Influencing Skills

Exploring influence

• Clarify performance outcomes
• Share goals and experiences
• Discuss your desire to improve skills
• Define what it means 'to influence'

Adopting a Positive Mindset

• Cultivate an optimistic attitude
• Understand OAR / BED model
• Review the Iceberg Model

Building Trusting Relationships

• Understand the value of trusting relationships
• Consider the ‘emotional bank account’
• Develop your rapport building skills

Uncover your Influencing Style

• Understand influencing styles
• Explore the value of adaptability and flexibility to persuasion

Creating a persuasive message

• Use the ‘Outcome, Intention and Consequence’ model to plan to persuade
• Examine what’s important to those we seek to influence
• Carefully prepare and package key messages

Developing your Improvement Plan

• Set actions to implement at work

After: Access the Embed Learning Kit

• This kit assists you in applying techniques at work, ensuring you make the most of this experience

Before the course: Starter Kit

Want to get the most out of this experience? To prepare for your Influencing Skills course, please:

• Reflect on and record a workplace situation where you need to influence others. Be prepared to discuss the following questions:
  • What is the influencing situation?
  • What outcomes do you want?
  • Who is involved?
  • Is it easy or challenging?
  • What is making it easy or challenging for you?
• Write down your goals and outcomes for the course. What do you hope to get from the course that will assist you to become a more powerful influencer?

If you need help or advice, email us at info@mci.edu.au or call 1300 768 550.

After the course: Embedding the Learning

Take time to revisit your action plan, written during the course, and your course workbook.

You might want to review some key concepts from the course, and use these tools and complete these activities:

Your Templates

• Use the blank template to help you plan and prepare to exert influence. It is also available as a word document.

Quick Reference Guide

• Use the MCI Solutions Influencing Skills Foundation quick reference guide to reinforce your learning.
• Put is somewhere visible so the ideas are easy accessible.

Take your learning into action – your improvement plan

• Review the improvement plan you developed during the course.
• Re-commit to achieving your improvement goals – enjoy a sense of achievement when you achieve them.

Practice and gather feedback

• Focus on building rapport by matching and mirroring physiology, tone and language.
• Challenge yourself by practicing different influencing styles.
• Review & reflect your influencing performance.
• Ask others for feedback on your influencing skills.

Keep learning

• Review these websites:
  • Positively Successful magazine
  • Article: Influencing Skills – The Critical Elements to Master
  • Article: Communication, Influence Keys to Success in Statistics

• Watch TED Talks. It is a fantastic resource for watching inspiring videos about many of the topics covered in the course. In particular, check out:
  • Tony Robbins: "Why we do what we do"
  • Nicholas Christakis: "The hidden influence of social networks"
  • Simon Sinek: "First why and the trust"

• Read books on influencing skills such as:
  • Stephen Covey: "Speed of Trust. The One Thing That Changes Everything" (2008) Simon & Schuster
  • Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler: "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything" (2007) McGraw-Hill

We would love to hear about your results! Please get in touch by sending an email to info@mci.edu.au or share them with us on Linked In or Twitter.