The art of influencing is valuable in many aspects of our lives, professional or personal. Disseminating your ideas in a subtle way, promoting the product, settling an argument, or dealing with difficult situations – every case needs a good dose of persuasive and influencing skills. Fortunately, they can be acquired through a short yet intensive training solution.
If you hesitate whether you’ll benefit from this kind of training, ask yourself a few simple questions:
- Do you want to be able to tell the difference between influencing, persuading and manipulating?
- Do you feel that you need more tools for engaging and directing your customers, workmates or employees toward your goals?
- Do you want to become a true leader who can make an impact positively and profoundly without looking aggressive or authoritarian?
If all answers are ‘yes,’ then you definitely need a well-crafted professional training in influencing and persuasion – and your team will benefit from it as well.
What to expect from a good training session:
- You (or your team) will learn how to tell apart persuasion, influencing, and manipulation and how to counter the unwanted actions
- How to decide who are key stakeholders or audience you want to influence
- How to connect with people you want to influence
- How to deliver the information or ideas politely yet clearly and efficiently
- How to work with objections or doubts
- How to stand your ground if someone wants to manipulate you in response
- How to recap everything and make sure that people get you right and follow your lead
With a good set of influencing skills, your team will be more efficient in sales or in generating and implementing new business solutions. Your teammates will be more collaborative and ready to go above and beyond when necessary, which is a foundation of healthy workplace culture. You, in turn, will become a trusted and respected employee or leader who makes a deep impact and builds foundations for long-term success.
And even if you part ways with your current organization, you will leave a legacy of your ideas and vision, thus allowing the team to thrive. And in a new place, you’ll be able to create a healthy environment conducive for work that creates added value and for sustainable achievement of set goals. Yes, it all relies on influence – and influence can include leading by example, persuasion, right use of emotions and empathy, alignment of values, and other crucial components.
So unlock your – and your team’s – high potential with our selection of top 5 Australia-based training solutions focused on the topic of influencing.
CMA Consulting
We start with this comprehensive and focused solution ‘The Skillful Influencer’ by CMA Consulting because it is an epitome of condensed knowledge-sharing and practical training. This course will guide you and your team through the structured theoretical part and end with a real-life simulation of an influencing conversation. So you’ll get the understanding of what you need to do and why to prepare for influencing actions and will put the theory into practice. Moreover, you’ll get a follow-up package including templates, reminder emails recapping the theory, access to a coaching hotline, and commitment sheets that push the participants to apply the knowledge they gained.
With this kind of support, putting theory into practice is much easier. And that’s the goal of this training solution: not just to impart knowledge but to make it applicable and useful in a multitude of situations.
What to expect from this training course:
- Knowledge (about your inherent approach to influencing and about key sources of authentic influence)
- Understanding (strategies and tools for real-life influencing)
- Application (use of knowledge in simulated situations)
- Feedback (get reviews and opinions of coaches and learn to do self-assessment)
Training sessions are available online on pre-set dates, or you can order custom in-house face-to-face solutions tailored to your specific goals and needs.
Aptitude Management
This training solution is delivered in virtual mode only but it does not make it less important or useful. The training relies on a very hands-on approach and provides lots of practice in a variety of situations. The theoretical part is concise and provides only the essentials that you might need: what is influence, what influencing styles are out there, how to choose the one right for you, strategies to use and things to avoid. You’ll hear only the key information, and further on, it will be practice, practice and more practice in various types of conversations that need to influence a specific target audience. After the training, you keep a workbook, a template for strategy planning, and a self-assessment sheet.
What to expect from this training course:
- Essential bits of theory
- Discovery of your influencing style
- Application of this style in different situations
- Feeling more confident about own influencing abilities
The training is delivered in online mode only, but after the session, post-workshop coaching is also available.
PD Training
PD Training is on our list of best training providers because they offer a number of training modes (offsite, online, and at your workplace, plus an option of custom solutions). In addition, they bring in a generous share of warranties and insurances, including the refund guarantee and an offer of the half-price training rerun for those on sick leave who could not attend the initial session). As you see, they take your convenience and needs close to the heart, and the training content does not fall behind either.
This training revolves around narratives, stories, and messages, and how we deliver them to people in an impactful way. During the training session, you’ll define the difference between manipulation and influencing and will learn techniques that persuade and impact your audience. The specific methods to learn include storytelling, elements of NLP programming, mirroring, matching, pushing and pulling technique, and more. All elements will be put to practice and you’ll have a chance to implement all or some of these elements in role-play.
What to expect from this training course:
- You’ll learn the distinction between manipulation and influencing
- You’ll discover various techniques and strategies of influencing in conversations and presentations
- You’ll learn the ethically acceptable elements of NLP to use in conversations
- You’ll apply everything you’ve learned in practice and get professional feedback
As mentioned, this training solution can be delivered offsite, online, and at your workplace, plus participants get the 12-month access to their personal Development Dashboard.
Odyssey Training
This training solution is robust and useful in itself, but it also has some unique elements you might need. To begin with, the training package includes all basic components, like definition of influencing, individual styles of influencing, its essential strategies and techniques. But what sets it apart is the chance to learn how to exercise influence across vertical and horizontal structures. Namely, in business environment, it’s often necessary to influence up, down and across the organizations and interact with peers, subordinates, and top management. This training session allows you to find strategies that best fit any given situation and amplify your influencing actions.
Yet, the provided material will also be applicable to life situations, since you’ll learn about emotions, building rapport, and choosing optimal wording. So whether you’ll try to operate in a working or personal environment, your influencing efforts will be productive and will bring positive results.
What to expect from this training course:
- Useful theory about influence and persuasion
- Specific techniques and strategies of influencing
- Learning about personal styles of influencing
- Learning about do’s and don’ts of influencing
- Learning how to influence up, down and across organizations
One more advantage of this training is that it is available in offline and online modes, with issued certificates and post-training support.
New Horizons Learning Centres
This workshop solution is very structured and focused, so when you have limited time and need a crash course in influencing art, give them a try. The training is professionally oriented, in the first place, but the skills they offer will be applicable in the majority of various life situations. The training is divided in smaller sections, each representing an important aspect of the influencing process. In such a way, you know right from the start what and when will be presented and practiced, so you can focus and follow the information conveniently.
This carefully structured approach has a lot of benefits, so for people who appreciate having a plan laid out ahead, this training solution is optimal. Learning sections that will be presented and put into practice include the exploration of the idea of influencing, preparation stages, content for persuasive communication and its refinement, storytelling elements, and defending your position in the face of resistance. All in all, the workshop is rather comprehensive, so it’s definitely fit for the top 5 list.
What to expect from this training course:
- Learning the essentials of influence and persuasion
- Putting information into practice under the supervision of a facilitator
- Getting an action plan for further individual work
- Getting a tailored approach to planning and conducting workshops
Since all customers and companies have their own schedules and organizational particularities, workshops are delivered in tailored mode. So you can request the delivery mode that suits you and the training provider will do their best to meet your needs.
Conclusion
Influencing people is an important skill that should not be confused with manipulation and forcing one’s agenda. This distinction means that some people lead the teams and nations, engage other people and light their interest and desire to achieve, and others just cause resentment and dissatisfaction. That’s why learning the essentials of influencing in the right way is the key to a healthy and productive working environment, strong teams, and your personal success as an influential team member or a leader. Take the training that we bring to your attention or book it for your team and bring the cooperation and productivity to another level.
