation when peers, staff, customers, suppliers and others fail to understand and fully support my ideas and strategies?"

Influence is the currency of leadership. Those who fail to sell their ideas will whither; those who embed their ideas with others will win. Influencing is not compulsory, but neither are successes nor even survival.

How can you improve your success rate? Here are three suggestions to start:

• Narrow your targets
  Support from everyone is an unlikely outcome. Who are the few who will make the most difference? Focus on these and you will bring others along later. This also allows you to be more specific in touching these targets, and so avoid the meaningless abstractions toted out by those trying to appeal to everyone at once.
  
  
• Avoid the cult of the core message
  When have you ever changed your mind after reading someone else’s annual report, or their glossy brochure? Do you even read these? Information alone, including most carefully crafted core messages, does not move hearts and minds. Just because most others believe it doesn’t make it so. Examine the evidence of your own experience and those around you. Then abandon this notion. Look to the tools of dialogue, persuasion and emotional communication for success strategies.
  
  
• Sell the problem first
  Too often leaders and other persuaders rush to sell us a solution without ensuring that we first see the problem as worth solving. We live in the most over communicated society in history and are awash in ideas for action. People have become experts at ignoring even good ideas because they do not have the bandwidth to receive and consider everything coming at them. However, their radar does lock on to problems that do or might affect them or those they care about. So first ensure the problem is real and vivid to them before you share your ideas and proposed action.
  
  

Start today adopting these approaches into your routine communication and action and notice the difference in the support you earn.

Geoff Kelly is an expert in leadership influence and communication. He works with corporate leaders and service professionals who are frustrated that others don’t fully support their ideas.
Access free resources and subscribe to the monthly ezine Leading Minds at www.kellystrategicinfluence.com.au, or email gkelly@kellystrategicinfluence.com.au.