Persuasion: The Art Of Influencing People [Paperback]

James Borg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0273688383 | ISBN-13: 978-0273688389 | Publication Date: July 2004

"This book should be on every individuals bookshelf!" Sir John Harvey Jones We all rely heavily on our persuasive powers every day - whether you are trying to get people to agree with you, influencing others to make a decision, asking for something, or attempting to bring about a change of behaviour or attitude in others, your success will depend on how persuasive you can be. Persuasion is key to personal and managerial success. Whether it's in your professional or your personal life, so much of your success in persuasion is down to a combination of self-assesment and situational assessment - being aware of what's going on inside you and being aware of what's happening around you. And the good news is that there are a set of golden behavioural rules that will boost your persuasive powers and get a positive result for you with increased regularity.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Persuade Anyone!

 

Gain the ULTIMATE competitive advantage–at work and in life!

 

Master the 7 ESSENTIAL SKILLS that win hearts and minds!

 

Practical, easy, effective!

 

We all know people who are incredibly persuasive. With effortless charm, they manage to somehow gain our trust, interest, and support, time and time again. Is it a gift they are born with? Is it all an illusion?

 

No, it’s the art of persuasion, and you can learn it too.

 

Based on years of analyzing the behaviors and mind-sets of the most persuasive people around, Persuasion gives you the magic formula to master the power of persuasion–the ultimate way to achieve success in work and life.

 

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Foreword by Sir John Harvey-Jones MBEAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. The power of persuasion: How empathy and sincerity work wonders for you 2. Being a good listener: Why listening is so crucial 3. Attention please: Keeping attention where you want it 4. Mind your body language: How to read signals from others and send out the right ones 5. Memory magic: The impact of good recall and simple tips to improve your memory 6. Make words work for you - the power of psycholinguistics: Success can depend on saying the right thing at the right time 7. Telephone telepathy: Learn to use the telephone to your best advantage and read situations better 8. Negotiating for mutual benefit: Understand the psychology involved, to achieve the best possible result 9. The personality spectrum: How to identify successfully and deal with different 'types' 10. Persuasive power in action Appendix: Answers

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Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: Pearson/Prentice Hall Business Publishing (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273688383
• ISBN-13: 978-0273688389
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tremendously interesting and pretty instructive book!, December 27, 2004

By 

Branislav Rabotic (Licensed Guide and Lecturer) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Persuasion: The Art Of Influencing People (Paperback)

This is a practical, readable and most of all tremendously interesting book from the field of communication skills and inter-personal relationships. Though it is written for general public and intended to facilitate our professional and personal face-to-face relationships, it can be extremely helpful for `business people' and all those dealing with other individuals or groups, such as tourist guides and interpreters. In the latter case, they will find the book instructive on how to carry out presentations and manage their groups more effectively.

The book describes various skills of controlling the audience's attention, among other topics. You can learn how to recognize (in)visible signs of a breakdown of attention of your audience, to `read' the body language of people in your tour groups, and to generally win more attention while guiding. You'll find here how to pick up signals as to how you are coming across, retrieve the situation if somebody is resistant, choose the right words to get results in any situation, and more.

The text of this book is written in a charming way with a lot of examples from everyday life, given in special 'boxes'. Each chapter is followed by a small test, so the reader can check out his understanding of the subject. Even though you might think of yourself as a persuasive professional, there is always enough space for further improvements. James Borg's book is here to help you in that direction, and not only in your professional milieu.

This review refers to the paperback edition, published in October 2004. At the moment, it is available from Amazon.co.uk

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Overview of Persuation, October 30, 2007

By 

K. Scott Proctor (Wilmington, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Persuasion: The Art Of Influencing People (Paperback)

James Borg offers an overview of the art of persuasion in this good book. The book offers a good balance of important ideas and straightforward presentation.

In a more general sense, this book serves as a good starting point for more thorough reading on topics addressed in this book.

I recommend this as a primer for those interested in the art of persuasion. It should serve as a good reference base for learning about this important topic.

8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Lemon, September 13, 2005

By 

Karl (England, Great Britain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Persuasion: The Art Of Influencing People (Paperback)

1. If you already know a little about presentation skills:

This is the only book I've ever seen where the author claims that people pay maximum attention in the **middle** of a presentation, and least attention at the beginning and the end.

The rest of the content is of a similar quality.

2. If you are a newcomer to presentation skills:

Based on numerous studies of such things as "primacy and recency" (what was said first, and what was said most recently), it is generally acknowledged that people tend to pay most attention at the beginning of a standard presentation, nearly as much at the end, and least in the middle.

According to this book, however, and with no hint of an explanation or supporting evidence, the exact opposite is true.

The rest of the content is of a similar quality.

It is possible, of course, that I have misunderstood the author's intended message - in which case I guess that simply demonstrates that the explanations in the book are even worse than I thought they are.