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12/18/2019

The 3 Levels of Communication Influence

By Skip Weisman

Warren Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, an American multinational conglomerate holding company, and one of the most successfully famous investors in the world, has stated in a variety of interviews in recent years that communication skills are the secret to success.

“A relative modest improvement can make a major difference in your future earning power, as well as in many other aspects of your life,” Buffet is quoted as saying in Gillian Zoe Segal’s 2015 book “Getting There: A Book of Mentors.”1

Buffet suggested in a 2018 LinkedIn video that powerful communication skills could increase a person’s net worth by 50%, saying, “What’s really essential is being able to get others to follow your ideas.” 2

Whether you are in sales, management, leadership, or an intimate personal relationship, it comes down to being able to communicate to exert positive influence on the people around you.

To maximize your ability to communicate there are three different levels to master.

When you attend the University of Innovative Distribution program on March 11th you will have an opportunity to work on your skills at each of the three levels in a half-day workshop.

The three levels are:

The foundation is “Self-Communication.” Every human being is in constant communication with themselves, 24-hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, every year of their lives. There is no one else with whom we communicate as much.

One-on-one Interpersonal Communication is the context in which we communicate the second most often. This is where we are trying to influence another person to our way of thinking, be it a new idea, a product we want or need to sell, a movie we want to see or a restaurant or meal we want to eat. If you are a parent of a young child you probably are frequently attempting to exert positive influence for any number of things, including bedtime, eating vegetables, or cleaning their room.

The third level of communication influence is Public-Group Communication. Within this level there are three contexts that business professionals especially need to master. The first and most common, especially at the beginning of a career is being able to influence as a meeting participant, possibly when sitting around a conference room table.

As someone evolves in a role in an organization the next two contexts at this level come into play and that is leading and running effective meetings, and presenting from in front of the room to an audience of any size.

You can probably see how each these three levels of communication will impact your ability to exert positive influence in your relationships and in your organization. Investing time, energy, and resources to master each has the potential to do as Warren Buffet suggests at the beginning of this article.

To begin your journey to Mastering The 3 Levels of Communication Influence join me at University of Innovative Distribution program on March 11th. 

And, if you also attend my afternoon session on Overcoming The 7 Deadliest Workplace Communication SINs, you will have a foundation to transform your personal communication effectiveness and ability to exert positive influence across 21-different contexts.

Footnotes:

1 – CNBC.com – Friday, August 30, 2019 – Kathleen Elkins “Warren Buffet: Developing This Skill Can Make “A Major Difference In Your Future Earning Power.”

2 – CNBC.com – Friday, August 30, 2019 – Kathleen Elkins “Warren Buffet: Developing This Skill Can Make “A Major Difference In Your Future Earning Power.”

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