Babson College offers a residential five-day executive development program, Leadership and Influence, exploring vision, teamwork, and other leadership competencies needed to influence at all levels of an organization. This highly experiential program is for managers whose direct reports manage others and combines videos, case discussions, role plays, simulations, and a day of outdoor problem-solving activities linked to influence without authority and postheroic concepts. Participants request confidential questionnaire feedback on leadership style from peers and direct reports and utilize the results at the program. With a faculty team led by Keith Rollag, the program runs twice a year and has also been customized for numerous companies. More information is available from Babson Executive Education, Babson Park, MA 02157-0310; phone: (781) 239-4354 or (800) 882-EXEC; or http://www3.babson.edu/bee/programs/leadership.
Stanford University Graduate School of Business offers an executive program, Interpersonal Dynamics for High Performing Executives, for senior-level executives and general managers with at least seven years of management experience. It is appropriate for any industry, any size organization, and any functional area. The objective is to increase one's interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence necessary for high performance. This is a selective program accepting only 36 participants who will be divided into three T-groups (training groups) led by a Stanford Faculty member and senior facilitator. This experiential program (supplemented by lectures and short exercises) provides a personalized learning experience where participants learn from each other as well as from the staff.
Learning outcomes include: assessing and developing personal style in a way that builds influential relationships with a wide range of constituents; learning how to give and receive constructive feedback that strengthens performance and relationships; engaging in more productive interpersonal exchanges including how to raise and resolve differences; developing greater self-awareness to become a more effective and authentic leader; and acquiring practical skills that improve emotional intelligence.
More information is available from Stanford Executive Education, 518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305-5015; http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed/lead; phone: (650) 723-3341 or (866) 542-2205.
Custom training by Allan Cohen, David Bradford, or several associates has been designed for half-day, one-day, and two-day programs. These can be stand-alone or integrated into longer executive development programs. Contacts: cohen@babson.edu or dlbrad@stanford.edu.
Keynote speeches and inspirational or informational talks on influence and various applications are available from Allan Cohen or David Bradford. Contacts are given above.
A 360-degree instrument on influence, or on influence and leadership, tied to the concepts in Influence without Authority and/or our leadership book, Power Up, is available. The questions ask colleagues, subordinates, and boss(es) how the person is doing now and how the respondent would prefer the person to behave. All questions are tied to actions that can be changed, so that the results are practical and connected to what people want. Sample questions are available at influencewithoutauthority.com.
Extended examples and analyses of people who have exercised or needed to exercise influence are available at the web site http://influencewithoutauthority.com. (For more details about these examples, see Appendix A.)
For extensive podcasts with Allan Cohen and influence expert Kim Barnes, go to http://www.barnesconti.com/podcasts/influence.html. Also see Kim's book on influence, Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, At Home, and in Your Community.