Persuasive Communication With Principals

Do you need more desks? Is there a student who needs to be relocated in to another classroom? Would you like to start a fund-raiser to support a school club? If these are questions you are facing as a teacher, then you are probably preparing to get an approval from the principal, and of course, you cannot just walk into the principal's office and ask such questions without preparation. Here are some helpful hints to effectively persuade the principal in your favor.
Begin by researching how the choices would affect all parties involved. The principal is your primary audience, they are going to be interested in the outcomes, and it is your job to tell them. When you are faced to with having to persuade someone, what is going to stand out is how knowledgeable are you about the topic. For instance, if you are trying to convince the principal to okay a new fund-raiser, you are going to need to know all the details. When you are asked, "How much are we going to need to raise to meet the start up costs?” you should not pull up a calculator to start crunching numbers, you should already know this.
After you have gathered enough information, and feel comfortable being considered a reliable source, start organizing it into how you are going to present it to the principal. As well, now is the time into determining the appropriate medium you will deliver your persuasive piece. Do the work for your audience; they do not want to have to think about it. The information should be organized in a way that your audience should not have to ask you the, who, what, when, and where questions. Decide whether a note card would be appropriate, if you are going to speak in person, for the situation (i.e. using numbers as part of important details). When you have finished organizing the information in a smooth flowing argument, review the following list, if you find that you cannot agree with something figure out why and correct it before you present it.
Am I...?

* Comfortable with the information I am about to present?
* Sure that this will benefit al parties, and if not, do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?
* Confident that if I were hearing this information it would be easy to follow?

All of these are important in making your argument effective. I hope you remember these tips before you have that big talk with the school’s principal. A persuasive argument is effective when the information is researched, a well-organized medium is selected, and the it is all presented in an appropriate manner.
Good luck with what you may hope to achieve with your persuasive communication.