Neuroscience has shown that effective and persuasive communication doesn’t depend only on what you say, but also on how the brain processes information.
When you activate the emotional space of the right brain (which we’ll call the Sage), you connect with empathy, understanding, and clarity.
This mode allows you to connect more deeply with others, making your messages more convincing and influential.
Neuroscience discoveries can be used to achieve your communication goals.
By unlocking the potential of the Sage (located in the right hemisphere and prefrontal cortex), you fully harness the power of your brain to communicate, inform, or persuade others.
Here are five strategies to increase your influence.
1. Building Mental Fitness for Persuasion
At the foundation of persuasion is Mental Fitness, a concept that emphasizes the power of openness, focus, confidence and clarity while keeping the self-sabotage system at bay.
Mental fitness refers to a state of wellbeing in which you can effectively manage your emotions, handle stress, and maintain a calm and balanced mindset. It involves developing resilience, self-awareness, and concentration even amidst life’s distractions.
Mental Fitness is about refining the cognitive and emotional skills that enable optimal performance in various aspects of life, including effective communication and persuasion.
To increase your Mental Fitness, you must first identify the inner Saboteurs that generate your negative emotions. The second step will be to develop the ability to intercept and “discredit” the Saboteurs. Subsequently, you’ll enhance your ability to command your mind to shift from negative to positive. Finally, by strengthening the positive brain muscles, you can fully leverage their powers.
Here’s how.
Intercept Your Inner Saboteurs
Saboteurs are internal enemies. They are automatic and habitual thought patterns, each with its own voice, beliefs, and assumptions that work against your best interests.
They are divided into ten varieties, with names like Controller, Victim, Stickler, Pleaser, Avoider, to name a few.
If you want to discover what’s working against you internally, ask me for the Saboteurs assessment, so you can begin to intercept their lies and limiting beliefs.
Enhance Your Self-Command
The great wisdom and strength of your Sage reside in the belief that any problem you face can be a gift and an opportunity.
Your Saboteurs mock this perspective, and instead make you feel anxious, frustrated, disappointed, stressed, or guilty about “negative outcomes.”
Keeping the sabotaging brain region (amygdala or reptilian brain) quiet and amplifying the Sage region gives you greater access to your valuable “Sage” powers.
These powers allow you to face any work or life challenge without the stress and anxiety caused by Saboteurs.
Simple daily exercises help you enhance your ability to command your mind to keep the Saboteurs region quiet and amplify the Sage region.
Strengthen Your Inner Sage
Mental fitness is connected to the Sage and its powers.
To strengthen your Sage, practice shifting to its mode whenever you feel stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, regret, shame, guilt, or unhappiness.
In these moments, put into practice the 5 Sage Powers to respond, rather than letting your Saboteurs take over.
- Explore: Try to identify exactly how things stand and evaluate situations with an open mind.
- Empathize: With yourself and others to bring compassion and understanding.
- Innovate: To create out-of-the-box solutions for an ongoing problem.
- Navigate: To choose a path that aligns with your deep values.
- Activate: To move forward with decisive actions without distractions.
Taking the test to discover your Saboteurs allows you to measure your level of mental fitness.
2. Building Trust and Connection to Gain Credibility
Your Sage is fundamental for effective persuasion. It serves as a channel to build trust and connection with your audience.
By activating this area of the brain and empathizing with your audience’s needs and aspirations, you can establish a deep connection that forms the basis of authority and persuasive communication.
The Sage is like a bridge connecting your intentions with your audience’s receptivity.
When you communicate from a place of energy and emotion, you radiate authenticity, empathy, and credibility.
This authenticity builds trust, which is essential for persuasion. People are more inclined to be persuaded by someone they trust and with whom they connect personally.
To effectively harness the power of the Sage, you must understand your audience’s mindset and adapt your message accordingly. You can do this by empathizing with their needs, concerns, and aspirations to formulate your message in a way that resonates deeply with them. This connection lays the groundwork for successful persuasion and paves the way for positive outcomes.
3. Addressing Internal Sabotaging Objections and Overcoming Them
One of the biggest obstacles to persuasion is your internal resistance, which manifests in the form of Saboteurs.
Saboteurs are the internal voices that undermine your efforts and hinder effective communication. They manifest as self-doubt, fear, and negative self-talk, and can sabotage your persuasive efforts if left unchecked.
Even to address sabotaging objections from your audience, you need to plan and devise positive and “sage” modalities. Never respond with your own Saboteurs to others’ Saboteurs, but rather formulate responses that are not of rejection or conflict, but that neutralize the impact of the current Saboteur.
For example, if the objection is rooted in fear of change, you can address it by highlighting the benefits and positive outcomes of embracing change.
By reframing objections as opportunities for growth and improvement, you can transform Saboteurs into allies.
4. Creating Emotional Connection with Your Audience
A powerful tool in persuasion is the ability to create emotional connections with the audience. This goes beyond presenting facts and figures. It’s about tapping into the deeper, more personal aspects of human experience.
When you can evoke emotions such as empathy, trust, excitement, or nostalgia, you set the stage for a much more impactful and memorable message.
Identifying Emotional Drivers
To create emotional connections, first try to understand the emotional drivers that resonate with your audience. These drivers can vary widely based on demographics, psychographics, and past experiences. Conducting thorough audience research and empathy mapping can help uncover these drivers and guide your approach.
Using Storytelling for Emotional Impact
One of the most powerful ways to create emotional connections is through storytelling. Stories have the unique ability to engage our emotions, making the message more memorable and relatable. Incorporating personal anecdotes or testimonials can humanize your message to resonate more deeply with the audience.
5. Discovering the Audience’s Aspirations
Persuasive communication depends on a deep understanding of your audience’s aspirations, or their “bigger why.”
To discover the deeper aspirations, needs, and desires of your audience, identify with them, and repeatedly ask yourself, “Why is this important?”
Your solution must resonate with these aspirations.
In conclusion, persuasive communication is an art that requires not only verbal skills but also a deep understanding of how the human brain works.
By wisely using the strategies discussed, you can create emotional connections with your audience, overcome internal objections, and transform your messages into tools of change and influence.
Remember, the key to effective persuasive communication lies in empathy, authenticity, and the ability to understand and respond to your audience’s needs and goals.
With these skills, you are ready to achieve success and positively influence your world.
The Divergent Leader’s Advantage
For independent-minded leaders, this approach to persuasion offers a particularly powerful advantage. While conventional leaders often struggle against organizational inertia when introducing new ideas, divergent leaders who master these mental fitness techniques can create transformative change that extends far beyond their immediate sphere of influence.
By developing the ability to recognize and silence their own Saboteurs, divergent leaders can maintain their authentic vision even when faced with resistance. This mental clarity allows them to communicate their distinctive perspectives with both confidence and genuine openness—a combination that can catalyze meaningful shifts in thinking across entire industries.
The most profound impact comes when independent thinkers use these communication skills not just to advance their own ideas, but to create spaces where other unique voices can emerge. By modeling authentic leadership communication, divergent leaders don’t just transform organizations—they can reshape entire fields by legitimizing approaches that challenge established paradigms.
Free adaptation of an article by Positive Intelligence, of which I am an active member as a Leadership, Empowerment & Mental Fitness Coach.e influential and memorable
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