Your communication will have greater impact if you use Aristotle's three ways of communicating; the three forms of rhetorical appeal; ethos, pathos and logos when you talk to your employees. When you use both ethos, pathos and logos, you are sure that your listeners both understand your message, trust you as the sender and have their feelings with them (which makes it easier for you to convince them of something.)

Aristotle calls this rhetoric. Rhetoric is about making something probable, e.g. that it is best for your customers to buy your product, or that it is best that your employees support the new strategy. Rhetoric, on the other hand, does not deal with topics that cannot be discussed: That there are trees in the forest, or that 2+2=4.

To achieve effective communication, you must use all three forms of appeal and thus speak both to the audience's emotions (pathos and ethos) and to their intellect (logos). Logos is an appeal to reason that makes what you say seem logical. Pathos is about evoking emotions in your audience. Ethos is about your audience trusting you and your words.

How to use the appeal forms

Logos

Logos plays on your audience's sense of logic. When you appeal to reason, you must show that what you convey is well-founded, factual and clearly stated. The focus is on numbers and facts, and on things that can be measured and weighed. Be sober and avoid emotional influences. An example could be: "Studies show that smoking causes cancer, therefore you should not smoke." Be careful not to use logos for too long, as it will quickly appear dry and boring.

Pathos

With pathos, you appeal to people's here-and-now feelings. We talk about joy, anger, indignation, pity, shame and fear. Describe in detail people's actions and what they say. Preferably use vivid language, seasoned with stories, analogies and metaphors. That way you create images inside people's heads. And pictures speak more easily to the emotions. A good example of the use of pathos is in advertising, which has a particularly good ability to convince the audience of something specific.

Ethos

Ethos is about your audience having to trust you and what you say before you can convince them of your message. You must therefore appear credible, and your listeners must feel that you know something about what you are talking about. Also, they need to think you're likable. Otherwise, they don't listen. Ethos is thus an expression of the attitude and perception that a recipient has towards the sender at a given time.

Good ethos requires these three parameters: skill, moral habitus and approachability.

1. Skill and competence
   Here, the sender demonstrates professional skill and competence, overview and insight into rules, conditions and details that may be of interest to the recipient. Skill also includes calmness, regularity, common sense, accumulated experience, professional maintenance, knowledge, social awareness and understanding of the world around us.
2. High morality (Moral habitus)
   Here, the sender shows an understanding of what should and should be done in different contexts. Moral habitus also means that the sender plays with open cards, does not use spin, white lies, untruths in general, concealments and distortions. You are incorruptible and have high integrity.
3. Forthcomingness
   Call it service, benevolence or helpfulness. Here, the sender demonstrates that he is willing to do something for the sake of others, even without immediately getting anything out of it himself. You simply want the recipients to be well, and are therefore genuinely interested in and keen to provide service.

Good ethos can, among other things, is achieved by demonstrating that you know something about your subject, tell a personal story or show that you understand the feelings of your audience. Ethos can also be created if you refer to another person with good ethos.

If your ethos is not right, it may not matter how well you present your logical arguments (logos) and how much you speak to the emotions of your audience (pathos).

Ethos, pathos and logos generally reinforce each other. If you can include all three elements in your communication, a good foundation has been laid for effective and convincing communication.