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Issue 2 > The three legs of persuasion.

The three legs of persuasion.

Chris Widener presents 'logic, passion and ethics'.

If you have heard me talk about leadership at all, you will know that I have a very simple definition of 'leadership'. Leadership is simply: influence. That's it. Simple. When you lead, you influence. To lead others is to influence them through various means to follow you to your vision of a preferred thought, belief or action.

One of the key ways to do so is to increase your ability to persuade people. Now, at first glance you may do as many do and think of persuasion as simply a verbal plea or argument (in the positive sense of the word) that seeks to change someone's mind. I want to focus in on what I believe to be a much more well rounded view of persuasion, one that has been around for many hundreds of years, and which, when applied, will increase your ability to persuade others, or influence them.

My basic points for this article are found from Aristotle's 'The Rhetoric'. They are what I call the 'three legs of persuasion.' Together they enable us to fully persuade people. Miss any of the three legs and it is like trying to sit on a three-legged stool that is missing one leg!

What are the three legs? They are:

• Logos—logic.
• Pathos—passion.
• Ethos—ethics.

Let's start with the two that are most prevalent—logic and passion—and end with what I consider to be the most important—ethics.

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