Master the Art of Relationship Building
Refine your communication skills by learning to harness your emotional intelligence with one of the UK's most acclaimed management training courses.
What gets in the way of developing and holding on to new communication skills are old habits of thinking and speaking. Even if the advice is very good the reason why it rarely sticks are the mental habits people inevitably revert to, especially under pressure.
Unlearning those old habits and internalising a more effective and lasting approach to communication needs more than a short course of lectures on how to do it.
What makes this training stand out is the exceptional support through one-to-one coaching sessions and continuous feedback. Changing behaviour is not an easy task as old habits are hard to break.
With a 40-year track record we can help you cultivate practical skills, and build your confidence to so you can successfully navigate real-world challenges, ensuring lasting behavioural improvements.
Join thousands of participants getting results
"What I love about this course is that I didn't just learn about the topic, this course is about ME. I'm confident I can reliably use my new skills, even when under pressure".
A Project Manager At A Tech Company
"A lesson for life! The power of effective communication is incredible when one masters the skills "listening with empathy" and "speaking assertively"
A Project Quality Engineer
Well-known companies who have used this course again and again, over many years
This course will help you foster better connections, persuade others and cultivate a constructive work atmosphere. You'll learn how to improve your communication skills, teamwork, and relationships and so that you can influence others more successfully. There'll be a particular focus on equipping you with the tools you need to provide feedback that is both constructive and supportive, and also critical yet diplomatic.
You will learn a set of powerful emotional intelligence communication techniques so that you can manage difficult conversations, handle challenging situations, build relationships and set firm boundaries.
The goal of this training is to equip you with the tools they need to build strong, lasting relationships in your professional life, although because these skills are so transferable many clients report vast improvements in their personal relationships as well.
This is a skills development rather than just a theoretical programme, so the emphasis throughout will be on you taking turn after turn, practising your skills, while receiving feedback and coaching about your effect on others.
In your coaching sessions you will be helped to practise dealing with the kinds of situation you find challenging, again and again, until you are confident you can do it successfully.
We'll combine practical, hands-on experience with video replay and analysis and discussion of the principles involved to help you gain both skills and understanding. Special attention is paid to your individual training needs, so you can practise your skills in real-life situations that you have to handle at work.
That's why as well as your place in a small group, this training includes a generous amount of private and confidential one-to-one coaching sessions online, spread over several months, ensuring an exceptional level of support. This will ensure the changes you make are sustained over a longer period of time and any obstacles are overcome. Choose between online training available worldwide, or in-person face-to-face courses in the UK.
For a list of upcoming course dates (for online coaching and face-to-face training), the locations of the next 3-day public courses in the UK and pricing Click here.
This initial coaching session serves as an introduction to the "Skills with People" course, allowing you to understand the course's relevance and effectiveness for your specific needs before committing to it.
Winning People Over
For more than 40 years this training course on how to improve relationships has proven to be one of the most highly acclaimed. Over the years we've had thousands of managers and professionals through our hands. Many have said it's one of the best emotional intelligence training courses they ever attended. We have helped our clients develop their skills so they can communicate more effectively, and succeed in both their personal and professional lives.
This training program will give you the tools you need to succeed in relationships, influence others, and reach your goals. Whatever your ambition - better personal relationships, career advancement, or becoming a better leader - our program can help you get there.
Skills and Knowledge |
Benefit of this Influencing Skills Course |
Effective Persuasion |
Learn how to convince others by understanding their perspective using techniques like active listening and assertiveness. |
Emotional Intelligence |
Develop techniques for demonstrating your understanding of others. Communicate more effectively by showing empathy. |
Assertiveness |
Build skills to express your ideas, criticisms and opinions without causing conflict. Learn how to give your authetic, honest and sincere feedback. |
Practical Exercises |
This training includes real-life scenarios, role-playing, and one-on-one coaching to help you feel confident in applying what you learn in the real world. |
Repeated Feedback and Practice |
You'll receive lots of feedback from an experienced trainer so you can modify your technique in real time. |
You'll learn how to persuade others by understanding and empathising with their perspective. You'll learn techniques for building trust and rapport, such as active listening, paraphrasing, summarising and showing empathy. Alongside, powerful assertive methods for helping them understand your point of view without feeling threatened.
You'll learn powerful emotional intelligence techniques, including how to demonstrate your understanding and appreciation for others' perspectives, and how you can encourage them to tune into your wave-length so that you are understood more easily.
You will develop your assertiveness skills, which are essential for expressing your ideas and opinions effectively, without antagonising. Learn how to deliver your honest, authentic, sincere feedback without worrying about whether you'll trigger resistance, or an argument.
The training program includes practical exercises, role-playing scenarios, and a lot of one-to-one coaching to help you feel confident that you can apply what you learn in real-life situations.
You'll receive lots of feedback from an experienced trainer using a video camera. You can then analyse the recordings, modify your technique in real time, and try again. Rince and repeat until you're confident you know what to do and how to do it to have the effect you really want to be able to have.
Might your need to be more successful at winning friends and influencing people be met by this management training course called Skills with People?
In the guidelines below, the process of persuasion - or winning friends and influencing people without argument - is broken down into two stages, the first is working towards mutual understanding, and the second is working towards agreement. It often works better to keep them separate - delay trying to get agreement until you have achieved mutual understanding:-
Throughout the conversation be alert for changes in his state of mind. Be flexible. Respond to his changing state of mind by switching as needed from empathy to assertiveness and back again. Don't be in a hurry to reach agreement. Impatience to reach agreement is one of the biggest obstacles to making friends and influencing people. Agreement is for stage two - it's unlikely to be achieved before mutual understanding.
How to be more successful at influencing other people
The key to opening people's minds is in how you handle their resistance. Resistance is driven by emotion - when people's negative feelings are aroused it's hard for them to be open-minded. When presented with facts and logic it's natural and inevitable they'll argue. And they'll remain closed minded until they've let off steam. That's why reasoned argument so often fails to win friends and influence people.
Here's an outline of a conversation. Person A needs something from Person B. B is resisting. You can see what happens when A tries to persuade with reasoned argument. The two minds are drifting apart, losing connection - and A fails in his attempt to influence B:-
Notice the “yes buts”. Listen in to almost any meeting or discussion where controversial issues are being discussed, and you'll hear people saying “yes but” to one-another (or similar words). It's an argument. As they argue their frustration rises and they end up in a ‘dialogue of the deaf'. This approach to persuasion rarely succeeds.
Below, in contrast, A responds to B's resistance with empathy and assertiveness (the two skills that are crucial for making friends and influencing people without argument). These are the two basic communication skills this course will help you master:-
This is much more persuasive. And it avoids argument. Argument raises the temperature, wastes time and jeopardises the relationship. Of course there may still be work to do before B fully agrees, but A has greatly increased his likelihood of success. He has responded to B's resistance not by arguing but by showing understanding and allowing him to let off steam and calm down. This has created a rational atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.
If you find yourself arguing, stop. You're much more likely to win friends and influence people by using empathy and assertiveness instead of argument.
Here's Nicola, a member of the customer support team. She's trying to influence Hugo, manager of the software development department, in order to get the technical assistance her customer urgently needs:-
Both Nicola and Hugo are doing the best they can, and with the best of intentions. But an unresolved stalemate like this does not bode well for the business. Let's see what difference it makes when Nicola uses a combination of empathy and assertiveness:-