Chris Freek

You can be an email ninja, but with the explosion of email (not to mention instant messages, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, and countless other communication tools), you’ll never be fast enough to deal with all the incoming communication. choosing the right channels and systems can make all the difference.

Whether you need to win over a colleague, a team, an executive, a recruiter, or an entire conference audience, effective storytelling is key.

Directives aren’t particularly effective in driving sustained behavior change because we all like to feel as if we are in control of our choices. So if telling people what to do doesn’t work, what does? Rather than trying to persuade people, getting them to persuade themselves is often more effective. Here are three ways to do that.

It’s unlikely that everyone who works with you will agree with you — and that’s okay. But often, to move forward, you will need to get to convince them to change their minds. Learn how those most successful in overcoming others’ skepticism worked their approach.