Advocacy is about the person being persuaded, not the person doing the persuading. If you ask me for something I assume it’s good for you – that’s why you’re asking – explain why it’s good for me.
This lesson has recently been driven home by students at George Washington University trying to persuade me to sign them into a course I teach in on language and politics in the School of Media and Public Affairs. One student spent last semester abroad and there was a power outage when she tried to register, another got a great internship that required dropping a class and needs a last elective so she can graduate on time, and so forth. All good reasons, from the perspective of the students. But less than compelling from my perspective. All the students asking to be signed in are seniors, meaning they had three years (and still have the coming spring semester) to fulfill their requirements. Most say basically they want to take my class because it fits their schedule rather than because of any particular interest in the subject.
I like my students and enjoy the conversations we have. But the classroom is small, there are fire code restrictions on the numbers of people allowed in the room, and each additional student is two more exams and four more papers to grade. All are reasons not to sign in. I get paid a flat rate regardless of the number of students, so there is no monetary incentive to add students (indeed, time I spend on students is time I cannot spend on clients, so there are financial costs to extra students). There are no advantages for me to sign in a student, and there are financial and personal costs to doing so.
A smart prospective student will do what smart advocates do:
Determine the goal – get into the class, which the students have done;
Identify power – in this case me, which all have done;
Determine what power finds persuasive – this is the problem, the students use what they find persuasive with no consideration of what I would find compelling;
Learn from whom the message is most persuasive – the students assume they are their own best advocates, which may or may not be true; and
Do that – without the message and messenger steps, this step cannot successfully be taken.
Smart students will talk about what I will get out of them, not what they will get out of me. For example a student who studied abroad could talk about the international perspective she would bring to class discussions, or someone with a great internship could talk about bringing what they learn to class, and they will highlight a passion to learn about the topic rather than being available on Wednesday nights. Very smart students will talk to others who have taken courses from me to learn what I find persuasive and from whom (for example my sister in law is a big deal in the department). And the sharpest students will focus on what works for me, not them.






