Aristotle believed master connectors followed a simple recipe whenever they attempted to persuade their audience. I believe Aristotle got this one right. The three Greek words ethos, pathos, and logos still have power when it comes to persuasion. Let’s unpack ’em a bit. Ethos translates to the English word ethic and in the art of persuasion is all about establishing, first, that your character has credibility. Nobody listens for long to someone whose ethic they question.
Again, this is another “why” behind building your CORE and authoring your OPUS. You are credible when you’ve deeply answered the big questions in life and decided to live your life accordingly. And, you are most credible when you have committed to becoming a domain specific expert on mastering your OPUS. Ten thousand hours of studying, learning, and applying, please. And, always just a little bit more…
Pathos translates to the English word passion. A credible ethos that attempts to persuade on data and analytics alone comes up wanting. All decisions are emotional, remember. All. Your ethos, laced with real emotion, carries your message from heart to heart. Speaking from the heart is powerful persuasion when the heart is full and the emotion is authentic. Master connectors speak from the heart.
Logos comes last, logically. Yes, logos translates literally to logic. Your argument needs to follow a flow. If you want to persuade you must master being ccd (clear, concise, and direct) when it comes to our logos. Many an argument is lost because the logic wasn’t failed, it was simply too lengthy and lost ’em somewhere before the punch line. Swing and a miss. Remember, you need a lawyers argument without a litigators longevity. ccd is the one you want.
Ethos, pathos, logos are Aristotle’s recipe for persuading your audience. You most likely have invested too much time on your logos and too little on your ethos. A little more time on number one, please. A little more time on ONE…
BUILT TO LEAD 