Leadership: Influencing People & Managing Change

The Leadership: Influencing People & Managing Change program centers around leadership capabilities: exerting your influence and steering change, both at the interpersonal level and at the organizational level. It is placed in the context of finance, as a department or as a service, and role and responsibilities of the finance professional. In signaling, advising and ‘guiding into the right direction’ these leadership skills are indispensable. 

Participants will strengthen their skills in influencing people in business interactions, as well as in managing change throughout an organization. They will augment their effectiveness in bringing about behaviors which contribute to better decision-making and greater organizational results.

The three critical components to effective leadership are divided over the three program days:

Day 1: Strong negotiation & communication behaviors
Key behavioral reflexes in interpersonal interactions

Which key efficient communication behaviors work across a wide range of business and organizational situations? How do you defuse tension or conflict in interactions? We discuss and practice how to ask questions and remain open-minded despite distrust, conflict, or lack of interest. By means of concrete case-studies, participants experience these key points in a compelling way, and grasp the power of non-verbal behaviors.

Day 2: Influencing across levels
Applying indirect influence & be a leader in groups

How do you enhance your influence while taking into account the social and organizational context? This means going beyond the one-to-one, one-shot interactions. What weight to attribute to certain contextual aspects? We discuss and practice how to exert influence through indirect means, leveraging your influence in team & group interactions, generating effective group processes, and facilitating better decision-making. 

Day 3: Leading change
Understanding how to make change happen

What ways are at your disposal to lead, foster, and implement change throughout your organization? How do you effectively deal with the complexity of collective dynamics? We discuss and practice psychological and organizational barriers to change, general strategies to lead and foster change, concrete behaviors to implement change, and what makes effective change leaders in today’s organizations.

The program is intensive and hands-on. It starts with an interpersonal efficiency perspective: to enhance participants’ immediate, interpersonal impact. And finishes with an organizational efficiency perspective: to enhance participants’ long-term, organizational impact.

This interactive program consists of a combination of lectures, real-life cases and examples, and role plays.   

How you will benefit  

• Augment your effectiveness in dealing with people 
• Strengthen your leadership and influencing capabilities 
• Expand your situational overview and leadership toolkit 
• Enhance your behaviors in one-to-one interactions 
• Improve your understanding and use of non-verbal behaviors 
• Learn about and practice with strategies of indirect influence 
• Enlarge your impact in groups and lead them to better decisions 
• Learn about strategies and behaviors to lead and implement change