The Key to Persuasion - It's who you ARE

Believe it or not, I love a good argument. There is nothing that gets the mind thinking and the heart pounding than taking a position and persuading the other person to adopt it as his own.

As a teenager, I was a member of the debate team in high school and remember how we articulated our positions and rebutted the opposing party's point of view.

At that time persuasion for me was the challenge of looking at the another person's arguments and then poking holes into the logic that went into taking those positions.

So I get a kick out of watching the show "Square Off" on ANC, I literally get teary eyed and admire the brilliant young minds who are contestants in the show. I hope that this confession is not freaking out any of you who read my blog. :)

If not my love for business, I would have probably pursued a career in law.

There is beauty in persuading someone using a logical argument that what you believe is right. But surprisingly logic is not enough to move an audience to accept or adopt a new point of view.

John Dickson, the author of the book "Humilitas" writes that even Aristotle who was a master of formal logic concedes logical argument or logos alone is not sufficient to persuade.

Why? Because we are not just intellectual beings, but we are also social and emotional beings and these factors must be considered in our arguments.

In addition to logos, we need pathos (emotions) and ethos (character).

Pathos is the component of the argument that appeals to our inner self, our emotional and aesthetic needs, to our experiences. This is where we are convinced by someone's argument not because of his logic but because of his wits and his ability to move our own emotions given our life experiences.

That which is true, argued Aristotle, will also be beautiful and compelling, thus appealing to someone's emotions.

Being an Apple fan, I think about the iPad I use and say to myself, it not only makes me more productive (logos), it is also a thing of beauty with the aluminum casing and the beautifully designed curves at the edges (pathos).

Now not only should arguments possess logic and emotions. It must also address a third component, a social and ethical dimension which Aristotle calls ethos.

Ethos is the ability to the speaker to convey integrity, truthfulness and believability. So the argument does not only have to be logically sound and emotionally appealing, it must also be delivered by a person who is of integrity - the speaker must be a person of character.

In fact, Aristotle went as far as arguing that it is the speaker's character that is the defining feature of persuasion.

In Aristotle’s own words: “we believe fair-minded people to a greater extent and more quickly than we do others on all subjects in general and completely so in cases where there is not exact knowledge but room for doubt.”

This is better known as the "sociology of knowledge", where we form our positions with the help of the personalities involved in a particular issue.

It makes sense to believe in Warren Buffet who made his fortune in investing in great companies with integrity, when he talks about what company's stock to buy, more than say Bernie Madoff.

I'm sure that his arguments are logical, but he also has the pathos andethos to back it up.

Are you finding yourself unable to persuade others? Aside from the logical arguments, appeal to a person's emotions and last but not least be a person of character - the first two won't matter if you don't have integrity.

If you say the sky is falling enough times, when it isn't - people will not be persuaded when the day comes that it really is. The key to persuasion is not only the message, but equally the messenger.