How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 83

Presupposition
A presupposition is something that you haven’t stated but that is assumed
to be present or true for your statement to be understood.
For example:
o

o

When we’ve finished your appraisal, you’ll feel confident about the
next six months (we are presupposing that the confidence will come
or that we will do something that will leave them feeling confident –
all we have to do is finish the appraisal).
As the economy picks up, we will see profits improve (we are
presupposing that the economy will pick up eventually).

Universal beliefs
A statement of something as a universal belief implies that there is no
exception to what you are saying. You can use universal beliefs to get the
person in the habit of agreeing with you. Examples might be:
o Everyone wants to be happy at work
o If you remain positive, you’ll see better results
Tag questions
This tool gets the other person to think about what you said and then
answer it in their mind. Since we can think about five times faster than we
can talk, this can work well in persuasion and influencing.
o As we take more action, our market share goes up, doesn’t it?
o By listening more closely, you’ve learned much more, haven’t you?
Embedded commands
These are exactly what they sound like – a command in your language
without actually commanding someone to do something. These words
speak to the subconscious and form part of a larger context, like:
o So, looking at your priorities makes you feel better now? (Embedded
command is ‘feel better now.’)
o It’s good you’ve decided to get that report finished by 2pm.
(Embedded command is that you’ve decided – finish it by 2pm)

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