Lobbyists

According to www.wikipedia.com lobbying is referred to as, “The practice of attempting to directly influence the actions of government, through various combinations of private cajoling, public actions, and the combination of the two.” I recently watched a movie called, “Thank you for Smoking,” and it is a story based upon a lobbyist for a large tobacco company. Lobbyists these days often use bribes, or threats to get there way, however if this is ignored, lobbyists are excellent at one thing, and this is how to talk. They are excellent at talking to all sorts of people, and that is their one skill that gets them far in that profession. They could be in a situation where they are extremely wrong, and they know that, but they will prove the opposition wrong. They don’t have to prove that they are right, just that the opposition is wrong, therefore proving that the lobbyist has to be right.

I think that lobbyists can relate to some of the characteristics of a competent communicator, as they are skilled at what they do. Lobbyists can exhibit a wide range of behaviors, acting self confident, acting wrong, etc, but they do know when to exhibit them. I also think that lobbyists use empathy to their advantage. They try to see what the opponent is thinking, and feeling, and by doing that they can use their communication skills to benefit their case. This is why I think that lobbyists are excellent communicators and can use language to their advantage.

Adler, Ronald B., and George Rodman. Understanding Human Communication. New York: Oxford, 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbyist

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