Influence is one of the most critical leadership skills for any manager. It’s not about wielding authority, but rather inspiring, motivating, and aligning others to act toward a common goal—whether that’s across teams, upward to executives, or laterally with peers. Fortunately, influence can be developed through intentional training. This article outlines three powerful influence training exercises that help managers build credibility, earn trust, and drive action. These exercises combine psychology, communication, and leadership techniques and can be practiced in workshops, small teams, or one-on-one coaching settings.
Why Influence Matters in Management
Before diving into the exercises, it’s important to understand why influence is vital for managers at any level.
- Influence builds buy-in. Managers often need to execute projects by gaining support from stakeholders who don’t report to them.
- Influence leads to better collaboration. It’s essential in cross-functional environments and remote teams.
- Influence fosters change. Whether you’re rolling out new systems or shaping culture, you need the ability to shift mindsets and behaviors.
Without influence, even the most strategic plans or technical competence can fall flat. Managers who master the art of influence become natural leaders that others want to follow.
Exercise 1: The “Stakeholder Map & Message Match” Drill
Purpose
To help managers learn how to adapt their message and influencing style based on stakeholder needs, values, and influence level.
How it Works
This exercise focuses on stakeholder analysis and persuasive communication. Managers first identify a real project or initiative they’re leading (or simulate one). Then they:
- List all stakeholders involved—direct reports, peers, senior leaders, clients, etc.
- Categorize each stakeholder by:
- Power: How much authority or decision-making influence they have.
- Interest: How much they care about the outcome.
- Preferred communication style: Formal vs. informal, data-driven vs. emotional, big picture vs. detail-oriented.
- Develop a tailored influence strategy for each stakeholder using the “Message Match” model:
- Message Core: What you want them to do or support.
- Hook: Why it matters to them personally.
- Medium: How to deliver the message (e.g., 1:1 meeting, email, pitch deck).
- Backup Strategy: How to reframe or follow up if resistance is met.
Example
Let’s say a manager is leading a software rollout:
- CTO: High power, high interest, prefers data and bottom-line impact. Needs a cost-benefit analysis.
- Team Lead: Low power, high interest, prefers casual discussion. Needs reassurance about usability and training support.
- Finance Director: High power, low interest. Needs to see reduced labor hours or operational cost reductions.
Benefits
This exercise trains managers to think empathetically and strategically. It moves them beyond generic messaging to intentional influence that resonates. Practicing this regularly builds persuasive muscle memory.
Exercise 2: Role Reversal with Objection Handling
Purpose
To improve a manager’s ability to influence through empathy, active listening, and response to resistance.
How it Works
This roleplay exercise is best done in pairs or small groups. One person plays the manager trying to influence a stakeholder. The second plays the stakeholder—but they’re told to object. The manager must:
- Present a real or fictional proposal (e.g., requesting additional resources, changing priorities, introducing new workflows).
- Listen carefully to the stakeholder’s pushback.
- Use reflective listening and reframing to respond to each objection without becoming defensive.
- Attempt to win alignment using the following tools:
- Empathy statements: “I can see why that would be frustrating…”
- Data or evidence: “Actually, we’ve seen a 20% productivity increase when this was piloted.”
- Shared goals: “We’re both aiming to reduce rework, right?”
- Bridging language: “What would need to be true for this to work for you?”
After a few minutes, the roles switch.
Example Scenario
Manager: “I’d like your team to adopt the new project tracking tool by next quarter.” Stakeholder (resisting): “My team is already overworked. We don’t have time to learn another platform.” Manager response: “I completely understand that concern. What if we provided 30-minute training and phased it in over two weeks? Our pilot group saw it actually saved them 2 hours per week in manual updates.”
Benefits
Influence isn’t about winning debates—it’s about overcoming resistance collaboratively. This exercise teaches managers to stay calm, stay curious, and respond to emotions and logic alike. Over time, they become better negotiators and consensus-builders.
Exercise 3: Social Proof Storytelling Lab
Purpose
To help managers influence through storytelling, specifically using the principle of social proof—a psychological tactic that shows others are already on board or succeeding.
How it Works
This solo or group exercise focuses on persuasive storytelling. Managers practice constructing a short, compelling story around an initiative, idea, or behavior they want to spread. The goal is to embed examples of social proof into the story. Structure:
- The Hook: Start with a relatable situation or pain point.
- The Shift: Describe what changed, who else adopted the idea, and what triggered the shift.
- The Proof: Provide concrete success metrics or behavior examples.
- The Invitation: Extend the benefit or opportunity to the listener—“You could be next.”
Managers deliver the story aloud to peers and receive feedback on clarity, emotional tone, and persuasion strength.
Example
Hook: “Last quarter, the support team was drowning in email threads and missing SLAs…” Shift: “So, we piloted Zendesk with two reps who volunteered.” Proof: “Within three weeks, their ticket resolution time dropped by 40%, and customer satisfaction scores improved.” Invitation: “We’re now rolling it out to the rest of the department—let me know if your team wants to be part of the next wave.”
Variations
- Practice in email format for written influence.
- Practice in executive pitch format (1-minute summary).
- Practice in hallway conversation format for informal influence.
Benefits
Storytelling is one of the most underused but powerful influencing techniques. Adding “people like you are doing this and winning” to a narrative taps into our social instincts and reduces fear of change. This exercise develops managers’ fluency in subtle influence.
How to Use These Exercises in Real Training
To get the most out of these influence training exercises, managers should be exposed to them multiple times and with increasing complexity. Here are some best practices for implementation:
- Start with low-stakes practice. Use fictional scenarios or simulations to let managers fail safely.
- Use real-world challenges. As confidence builds, shift to real work projects to make the practice directly useful.
- Record and review. Watching a recording of their roleplay helps managers spot body language, tone, and phrasing that enhances or undermines influence.
- Provide coaching. Use an experienced facilitator or peer feedback to refine delivery and self-awareness.
- Reinforce over time. Influence is not a one-time skill. Repeat the exercises in leadership workshops, team offsites, or coaching check-ins.
Exercise 4: The Credibility Canvas
Purpose
To help managers reflect on and strengthen the core components of their personal and professional credibility—an essential foundation for influence.
How it Works
Credibility isn’t just about job title. It’s built on trust, competence, and consistency over time. This solo and group reflection exercise allows managers to assess their current credibility and design a path to reinforce it in the eyes of others. Step 1: Assess your credibility using 3 pillars:
- Competence: Do others believe you know what you’re doing?
- Character: Do you follow through on your commitments and lead with integrity?
- Connection: Do you relate to others with empathy and openness?
Step 2: Fill out the “Credibility Canvas”:
- List 2 actions you’ve taken recently that reinforced trust.
- List 2 actions that may have weakened credibility (missed deadlines, unclear communication).
- List 2 specific ways to rebuild or strengthen each pillar (follow-ups, showing vulnerability, clarifying goals).
Step 3: Share insights in pairs or groups.
Example
A manager realizes they’ve earned respect for their technical knowledge (competence) but often cancel 1:1s with direct reports (hurting connection and trust). Their plan includes setting protected time for check-ins and soliciting more feedback from the team.
Benefits
This exercise strengthens influence by aligning self-awareness with perception. Managers leave with a roadmap for boosting influence rooted in character and consistency—not just charisma or tactics.
Exercise 5: The “Yes Ladder” Practice
Purpose
To teach managers how to build agreement incrementally and ethically using the psychological principle of consistency and small commitments.
How it Works
The “Yes Ladder” is a classic persuasion strategy: people who say yes to small, easy requests are more likely to say yes to larger ones later. This group exercise helps managers practice building influence step by step. Step 1: Each manager selects a real workplace goal—e.g., getting buy-in for a new process or shifting priorities on a project. Step 2: Break the goal down into a series of small, agreeable steps, starting with ones the stakeholder is highly likely to support. Step 3: Practice “laddering up” during a mock conversation:
- First ask: Acknowledge the status quo and ask for a small opinion or action. (“Would you agree we’ve had more customer complaints recently?”)
- Next ask: Build toward the goal with a moderate request. (“Could we try piloting a solution in just one region?”)
- Final ask: Make the real proposal after trust and alignment are built. (“Would you be open to rolling this out more broadly if the pilot shows results?”)
Step 4: Partner gives feedback—was the ladder natural? Did each “yes” feel authentic?
Example
To persuade a skeptical team lead to adopt a new workflow, a manager begins by asking them to simply attend a demo. After the demo, the manager asks for feedback, then requests a small-scale trial, and only later proposes a department-wide shift.
Benefits
Managers learn how to create momentum without pressure. They become more attuned to pacing conversations, identifying natural entry points, and guiding people gently toward bigger change.
Exercise 6: Influence Styles Simulation
Purpose
To help managers recognize their dominant influence style and build flexibility by trying alternative styles in a simulated setting.
The 5 Influence Styles (based on leadership psychology research):
- Rational Persuasion – Using logic, facts, and data.
- Inspirational Appeal – Appealing to values and emotions.
- Consultation – Involving others in decision-making.
- Collaboration – Offering help and building partnerships.
- Personal Appeal – Leveraging relationships and goodwill.
How it Works
Step 1: Each manager identifies their default influence style (using a short quiz or self-reflection). Step 2: Managers are split into groups and given a scenario—for example, persuading a team to work a weekend for a product launch. Step 3: Each person must deliver a persuasive pitch in a style different from their own. The group then debriefs:
- Did the style feel natural?
- What worked?
- What felt uncomfortable?
- How might you blend multiple styles?
Example
A data-driven manager usually leans on rational persuasion. In the simulation, they try using inspirational appeal, focusing on the team’s impact on customers and the excitement of being pioneers. They discover that emotion can be more persuasive than they expected—especially for certain audiences.
Benefits
This exercise builds adaptability. Managers stop relying on one “go-to” method and instead learn to assess each situation and flex their influence approach. This enhances their effectiveness across personality types and workplace dynamics.
Exercise 7: Values-Based Alignment Challenge
Purpose
To help managers learn how to frame proposals and initiatives in ways that align with others’ personal or organizational values—one of the most powerful forms of ethical influence.
How it Works
This reflection and communication exercise teaches managers how to identify core values in others (individuals or groups) and then tailor their language, proposals, and vision to reflect those values. Step 1: Choose a team member, peer, or leader you want to influence in a real-life scenario (e.g., encouraging early adoption of a new tool or process). Step 2: Identify the values that likely drive this person. These can be inferred from:
- Previous decisions they’ve made
- What they praise or criticize
- Their department goals or leadership style
Example values: efficiency, innovation, security, autonomy, collaboration, recognition, customer satisfactionStep 3: Write or deliver a short pitch for your initiative that speaks directly to those values. Practice rewriting the same message using different value lenses to build flexibility. Step 4: Present the pitch in a group setting or coaching session. Others guess the values being appealed to and provide feedback.
Example
Original: “We need to adopt the new platform to standardize reporting.” Reframed for someone who values autonomy: “This new platform will free your team from repetitive reporting tasks and let them focus more on strategic work.” Reframed for someone who values efficiency: “This tool will cut reporting time by 40%, giving you faster data for quicker decisions.”
Benefits
Influence grows when others feel seen and understood. This exercise helps managers avoid one-size-fits-all messaging and become more attuned to motivational triggers—making their leadership more personal and effective.
Exercise 8: The Emotional Impact Audit
Purpose
To build emotional intelligence and self-regulation, helping managers understand how their communication style influences others—positively or negatively.
How it Works
Influence isn’t just about what you say—it’s how you make others feel. This solo and team reflection activity guides managers through an honest assessment of the emotional wake they leave in daily interactions. Step 1: Managers keep an “influence log” for 3–5 days. For each interaction, they note:
- What was the purpose of the conversation?
- What emotion did I observe in the other person afterward (e.g., motivated, confused, dismissed, inspired)?
- What did I say or do that contributed to that emotion?
Step 2: In a group debrief, managers identify patterns:
- Do I tend to motivate or intimidate?
- Do people leave conversations clear or uncertain?
- Do I influence more when I’m calm or passionate?
Step 3: Managers then identify two influence behaviors to amplify and two to minimize, based on observed emotional impacts.
Example
A manager notices that when they interrupt with solutions, team members become quieter in meetings. They decide to work on listening fully before offering input, especially during brainstorming sessions.
Benefits
This exercise enhances self-awareness and empathy, which are cornerstones of lasting influence. Managers learn to be intentional not just about outcomes, but also about how they affect people emotionally—making their influence sustainable and trust-based.
Exercise 9: “Who’s Got the Influence?” Mapping Game
Purpose
To sharpen strategic thinking by helping managers identify unofficial influencers within teams or organizations—and learn how to partner with them.
How it Works
Influence often flows through hidden channels. The loudest voice in the room isn’t always the most influential. This interactive group game helps managers build a sharper political radar by mapping informal influence networks. Step 1: Choose a real project or decision that requires cross-team cooperation. Step 2: As a group, brainstorm and map all the stakeholders—not just by role or title, but by actual influence power:
- Who do people turn to for guidance?
- Who shapes opinion behind the scenes?
- Who resists or supports quietly but effectively?
Step 3: Label each stakeholder by:
- Formal role
- Informal influence score (1–5)
- Stance (supportive, neutral, resistant)
- Influence levers (data, relationships, reputation, expertise)
Step 4: Teams then create a plan to engage these key influencers. Who do you approach first? How do you gain their support? How can they help influence others?
Example
In a product launch, a mid-level engineer (not in leadership) is known to sway team opinions. The manager includes him early in planning, seeks feedback, and turns him into an internal ambassador—shifting adoption dynamics completely.
Benefits
Managers learn that influence is rarely hierarchical. This game helps them become more politically savvy, inclusive in decision-making, and proactive in recruiting allies—not just managing directives.
Conclusion: Influence is a Learnable Leadership Superpower
Many managers assume influence is about charisma or positional power. But as these exercises show, influence is largely about preparation, empathy, and communication strategy. Whether it’s adapting your pitch to stakeholders, overcoming resistance with empathy, or telling stories that spread ideas—each tool is trainable. As organizations become more matrixed, fast-paced, and people-centric, influence will increasingly separate good managers from great ones. By building these influence muscles through structured practice, managers can drive results, build alliances, and lead with integrity and impact.
