Influencing Skills

Struck by the short-term success of the conventional - and comfortable - ‘command and control’ technique, not to mention the increasingly likely threat of being sued, firms are seeking subtler, more strategic approaches to influencing people at work.

This report takes managers beyond the enduring stick vs carrot debate and:

• presents the full range of influence tactics available to managers, from ‘shock’ to ‘coercion’, and explores the interplay of each
• offers ‘hardball’ techniques gleaned from negotiation pros for those in a hurry, contrasted with the ‘softer’ side of influence in the shape of Emotional
  Intelligence (EI) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
• puts power in its place, highlighting the many classes of power and their consequences, including ‘referent’, ‘expert’, ‘positional’, ‘coercive’, and questions the contribution and role of fear

In addition to exploring time-tested influencing techniques, this report outlines the current ‘buzz’, ‘sizzle’ and ‘segment’ trends borrowed from marketing, the growing importance of ‘fairplay’ in the influence equation, and the influential effectiveness and impact of the ‘transformational’ and the ‘narcissist’ - today’s key leader types.

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