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    • Influence

    Influence Courses Online

    Explore principles of influence for effective communication and leadership. Learn techniques for persuasion, negotiation, and building credibility.

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    Explore the Influence Course Catalog

    • I

      IIMA - IIM Ahmedabad

      Leadership Skills

      Skills you'll gain: Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership, Change Management, Leadership and Management, Business Leadership, Business Ethics, Self-Awareness, Culture Transformation, Personal Development, Decision Making, Emotional Intelligence, Influencing, Empowerment, Communication, Relationship Building

      4.9
      Rating, 4.9 out of 5 stars
      ·
      1.8K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • M

      Macquarie University

      Storytelling et influence : Communiquer pour convaincre

      Skills you'll gain: Persuasive Communication, Overcoming Objections, Influencing, Rapport Building, Storytelling, Meeting Facilitation, Leadership, Presentations, Communication, Public Speaking, Relationship Building, Verbal Communication Skills, Trustworthiness, Target Audience, Non-Verbal Communication, Empathy

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      102 reviews

      Mixed · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • U

      Utrecht University

      Understanding child development: from synapse to society

      Skills you'll gain: Child Development, Human Development, Speech Language Pathology, Developmental Disabilities, Human Learning, Systems Thinking, Learning Theory, Research, Neurology, Cultural Diversity, Biology

      4.6
      Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
      ·
      369 reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • U

      University of Toronto

      Communication Strategies for a Virtual Age

      Skills you'll gain: Meeting Facilitation, Presentations, Persuasive Communication, Communication, Collaboration, Team Building, Interpersonal Communications, Business Communication, Virtual Teams, Public Speaking, Non-Verbal Communication, Telecommuting

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      4.3K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      U

      University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

      Managerial Economics and Business Analysis

      Skills you'll gain: Descriptive Statistics, Supply And Demand, Market Dynamics, Sampling (Statistics), Statistical Inference, Business Analytics, Financial Systems, Financial Policy, Banking, Probability Distribution, Analytics, Statistical Analysis, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Statistics, Regression Analysis, Microsoft Excel, Economics, Financial Market, Business Economics, Risk Management

      Build toward a degree

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      4.1K reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      U

      University of Toronto

      Gender Analytics: Gender Equity through Inclusive Design

      Skills you'll gain: Human Centered Design, User Experience Design, Organizational Change, User Research, Design Thinking, Change Management, Design Research, Product Design, Data Ethics, Data Collection, Quantitative Research, Influencing, Qualitative Research, Organizational Leadership, Business Leadership, Leadership, Diversity Awareness, Diversity and Inclusion, Innovation, Analysis

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      581 reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      M

      Macquarie University

      Leading transformations: Manage change

      Skills you'll gain: Change Management, Organizational Change, Business Transformation, Process Management, Influencing, Leadership, Adaptability, Innovation, Resource Management, Gap Analysis, Dealing With Ambiguity, Resilience, Creative Thinking

      4.7
      Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
      ·
      1.6K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      I

      IE Business School

      Understanding economic policymaking

      Skills you'll gain: Financial Policy, Public Policies, Economics, Economics, Policy, and Social Studies, Tax, International Finance, Policy Analysis, Crisis Management, Fiscal Management, Financial Systems, Supply And Demand, Financial Market

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      1K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      U

      University of Michigan

      The Influence of Social Determinants on Health

      Skills you'll gain: Health Disparities, Health Equity, Community Health, Public Health, Health Policy, Health Assessment, Social Justice, Economics, Policy, and Social Studies, Epidemiology, Socioeconomics, Health Systems, Health Care, Stress Management, Behavioral Health, Social Sciences, Cultural Diversity, Social and Human Services, Mental and Behavioral Health, Data Collection, Culture

      4.6
      Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
      ·
      70 reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 1 - 3 Months

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      U

      University of California, Davis

      Computational Social Science

      Skills you'll gain: Network Analysis, Data Wrangling, Natural Language Processing, Web Scraping, Social Sciences, Data Ethics, Databases, Artificial Intelligence, Research, Simulations, Big Data, Systems Thinking, Data Science, Research Methodologies, Machine Learning, Data Collection, Computational Thinking, Economics, Policy, and Social Studies, Graph Theory, Agentic systems

      4.6
      Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
      ·
      1.1K reviews

      Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months

    • Y

      Yale University

      Narrative Economics

      Skills you'll gain: Behavioral Economics, Storytelling, Data Storytelling, Economics, Economic Development, Financial Forecasting, Socioeconomics, Forecasting, Social Studies, Consumer Behaviour, Analysis, Complex Problem Solving

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      749 reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks

    • Status: Free Trial
      Free Trial
      G

      Google

      From Likes to Leads: Interact with Customers Online

      Skills you'll gain: Social Media Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, Social Media Campaigns, Social Media Management, Marketing Analytics, Customer Engagement, Digital Advertising, Brand Awareness, Advertising, Target Audience

      4.8
      Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
      ·
      3.7K reviews

      Beginner · Course · 1 - 3 Months

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    In summary, here are 10 of our most popular influence courses

    • Leadership Skills: IIMA - IIM Ahmedabad
    • Storytelling et influence : Communiquer pour convaincre: Macquarie University
    • Understanding child development: from synapse to society: Utrecht University
    • Communication Strategies for a Virtual Age: University of Toronto
    • Managerial Economics and Business Analysis: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • Gender Analytics: Gender Equity through Inclusive Design: University of Toronto
    • Leading transformations: Manage change: Macquarie University
    • Understanding economic policymaking: IE Business School
    • The Influence of Social Determinants on Health: University of Michigan
    • Computational Social Science: University of California, Davis

    Frequently Asked Questions about Influence

    To influence someone is to affect or change their behavior without the direct use of authority, coercion, or force. Instead, the influencer creates change by shifting the mindset of individuals, groups, or entire organizations, persuading them to adopt the desired course of action of their own free will. The ability to influence can be important for everyday communication and maintaining harmonious relationships in our personal and family lives, but it is also a very important skill for many jobs and career paths.

    For instance, being able to subtly influence your customers to “get to yes” when you’re closing a deal is an essential talent of sales professionals of all kinds, whether you’re selling shoes or business software. In fact, the world of social media and digital marketing has created a new type of selling called influencer marketing, in which influential personalities and cultural figures post pictures and testimonials with the product being sold.

    The ability to influence is also essential for leadership roles in any organization, as management positions require you to motivate employees to not only fulfill their roles but to work enthusiastically at the peak of their abilities. The best executives and CEOs are talented at bringing their teams into vision alignment, with strongly shared priorities, values, and focused goal setting that allow organizations to succeed - in business as well as in the recruitment of top-flight talent.‎

    Influencing skills are important for almost any career that requires working in a team, but they are most important for roles as managers and top executives. Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” has been a mainstay in business school curricula despite being written nearly a century ago because this skill has always been fundamental for success in the business world. The ability to get your team aligned to work together effectively is rare and highly valued; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, top executives earned a median annual salary of $104,690 per year in 2019, including a median pay of $184,460 for chief executive officers (CEOs).‎

    Absolutely. There is a common myth that the ability to influence others is simply an innate talent that some people have and others don’t, but the reality is that influencing is a skill that is taught at every business school - including schools offering courses online through Coursera. You can learn how to influence others from leading faculty at top-ranked schools like University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and Macquarie University. And even though Coursera lets you learn remotely on a flexible schedule, you can still work with faculty in live virtual office hours that let you practice your influencing skills to an expert audience.‎

    Some skills or experience you might need to have before learning influence are strong social skills that allow you to get along with all types of people, such as supervisors, peers, and customers. If you have any sales experience or experience presenting information and concepts to others in person or online, you may already have the skills necessary to learn advanced influencing methods.‎

    The kind of people who are best suited for roles in influence are those who are confident in their abilities to motivate and persuade others whether or not they’re in authority roles. Types of people well suited for roles in influence can build and maintain high-quality relationships with diverse groups of individuals. People best suited for learning influence can discern other people’s attitudes, diverse social factors influencing behavior, and why people may or may not act on their intentions.‎

    Learning influence may be right for you if you want to learn how to develop it so you can become more effective in achieving your organizational goals. Studying the subject may be right for you if you want to understand the framework of power and influence and the dynamics of effective networks, persuasion, and leverage. If you're in any type of role where you need negotiation, communication, and sales skills, then learning influence may be a good choice for you.‎

    Common career paths for someone who has studied influence are often found in corporate management in general where the ability to persuade people is paramount. Specific common career paths for people who have studied influence might be product and brand management, research and development, and any leadership position in an organization’s C-suite. Another common career path for someone in influence is blogging where paid or sponsored influencers create content on various social media platforms. The most common career path for someone in influence is in sales where it’s critical to understand how to best persuade customers and clients using various tools, including neuromarketing.‎

    There are many topics you can study that are related to influence, such as emotional intelligence, which may help you to work effectively in teams, build cooperative relationships, and exercise effective influence to foster meaningful change. Another topic related to influence that you can study is social psychology to help you understand why people behave in certain ways. Marketing is another strongly related topic to influence that you might consider studying.‎

    This FAQ content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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