Successful leaders follow a unique, almost hidden communication pattern to pass the "A" of the ACID test.
Grab the audience’s attention ► Stimulate desire ► Reinforce with reasons
C. Inspire Confidence,
I. Build Interest to where
D. Desire surfaces.
When 'desire' surfaces, the other person takes the lead in the conversation while you begin to provide the evidence necessary to justify your proposal.
Step 1: Getting the Audience’s Attention
In an experiment with 60 executives, researchers found the most important factors in grabbing their attention were:
1. A personalized message
2. Evoking an emotional response
3. A trustworthy source
4. Concise language
In fact, personalized messages that evoked emotion were more than twice as likely to resonate with the group.
Social scientists have shown that negative messages are more attention-getting than positive ones. To get an audience’s attention, share:
· Stories about the audience’s problems
· Stories about the problems’ worsening trajectory
· A relevant story about how you dealt with adversity
· A surprising question or challenge that will interest the audience--like "How well is _____ working for you?"