Agreed! Improve your Powers of Influence

Journal of European Industrial Training

ISSN: 0309-0590

Article publication date: 1 August 2000

223

Keywords

Citation

(2000), "Agreed! Improve your Powers of Influence", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 24 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.2000.00324fae.002

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited


Agreed! Improve your Powers of Influence

Agreed! Improve your Powers of Influence

Terry GillenInstitute of Personnel and Development (IPD)1999ISBN 0 85292 801 7Paperback: £11.99 (£10.79 to IPD members)Keywords Employee attitudes, Individual behaviour, Skills

Terry Gillen, a specialist in personal skills, gives practical instruction on cultivating new powers of influence, examining how and why modes of speech and body language help or hinder.

The book helps everyone to assess their own attitudes and behaviour as it explores areas such as persuading, listening, probing, body language and other elements of successful communication. It offers a step-by-step guide to some of the best techniques for influencing people and highlights the need to listen and question, at the same time as being assertive and building rapport.

Examples of everyday work situations are described with typical two-way conversations, showing how easy it can be to trigger aggression and opposition instead of co-operation and a positive conclusion.

There are many ways in which you can influence people, says Gillen. Bullying, cajoling, bribing and seeking sympathy, for example, are all effective ways of influencing someone. They work. Make no mistake about it – they can help you get what you want. The big problem, however, is that they have serious side-effects.

Honesty, openness and respect are more effective, Gillen says. Your aim is to help people see your point of view – the penny has to drop in their mind. The dropping penny is a further development of Gillen's TSR test (that sounds reasonable). If suggestions and solutions do not have the ring of common sense, they rarely become accepted.

The book mixes a presentation of the core influencing skills with an examination of the interpretation and use of body language, before suggesting a number of game plans for common business problems, such as handling performance reviews, reprimanding and giving constructive criticism, delivering bad news and resisting others' attempts at manipulation.

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