Influencing and Persuading with Impact

Everyday influencing

• Typical situations
• The difference between influencing, persuading and manipulation
• How behaving ethically helps foster sustainable working relationships

Rapport and trust

• Cialdini’s ‘6 Weapons of Influence’ – the seventh principle
• The importance of rapport and connecting with others
• Understanding the part non-verbal communication plays in influencing with impact
• How trust plays a vital part in influencing others to buy your ideas
• Maister’s ‘trust equation’

Questioning and listening

• Understanding what makes the other person tick
• How to ensure you’re asking the right questions
• Effective techniques for identifying needs, motivations and circumstances in others
• Listening at a deeper level for emotions, not just facts

Influencing through behavioural styles

• Identifying your behavioural style
• The importance of self-awareness, self-management and identifying your preferred style of persuasion
• Adapting your style to persuade others
• Positive intention

Getting others to do what you want

• Push or pull?
• How to encourage managers to see things from a different perspective
• The ‘broken record’ technique

Assertiveness

• Most people fail at influencing due to a lack of confidence and assertion
• What is assertiveness?
• The differences between assertive, aggressive and submissive behaviour
• Identifying different levels of assertion and assertive rights and responsibilities
• How to make assertive requests and challenge thinking and suggestions when they’re not right
• How to say no without appearing difficult

Presenting your ideas to get buy-in

• Six effective strategies
• Why a fact-based and objective approach, with a structured argument supported by evidence, is central to influencing
• How to take a logical structured approach when negotiating
• The power of the word ‘because’ and why it’s essential to give reasons
• How being specific helps get people to do what you want

Influence as ‘selling ideas’

• How are you influenced? What makes you say yes? What makes you say no?
• Selling the sizzle – turning features into benefits
• What motivates people?

Leveraging contrast and choice

• Why people like to have choice – but not too much
• How to make it easier it is for them to choose
• The ‘anchoring’ technique

Persuading upwards

• The challenges of persuading when others have positions of authority or power
• Standing your ground – how to be assertive and come across as confident with strong characters

Actions and next steps

• Review
• Personal action planning
• Next steps