The Art of Influence — A 2-Day Course

 Open Public Course Closed In-House Course

Course Synopsis

• Do you need to convince people your way is the right way?
• Do you want to be asked for your opinion more often?
• Want to understand how other people think?
• Do you want trust and respect from your colleagues?
• Need to be able to influence people to do as you ask?

If the answer is "YES" - this is the course for you!

We will show you how to speak and conduct yourself in a powerful way that gets attention and then gets agreement.

Course Objectives

On completion of this training course, delegates will be able to:

• Understand the difference between influencing, persuading and manipulating and what is appropriate, when
• Understand why you want to influence people
• Learn a number of ways to create personal impact
• Build trust and respect with your colleagues
• Understand the power of your attention
• Learn to be an active listener
• A step-by-step method of ensuring your message is clear and understood by other people and that you are calm and in control
• Understand when and how to give feedback to others
• Learn how Transactional Analysis can put back on track conversations that end up as arguments or moaning sessions
• Create of a personal action plan to enable you to put what you have learned into action when you get back

From the Practical Workshops, students will:

• Complete a self-assessment of your language style
• Try out techniques to get attention
• Practice actively listening to understand where other people are coming from
• Practice changing someone's opinion by using their reasons not your own
• Use a quiz to understand your own influencing style
• Use a whole toolbox of NLP techniques to understand how other people see the world and thus how to influence them better
• Gain agreement by using the techniques learned on the course

Intended Audience

This course is intended for:

• Anyone who wants to gain more personal impact and power: especially those who need to influence and persuade, rather than 'tell', to get their job done.

Benefits for your Company

Staff with highly developed personal skills have long enjoyed faster promotion and increased responsibility. This is won through allowing colleagues to see what you and your team do and your ability to motivate everyone to come along with you. This creates a mini-marketing machine where you (and the people surrounding you) are usually cast in a favourable light. The increased co-operation and communication will improve the speed and quality of work done and thus the bottom line profits too.

Benefits for You

You gain greater respect from colleagues as well as being confident your messages are being understood and acted upon. In addition you will become known as someone who knows what is going on in the organisation - which acts as a self fulfilling prophecy as you will be asked for your opinion more frequently thus putting you 'in the know'. This is invaluable information no matter what your position in the company.

Publicly scheduled dates, locations, and prices

Outline Course Contents

Introduction & Welcome

You will meet like-minded people and share your reasons for wanting to be on the course.

An experienced, friendly trainer will help you visualise where you want this course to take you.

First Impressions

We think we are normal. That is how we define it, if someone is 'like me' they are normal. This section focuses on your assumptions about people from the way they look, speak and act and then asks you to imagine meeting yourself for the first time and what impression you make versus the one you want to make and how this can be achieved. We also discuss influencing people who don't fit your version of normal. You assess what your first impression is like and alert yourself to your version of 'normal'.

Influencing vs. Manipulation

We will discuss the difference between influence and manipulation and look at some examples of the latter. We will look at manipulation techniques and how they differ from influencing and practice rebutting tactics such as emotional blackmail and bullying. You assess where your skills lie and practice stopping manipulation techniques.

Influencing Styles

We will define power in terms of who has it and why and the effect this has on influencing. We will discuss how the techniques on the influencing scale are distinguished and when each type should (or should not) be used. You will assess where you feel comfortable and which skills you would like to develop. You use the influencing styles questionnaire to see what proportion you use Assertive Persuasion, Reward & Punishment, Participation & Trust and Common Vision.

Planning Influencing

We use network mapping as a way of assessing who can help you and where you need to make more connections. We explore how networks are made and why (not just because you need people at a certain time!) You map your entire network of connections to create a useful tool to add to and use again and again when you go back to work. We look at some tools such as the Support/Effect and Trust/Agreement matrices to asses who needs what method of influence. Finally we concentrate on defining outcomes for your influencing.

Influencing & Feedback

We look at the effect your assumptions and the various filters you have make on your communication. We also discuss the Johari window to assess what you know about yourself and others and how this effects your influencing.

Views of the World

Using various NLP techniques you will understand how the world looks to various people. Using a language style assessment you can decide which language you use will switch certain people on and what language you need to 'borrow' from other styles to influence people better.

Influencing Groups

Using Kilcourse's model for Authority (position, moral, charisma etc) you will discuss how power is created and respected within groups. You will also learn how to tap into your own power sources to influence more effectively. We also look at the dynamics of groups (form, storm, norm, perform) and how this effects how you operate. Finally we look at metaphor and stories as an effective method of influencing.

Influencing Upwards

Using what we have learnt so far we look at the most effective ways to influence upwards within our organisation and how to judge if we are successful.

Transactional Analysis

Conversations fall into several patterns, these were analysed by Eric Berne to produce Transactional Analysis. This shows how people like to communicate: it is based on what has previously worked for you. It predicts what 'traps' conversations can fall into and likewise how to get them back on the road you want them on. We also look at the drama triangle and the pattern that group meetings tend to take and the effect this has on your ability to influence.

Next Steps

Looking back at your new toolbox you assess which techniques on which people you are going to implement on your return to work.

You devise your action plan to take away with you.