Leaders are in the business of influence. Without influence one can’t lead. And if one can’t lead, they can’t be referred to as a leader. Since the latter part of the twentieth-century, hierarchies in business have been breaking down. The corporate ladder is now shorter—corporations are less hierarchical.

Using the legitimate power of a hierarchical position or title is no longer enough to lead or manage. Because of this, influencing skills are now in great demand worldwide, across all industries. It is therefore unsurprising that there is an abundance of influencing skills course and workshop opportunities.

Leaders are in the business of influence. Without influence one can’t lead. And if one can’t lead, they can’t be referred to as a leader. Since the latter part of the twentieth-century, hierarchies in business have been breaking down. The corporate ladder is now shorter—corporations are less hierarchical.

Using the legitimate power of a hierarchical position or title is no longer enough to lead or manage. Because of this, influencing skills are now in great demand worldwide, across all industries. It is therefore unsurprising that there is an abundance of influencing skills course and workshop opportunities.

Influence can be defined as getting others to think and do something differently, willingly and ethically. It is not manipulation nor is it being cunning or underhanded. Influence ought to be transparent; that is, the person being influenced is aware that they are being influenced but, nonetheless, are happy to change based on their interactions with the influencer.

Influence should also be done ethically. In other words, the influencer is not trying to use tactics like withholding valuable information of intimidation to persuade. All human beings are in the business of influence. We try to persuade our children, partner, colleagues, boss, associates and friends, and stakeholders everyday about all manner of things. It’s a normal part of human existence.

Some people are naturally good at persuading. But if we analysed what they are doing, it’s undoubtedly their influencing skills course and workshop flexibility that stands out. They modify their strategy depending upon who they are influencing and what the circumstances are around the influencing situation.

Unfortunately, most of the training on influence is substandard. The focus is generally on a set of generic influencing tools and techniques that don’t consider the individual participant’s influencing style and approach. We all have an influencing profile.

What I mean is this: We all try to persuade other people according to our preferred influencing style and approach. For instance, I may pride myself on being logical, rationale, factual, and systematic and that is how I try to influence other people. But if the recipient is not orientated towards this logical approach, the strategy will inevitably fail. For example, they may be more emotional.

People tend to try to influence those around them in the same way they liked to be influenced. The problem is people have their own preferences. Leaders need to be flexible in their approach. Most influencing skills courses and workshops don’t accommodate this fundamental idea.

The WINNERS-at-WORK influencing skills workshop takes into consideration these differences in style and approach. The workshop gives participants the opportunity to complete the Influencing Capabilities Profile which assesses a person’s preferred style and approach.

The objective of this exercise—apart from being aware of one’s preferences—is to learn to be flexible in influencing situations. What this means in practice is to use or modify one’s style and approach based on two dimensions—the other person(s) preferred way of influencing and the situation the leader is confronted with.

The other unique feature of our influencing skills course is that we share many practical tools of persuasion based on four influencing strategies.

The good news is that anyone can become more persuasive, given the opportunity to develop their skills. Influencing capability isn’t like intelligence, where it is not possible to alter IQ to any great degree. But with practice and personal reflection anyone can try new approaches and use their influence more effectively. It just takes a little awareness, practice, and thought.

The influencing skills workshop helps with all three dimensions. It creates an awareness of your preferred influencing style and approach. This helps to understand your strengths and blind spots as an influencer.

Participants get an opportunity to practice using other influencing traits that are not as yet second nature. We also provide participants with some tools to reflect on their behaviour during their normal day-to-day work.

Most influencing skills workshops don’t create awareness, give participants practice, or the frameworks to reflect on their behaviour in the real world. Without these three ingredients, the course is less likely to have sustainable behaviour change. The other area that most workshops and courses don’t do well is they confuse leadership skills with influence.

Influence is one of the tools of leadership. There are other facets of leadership and sometimes these facets are included in programs and confuse participants. Our influencing skills workshop just focuses on the concept of influence.