To influence is not the same as to manipulate. To influence is to market your ideas and get people to ‘buy-in’ to those ideas through persuasions. This requires you to understand the underlying motivation, priorities and hot buttons of your target (i.e. the people you want to influence). Influencing is a process. It requires having a strategy and tactics so that in presenting our ideas or proposals, we are able to make an emotional connection in a manner and pace that the target can accept. Decisions can be fact or emotion based. The most important aspects of influencing are to listen, seek to understand and to speak from a listener’s perspective.

Develop advocates of your thinking, for they can help you to persuade others. Power also plays a role in influencing, but power should never be used to influence others in a way that is unethical. This programme aims to help participants understand the process, framework and techniques of influencing skills so that they can better interact with people.