Workshop B: Improving your Influencing Skills: Keys to Leading without Authority

Improving your Influencing Skills: Keys to Leading without Authority

 

AF4Q communities must develop the capacity to influence those around them to achieve their goals. Improving the ability to influence effectively requires understanding interpersonal behaviors, then adapting behaviors to the situations and people we are trying to influence. Led by Lynn Fick-Cooper, senior faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, National Meeting participants learned about the five predominant influence styles: rationalizing, asserting, negotiating, inspiring, and bridging. They then identified the style that seemed to fit them most naturally using the Center for Creative Leadership’s Influence Style Indicator. 

 

Participants watched short clips from movies to understand the styles used by the characters and how different leadership styles can lead to different outcomes. The participants shared stories about how they were influenced or how they influenced others in varying scenarios. 

 

Finally, participants drafted six-word stories about their experience in being influential. Among the best of the crop:

 

"Major reluctance becomes tomorrow's opportunities" 

"Commitment outweighs resistance; own your decision" 

"Openness to encouragement engenders positive outcomes"

"Comfort is safe, risk is rewarding" 

"Take the plunge, confidence will build”