Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community, 3rd Edition

Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community, 3rd Edition

by B. Kim Barnes
Released July 2015
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119071587

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Book description

Change minds, guide opinions, and shape emotions with the power of effective influence

Exercising Influence is your guide to accomplishing more with less effort. Demystifying the process of influencing others, this book shows you how to develop effective influence behaviors, plan an influence approach, set goals, resolve problems, and build better relationships. Revised and expanded to provide more actionable advice across industries and sectors, this third edition has updated examples and resources and features all-new chapters on influencing through social media, influencing your team, and applying research findings of neuroscience, and behavioral economics.. You'll create work, family, and community relationships that are more mutually rewarding as you apply a practical, real-world model for developing this seldom-taught skill.

Influence is a skillset that everyone needs, yet the necessary techniques and fundamentals are rarely made explicit and shared. This book is a vital resource for anyone who wants to achieve better outcomes at work, at home, or in the world at large, helping you make important things happen and create relationships that matter.

  • Develop a strategic and tactical approach to influence that gets results.

  • Resolve problems and conflicts, and build more balanced relationships.

  • Do more with less, increase your impact on others, and take greater charge of your life.

  • Take advantage of new methodologies that build your skills as an influencer.

    • Influence is a timeless topic for business leaders and others in positions of power, but the world has evolved to the point where everyone needs these skills. No matter your job, role, rank, or function, if you want to get things done you need to know how to influence up, down, across, and outside the organization. With improved skills, you can steer opinions, impact decisions, and sway the undecided. If you're ready to see what you're capable of, Exercising Influence will show you how to take charge of your professional and personal life in a powerful, ethical, and productive way.

    Table of contents

    1. Title Page
    2. Copyright
    3. Dedication
    4. About This Book
      1. Why Is This Topic Important?
      2. What Can You Achieve with This Book?
      3. How Is the Book Organized?
    5. Acknowledgments
    6. Part I: Exercising Influence
      1. Chapter 1: What We've Got Here Is a Failure to Influence: Dealing with Life 101
        1. The Value of Influence Skills
      2. Chapter 2: What Is Influence, and Why Do We Want to Have It?: The Upside and the Downside
        1. Influence and Power
        2. Influence and Leadership
        3. Your Sphere of Influence
        4. Empowerment: Buzzword or Reality?
        5. Benefits and Costs of Exercising Influence
        6. Where Should We Exercise Influence?
        7. Developing and Improving Influence Fitness
      3. Chapter 3: A Model for Exercising Influence: Building Relationships and Getting Results
        1. A Framework for Influence
        2. What Is the Issue?
      4. Chapter 4: Expressive Influence: Sending Ideas and Generating Energy
        1. The Purpose of Expressive Influence
        2. The Expressive Behaviors
        3. Using Expressive Influence at Work
        4. Using Expressive Influence at Home
        5. Using Expressive Influence in Your Community
        6. When to Use Expressive Behaviors
      5. Chapter 5: Receptive Influence: Inviting Ideas and Stimulating Action
        1. The Purpose of Receptive Influence
        2. The Receptive Behaviors
        3. Using Receptive Influence at Work
        4. Using Receptive Influence at Home
        5. Using Receptive Influence in Your Community
        6. When to Use Receptive Behaviors
      6. Chapter 6: Influencing in Action: A World of Possibilities
        1. Responding to Opportunities
        2. Creating Opportunities
        3. Managing Influence Situations
    7. Part II: Planning for Influence
      1. Chapter 7: Developing an Influence Plan: Design Thinking for Influence Opportunities
        1. Why Design an Influence Approach?
        2. The Pros and Cons of Planning
        3. Phase One: Mapping the Territory
        4. Phase Two: Charting the Course
        5. Phase Three: Troubleshooting
      2. Chapter 8: Establishing Influence Objectives: What Will Success Look Like?
        1. If You Don't Know Where You're Going
        2. Developing a Challenging Influence Objective
        3. The Value of Persistence
      3. Chapter 9: Focus on the Relationship: Influence Works Both Ways
        1. You, Me, and Us
        2. The Importance of Balance
        3. Studying History versus Being Condemned to Repeat It
        4. Creating Your Influence Future
      4. Chapter 10: Focus on the Context: The Individual
        1. Influence Happens in the Other Person
        2. Understanding Values, Needs, and Aspirations
        3. Working with Personality, Interests, and Preferences
        4. Examining Your Assumptions
        5. Difficult People or Difficult Situations?
      5. Chapter 11: Focus on the Context: System, Organization, Culture, and Timing
        1. Influencing in an Open System
        2. Organizations, Teams, and Families
        3. Culture Is Context
        4. Timing Is Everything—Almost
      6. Chapter 12: Focus on the Context: Yourself
        1. Wants versus Needs
        2. Strengths and Limitations
        3. Style and Blind Spots
        4. Keeping It Light
        5. Readiness, Reluctance, and Risk
      7. Chapter 13: Focus on the Issues: What's at Stake?
        1. Doing Your Homework
        2. Framing the Issue
        3. Confidence Is Power
      8. Chapter 14: Choosing and Using Influence Behaviors to Achieve Your Objective: How to Create Your Approach
        1. Reviewing the Influence Framework
        2. Selecting the Most Useful Behaviors
        3. Reframing
        4. Planning Your Approach
        5. Setting Yourself Up for Success
      9. Chapter 15: Putting Your Plan to Work: Treating the Unexpected as an Opportunity
        1. Improvisation
        2. Responding to New Information
        3. Dealing with Defensiveness, Resistance, and Avoidance
        4. Managing Yourself
        5. The Uses of Silence
        6. Making It Up on the Fly
    8. Part III: Special Issues in Influence
      1. Chapter 16: The Ethics of Influence: Doing Well by Doing Good
        1. Manipulation versus Influence
        2. Influence and Self-Interest
        3. What Doesn't Work
      2. Chapter 17: Influencing Electronically: The Wonders and Terrors of Instant Communication
        1. Welcome to the (Too Much) Information Age
        2. First, You Have to Get Their Attention
        3. Stimulating a Productive Response
        4. Preventing Misunderstandings, Embarrassment, and Other E-mail Disasters
        5. Virtual Teams: Culture and Context
        6. Texts, Instant Messaging, and Beyond
      3. Chapter 18: Influencing through Social Media: Expanding Your Sphere of Influence
        1. From One to Many
        2. How to Become a Social Media “Influencer”
        3. Writing an Influential Post or Article
      4. Chapter 19: Applied Influence: Making Things Happen
        1. Maintaining and Improving Your Influence Fitness
        2. Making Things Happen at Work
        3. Try This at Work
        4. Making Things Happen at Home
        5. Try This at Home
        6. Making Things Happen in Your Community
        7. Try This in Your Community
      5. Chapter 20: Influencing Indirectly: Influencing beyond Your Boundaries
        1. What Is Indirect Influence?
        2. When Is Indirect Influence Appropriate?
        3. Influencing through Other Individuals
        4. Influencing as Part of a Group
        5. Debate as an Indirect Influence Tactic
        6. Disengaging as a Means to an End
        7. Using Other Means to Influence Indirectly
      6. Chapter 21: Influencing Your Team: From One to Many
        1. Expanding Your Influence Impact
        2. Establish a Climate for Influence
        3. Do Your Homework
        4. Actively Influence
      7. Chapter 22: Your Brain on Influence: What Neuroscience and Behavioral Economics Can Teach Us
        1. What Goes on between Our Ears When Someone Tries to Influence Us?
        2. The Power of Cognitive Dissonance
        3. Why “Homo economicus” Isn't Always a Practical Concept for Influencers
        4. Cognitive Biases and How You Can Make Friends with Them
        5. Decision Shortcuts and Their Implications for Influence
        6. Other Factors at Work in Decision Making
      8. Afterword: The Paradox of Failure
        1. Win Some, Lose Some, Learn Some
        2. What? So What? Now What?
      9. Appendix A: Coaching Partnerships
      10. Appendix B: Influence Plan
        1. Part 1
        2. Part 2
      11. Appendix C: Meeting Processes That Support Effective Influencing
        1. We Have to Start Meeting Like This
        2. Influencing in Global and Virtual Teams
      12. Appendix D: Sentence Starters
        1. Expressive Behaviors
        2. Receptive Behaviors
      13. Appendix E: Influence Scenarios
      14. Appendix F: Self-Assessment
      15. Resources
        1. Workshops and Seminars
        2. Instrument
        3. Additional Reading
        4. Other Resources
      16. Barnes & Conti Associates, Inc.
      17. Index
    9. End User License Agreement

    Product information

    • Title: Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community, 3rd Edition
    • Author(s): B. Kim Barnes
    • Release date: July 2015
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9781119071587