These are the “People” skills that are a natural complement to the action skills taught in the previous course. This workshop focuses on how to communicate in simple, direct, game-free speech, how to sell one’s best ideas, how to recognize the intellectual and emotional needs of others and accommodate them, how to identify differences and resolve them amicably, and how to get work effectively done even when one is not necessarily in charge.

Complete Course Description

PURPOSE OF THE WORKSHOP: Many managers and professionals in today's companies have the chronic feeling that they are simply without the positional power to get their work done or to have their expertise used by those who could benefit from it.

Much of the time they feel caught in the middle: between upper management and their own subordinates, between challenging corporate goals and daily life in the trenches, between getting results and getting the resources that produce them.

Most of these people express the wish that they had more "clout". This workshop is intended to help them. It is not another formula Power course which tells people to win through fear and intimidation. Since the overwhelming number of transactions in business every day are much more often influence-driven than power-driven, this course focuses on the skills required to influence the behavior of others.

CONTENT OF THE WORKSHOP: The course covers these topics:

• We begin with a discussion of Influence itself, and help participants analyze the nine major influencers that successful people use in some combination when they are particularly effective in the workplace. We help them determine which ones are already in their behavioral repertory, and which they should focus on in this course.



• We then teach them the principles of direct, clear, authentic speech.



• We examine situations where many people are fearful of speaking directly to others (particularly those in authority positions), and therefore engage in some form of obfuscation, negative diplomacy, and various forms of game-playing. We demonstrate how to confront these fears and adopt a more direct, honest, self-confident communications style.



• We teach participants an eight-point model for speaking up for their own ideas and needs, while at the same time being respectful of the ideas and needs of others.



• We demonstrate a wide variety of ways to connect clear speech with supporting body language that produce high levels of self-esteem and self-empowerment.



• Most of all, we show participants how to distinguish authentic forms of influence from those that are manipulative, politicized, and destructive.



• Finally, we teach participants the four major Communication Styles by which people try to understand each other, and then process and accept what they hear.



• We then show them how to transmit messages which take those differences into account, by showing them how to modulate their own preferred style to match the style others use when they communicate.



• Each participant learns what his/her own style is through a diagnostic instrument.
  Participants learn the virtues and pitfalls of each style, together with a variety of tools for addressing the styles of others.



• By the end of the course, participants learn how to take all these skills and tools and coordinate them, so that they can much more effectively manage their relationships with the people they work with.