Power of Persuasion & Influence

► Overview ◄

Successful persuasion and influencing skills achieve results.

Everyday, internally and externally, and at every level, people are called upon to utilise their powers of persuasion and influence. But you would be surprised how honing such important skills is overlooked, at a real cost to the organisation.

The objective of this intensive course is to arm participants with the various tools they need to enable them to be more flexible and effective when influencing others, by introducing them to elements of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

► Prerequisites ◄

None.

► Objectives ◄

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

• Communicate and influence effectively.
• Understand the personality types and motivators.
• Prepare for and increase their flexibility in influencing situations.
• Develop and maintain rapport with others quickly and effectively.
• Think in new and more effective ways.
• Welcome questions and challenges to their proposals.
• Increase their personal ability and confidence in handling confrontation.

► Content ◄

Day 1

Session 1 - Introduction

This session introduces the course and includes:

- course overview

- introductions and personal objectives

- administrative arrangements

The session also introduces three key themes of the programme:

Useful Beliefs, Unconscious Learning and Change, and Strategies for Success.

Session 2 - Influencing Styles and Successful Influencing

An exercise enables participants to identify their current style and approach to influencing. We then explore the components of effective influencing through syndicate work, facilitator input and discussions.

A structured approach to influencing is introduced that will identify the key stages in the influencing process and which will act as a framework for the course. Participants identify the specific areas they will work on to improve their ability to influence.

Session 3 - Communicating Influentially

Effective communication is an essential foundation for successful influencing. This session explores how we can take in and process information, and how misunderstandings and miscommunication arise.

Participants learn how they can elicit primary filters others use to interpret the world. We explore how personality, beliefs and values can affect communication. We then use this information to align our communication with the people we wish to influence.

Session 4 - Defining Outcomes for Success

People who are successful and who achieve what they want are clear about, and focused on, their goals. In this session a process for defining outcomes is introduced, which enables participants to plan for success.

Participants then apply outcome thinking as a means of breaking free from chronic problem-centred approaches to issues.

Participants go onto learn a technique for identifying the next step needed to achieve their outcome, the action that turns dreams into realities.

A practical session gives individuals an opportunity to practise, using the process to define their outcome and next step for a situation where they want to influence others.

Day 2

Session 5 - Review Day One

Session 6 - Developing and Maintaining Rapport

Being able to build and maintain good rapport is essential for effective influencing. Rapport is something that often happens naturally – we may know we have it – but not exactly how we have achieved it. This session explores how we can use our natural abilities with more purpose and integrity, to create and maintain relationships when influencing.

In particular the session allows participants to tune to others’ physiology, voice and language.

Participants also develop skills for understanding others’ thought processes. They then practise presenting their case in line with their audience’s preferences.

The varied exercises in this session enhance the participant’s ability to build and maintain rapport in various situations.

Session 7 - Gathering Information

In order to influence we need to understand others. We can then devise the most appropriate communication and influencing strategy, targeted at those we want to persuade.

Participants learn how to delete, distort and generalise our experience, both in our memories and our descriptions of “reality”.

This session explores how we can use specific questioning techniques to recover and restore others’ experience. We also learn how to establish other information about them – their priorities, their motivation and their values.

Participants will have an opportunity to develop a bank of questions, which will be valuable in future influencing situations.

Finally participants use the Meta-Mirror. An exceptional technique for stepping into other people’s shoes, so that we can understand their concerns and point of view, prepare with deeper understanding of our audience and build rapport instantly in order to effectively influence them.

Session 8 - Practical

There will be a chance for participants to apply what they have learned so far on the course with a group exercise. This exercise may run at the end of day 2 or at the beginning of day 3.

Day 3

Session 9 - Exercise to Review Days 1 & 2

Session 10 - Influencing

There can be a temptation when influencing to rely on logic alone to persuade others. It rarely does. This session provides a five-step approach that will enable participants to prepare and present their perspective using logic, whilst appealing to the motivators of the people they are influencing.

Participants practise preparing and role playing a scenario using the suggested structure. They use a real scenario they wish to influence back in the workplace.

This activity allows them to practise and apply all the learning they have gained so far.

Session 11 - Predicting and Handling Questions and Objectives

Questions and challenges offer crucial opportunities to influence at the precise points where our audience has barriers to agreement. This session enables participants to welcome questions and challenges instead of dreading them.

Participants identify the types of questions and objections they will face when making their presentations.

They then practise a strategy to handle these challenges effectively and with rapport, in order to turn them into building blocks for agreement.

Session 12 - Closing Session

The closing session will review the course and give participants an opportunity to complete action plans to assist them in transferring what they have learned back in their work situations. Evaluation and the closing of the course will follow.