About
Paramount to success in the corporate world is the ability to understand, manage and influence interpersonal relationships at all levels of the organisation.
Important issues such as understanding organisational roles and relationships, grasping the processes that shape behaviour and understanding the role of emotion in the workplace must be carefully considered by those executives that want to make it to the top.
Strategically Influencing Across Your Organisation is one of our most popular courses and has been specifically designed to help executives at any stage in their career to more effectively perform in their role.
Previous attendees of this course said:
“Very relevant subject. Definitely a “must” for the junior managers and senior managers will get a good jolt out of this. It is definitely a “heads up” for managers who don’t engage well with their staff.”
Malcom Lundie, Business Manager, Waikato District Health Board
“Lots of dealing with the reality of the work environment and practical actions to follow.”
Joanne Wakelin, Senior IT Consultant/Project Manager, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
“A mine of information presented in an amusing, animated manner. A very relevant and practical workshop that presented a large number of psychological tools to use in the workplace to solve difficult people problems.”
Mike Stockwell, Water & Waste Manager, Christchurch City Council
“Keith’s knowledge, passion and ideas were very interesting and appreciated. The workbook was excellent, easy to follow.”
Kelly Hoskins, Capability Development Advisor, Palmerston North City CouncilosHoHH
Key learning objectives
By the end of this course you will have:
1. A deeper understanding of organisational functioning
2. Developed your ability to inspire and influence others
3. Identified and managed obstacles blocking your influencing strategy
4. Understood the political dynamics and motivations of your organisation
5. Learned how to gain recognition and visibility for your ideas and efforts
6. Perfected your techniques of negotiation and assertion
7. Developed the ability to network effortlessly for strategic advantage
8. Heightened your awareness of different behavioural styles in the workplace
9. Formulated your own action plan for increasing strategic success
Who should attend?
All Managers, Supervisors and Team Leaders who want to enhance their personal profile and extend their area of influence.
Training style
The emphasis on this course is learning strategic concepts through practical examples. This intensive two-day training programme will combine tutorial sessions with practical exercises throughout, allowing participants to gain first hand experience of strategic influencing skills.
Outline
Day One
Overview and objectives
We begin by providing an overview of seminar and ask participants to identify specific outcomes they would like to focus on during the two days. This helps to keep the content of the seminar relevant and practical.
Understanding the realities of organisations
Much of the frustration and powerlessness people experience in organisations stems from unrealistic expectations. There are a number of powerful dynamics which stop organisations functioning correctly. Understanding what these are and how they work can open up huge opportunities for influence.
• Using “creeping intelligence” to get your manager working for you
• Avoiding being disempowered by positional chauvinism
• Filling the vacuum created by the attentional vortex
• Understanding and using emotion
Freeing up your time and gaining your freedom
One of the key themes in the seminar is how to gain the greatest amount of influence with the least amount of effort. A starting point in achieving this is understanding the different roles a person can fill in an organisation and how each of these presents specific opportunities.
• Clarifying the difference between leadership, teamwork and followership
• Learning how to gain control of the timing and content of your work
• Simple steps to gain high levels of autonomy
• Gaining influence across and beyond your immediate work unit
Group exercise: Influence in a Minute
CEO to CEO - operating your own business
An important part of gaining influence is breaking free from the hidden shackles we place on ourselves. A very powerful way to do this is to become CEO of your own ‘virtual’ company. In the seminar we explore the possibilities this opens up and how it provides a powerful framework for influence.
• Understanding the true customer supplier relationship
• Market research - profiling customer needs and wants
• Setting up an advertising campaign
• Conducting your own customer satisfaction survey
• Focusing on the 10 key elements of quality service delivery
• Managing upwards
Re-programming the mind - the cornerstone of personal influence
The way we behave is controlled by nerve pathways within our brain. These pathways are formed by our learning experiences and have a huge influence on how we live our lives. Learning how these pathways are formed and how they can be changed is an essential part of becoming good at influencing others.
• Understanding how the conscious and subconscious mind interact
• Using re-programming to quickly change behaviours and attitudes
• Simple and effective techniques to overcome interpersonal differences
• Making public speaking enjoyable and rewarding
• Changing the attitudes and behaviours of others
• Building clear pictures of future success
Individual exercise: What I did yesterday – an influential future vision
Day Two
What Lies Beneath - understanding the processes that shape behaviour
Every time we interact with another person we influence their behaviour in some way – but often the effect we have is the exact opposite to the effect we want.
• Using trial and error learning to increase or decrease behaviours
• Employing feedback strategically
• Avoiding the hidden traps of praise
• Learning how attitudes and values are shaped
• Understanding how people “split” relationships
• Interpreting the hidden messages that reveal how others see you
Group exercise: Exploring individual drivers
Uncommon techniques to influence unwanted behaviour
Gaining influence can be like judo, we use the other person’s force to gain control. Influence is best when it is subtle and almost invisible. In this session we look at some less obvious techniques to gain influence
• Differentiating between genuine and pseudo resistance
• A step by step process to overcome resistance
• Understanding the power of questioning
• The introvert’s guide to gaining control without confrontation
• Writing your way to being a superb listener
Group exercise: Effective communication skills
Resolving problems - having ‘that’ conversation
What do you do when a colleague, manager, staff member, client does something that you are not happy with? How do you address the issue in a way that maintains their dignity but gets results?
• Understanding the power of problem ownership
• The three key guiding principles to problem resolution
• Simple techniques to deal with insistent and persistent people
• Applying the Seven Step model to resolve difficult issues
• Knowing when and how to defend yourself against unfair or incorrect comments
Group exercise: “I don’t want to appear rude but you smell” - dealing with those difficult situations
Where to from here
At the conclusion of the seminar participants are encouraged to develop a plan to apply the skills to the issue they identified at the beginning of Day One.
Facilitator
Keith McGregor, Personnel Psychology NZ Ltd
After completing his psychology degree in 1974 Keith joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force as an industrial psychologist. During 12 years in the RNZAF, Keith was involved in a wide range of organisational and personnel psychology including such areas as selection test development, interviewing, training development, selection validation, personal counselling, large scale survey work and statistical analysis. Also during this time Keith represented the New Zealand Defence Forces in behavioural sciences projects with psychologists and researchers from the British, Canadian, Australian and American armed forces.
In 1986 Keith became a director of Gilmour McGregor & Associates, a psychological consultancy employing registered psychologists of various disciplines: clinical, forensic and industrial. Among the numerous organisations he has worked with, both national and international, Keith is recognised for his executive assessment work and in particular for his extensive knowledge of interview techniques, testing and test development. Large scale survey research work also remains a focus, as does staff training, organisational development, career related counselling. He is also the developer of Selector-PA, E-Profiler and Career-Step computer programs for employee selection and management.
While remaining a director of Gilmour McGregor and Associates, in 2003 Keith established Personnel Psychology NZ Ltd to enable him to focus on providing personnel assessment, training and support to managers and staff. Keith is a registered psychologist and coordinator of the industrial/organisational special interest group for the Occupational Division for the New Zealand Psychological Society and Human Resource Institute of New Zealand.
Keith McGregor is also facilitating:
In-house Training
Sorry, this event currently has no dates scheduled.
