How to Get More Attention for Your Looks or Your Ideas

My Psychology Today article today suggests ways to get more attention for your looks or for your ideas.

Using the Right Words of Emotion

The three major emotions are “happy,” “sad,” and “angry."  But using a more nuanced word may help you get what you want. My Psychology Today article today helps you do that.

The Case for Being a GoodAss

Today, a number of books and gurus urge being a BadAss: aggressive, tough, even intimidating. But my Psychology Today article today makes the case for being a GoodAss.

The Power of Color: An easy, yet powerful tool for influence

There is an extensive research literature.on the psychology of color. My Psychology Today article today offers some findings.

Communication Musts for People of Influence

I’ve written much on communication. My Psychology Today article today offers a distillation of what my clients and readers have found most helpful plus some new ideas. 

Leadership Lessons from Four Presidents: Part 1: Lincoln

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book is Leadership: in turbulent times. It profiles Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.

In this first installment of a four-part series in Psychology Today, I offer quotes from the book that address what made Lincoln successful. The subsequent installments will do the same for the other three.

Giving a Persuasive Talk

I’ve written previously on public speaking: Good Public Speaking Without Fear  and interviewed one of the world’s most successful speakers, Tony Robbins, in which he outlined the key to an effective talk.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I focus on a specify type of talk: the persuasive speech.  That can be as brief as a two-minute presentation at a staff meeting to a keynote speech at a convention.

Creating Connection in Conversation

A career counseling client of mine lamented that he never seems to make that seemingly magical connection that gets him the job. 

He mentioned that his wife does make such connection and got a job she thought she wouldn't get.
I explained that many factors could be at play and that some are out of his control but there are three things that may help. 

He found my describing them of value and so I wrote about them in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Tools of Influence: Excerpts from influential speeches that demonstrate powerful rhetorical devices

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer another approach. From 200 of the most influential speeches of modern times, I selected 11 excerpts that brilliantly illustrate a powerful rhetorical device.

And above is the YouTube video of me performing those excerpts. 

Irrationality and Human Behavior: An interview with Robert Shiller

Most prediction models assume that people act rationally. Robert Shiller won the Nobel Prize, in part, for adding people’s irrationality to those models.

My interview with him is my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Changing Someone's Mind

The American Psychological Association ranked Leon Festinger the 5th most influential psychologist of the 20th century. 

I was taken by his quote, "A person with conviction is a hard person to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show her facts or figures and she questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."

Changing anyone is difficult but there are mitigators. I list five in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

The Manipulator

In today's PsychologyToday.com article, I tell a short-short story of how someone used just one principle to manipulate many people to do what they didn't want to do. We're all more vulnerable to manipulation than we may realize.

Cultivating Charisma

I wish the world focused more on its steak than its sizzle but charisma is key to influence, and it's learnable. 

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer tactics derived from our most charismatic leaders.

The Manipulator: A Short-Short Story with Embedded Life Lessons

In an attempt to avoid the pontification and aridity of the how-to article, On PsychologyToday.com, I've recently been embedding psychological and other how-to-do-life issues in short-short stories.

Today's offering is about a life-long manipulator. Perhaps reading about his tactics will make you less likely to be taken advantage of.

The President Apologizes: A Short-Short Story About How to Win and Whether To

In an attempt to avoid the pontification and aridity of the how-to article, in my PsychologyToday.com articles, I've recently been embedding psychological and other how-to-do-life issues in short-short stories. 

Today's offering is about a person who did what it takes to become president and his epiphany on his final chauffeured ride from the White House.

Writing and Speaking to Effect Change

Like most counselors and how-to writers, my goal is to help people improve their lives.
In recent months, I've revised my approach to writing my Psychology Today articles. 

I recognize that these changes may reduce my credibility but I hope the articles are more helpful.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I explain the thinking behind the changes in hopes that it will help you to be a more effective change agent, whether you're thinking or speaking. 

A Reason So Few People Change Their Minds

A Lesson in Persuasion: The Feedback I Gave on a Job Seeker's Cover Letter

A client asked me to review a request for an informational interview that he was planning to send to nonprofit managers. He said, “Give it to me straight in the eye.” I did so. 

In response, he said that while difficult to take, he found the feedback inordinately useful, not just in improving his letter but as a lesson in writing, persuasion, and thinking. 

So, I've decided to post it as today's PsychologyToday.com article.

Give and Take with Adam Grant, Top Contrarian Self-Help Expert

Adam Grant is the youngest tenured professor at Penn/Wharton and has been rated its best teacher for four years in a row, Also, he writes regularly on work and psychology for the New York Times.

In February his new book will be published, Originals: How non-conformists move the world. The publisher sent me an advance copy.

In the book, Grant forwards a number of contra-intuitive recommendations. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I offer few of those, followed by my reactions.

Trial Lawyer Gerry Spence on Persuasiveness

The master trial lawyer has much to teach us about persuasion. And Gerry Spence certainly is a master. He has never lost a criminal case either as a prosecutor or defense attorney. He has not lost a civil case since 1969.  Spence has more multi-million dollar verdicts without an intervening loss than any lawyer in America, including $10.5 million in the Karen Silkwood case  He is in the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame, which includes John Adams and Clarence Darrow.  

I interviewed Gerry Spence today for my PsychologyToday.com article today. HERE is the link.