NOTE: As of 2022 the Center for Executive Coaching is now accredited with the ICF as a Level 2 Coach Training Organization. The ICF has changed their language and replaced ACTP with Level 2. We were among the first group of coach training programs to receive this accreditation, after a rigorous review by the ICF.

You Are Either Influencing or Being Influenced

In business (and really in life in general), you are either influencing others or being influenced by others.

Right now in one of my businesses I am working to influence people to become advertisers/sponsors. Meanwhile, all sorts of radio, television, and print media are trying to influence me to advertise. Somewhere in these conversations some of us will achieve our primary goals, and others of us will not.

One of the most fruitful practice areas for the executive coach is in helping clients be more influential. There are specific conversations to have in specific situations that get results, and specific conversations that are neutral or do harm. You need to know these conversations and when to use them for optimal results. And then you need to know how to model them and teach them to others.

At the same time, sometimes when I am observing a meeting I categorize who says what by the type of influence style or conversation each person is having. Doing that, it quickly becomes clear who in the room commands true influence — regardless of title — who is being influenced, and who isn’t really doing much at all.

Note that influence doesn’t mean pushing a point of view across. In different situations, influence can mean listening in a certain way, using facts and logic, involving others to develop a consensus, sharing a vision, offering incentives, asserting boundaries, or building up a power base.

Also, different organizations tolerate different amounts of "pushiness," depending on the situation and on the culture.

By dividing the world into influencing and being influenced, and understanding the subtleties of influence conversations, you can help your clients achieve their goals.

Aflac

Amazon

Ancestry

Army Corp of Engineers

Ascension Health

AT&T

Bank of America

Bechtel

Best Buy

Booz Allen

Bose

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Brown University

Capital One

Caterpillar

Charles Schwab & Co.

Children’s Hospital Colorado

Cisco

Citrix

Coca-Cola

Deloitte

Dropbox

Duke Energy

Galveston Independent School District

General Atomics

General Electric

Google

Harvard Business School

Home Depot

Inland Steel

International Red Cross

Johnson and Johnson

Kaiser-Permanente

KPMG

Laser Spine Institute

Lexis Nexis

Liberty Mututal

L’Oreal

Macy’s

Mckinsey Consulting

Merck

Microsoft

MIT

NASA

National Basketball Association (NBA)

Nike

Nissan

Nvidia

Partners Healthcare

Philips

Procter & Gamble

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)

Ralph Lauren

Regeneron

Rice University

Ross Stores

Russell Reynolds Associates

Schneider Electric

Shell Oil

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Stryker

The Ohio State University

Tom’s Shoes

United Nations

University of Florida

Unum

UPS

US Air Force

US Army

US Army Medical Corps

US Marines

US Navy

USAID

Valassis

VMWare

Xerox

Zappos

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