Developing Courses On Influencing Skills In 6 Simple Steps
We can all agree that getting people on board with your ideas isn’t always easy, right? Sometimes you have great concepts but struggle to convince others that they’re worth pursuing.
Good news—this guide can help you build a practical course on influencing skills from scratch, step-by-step. Stick around and you’ll get clear, actionable advice for creating engaging lessons, teaching ethical persuasion techniques, and measuring your course’s success.
Ready to finally make your influencing skills course happen? Let’s jump in.
Key Takeaways
- Set practical goals showing clear outcomes, like confidently using body language in meetings.
- Organize content into small, structured modules such as basics, body language, and ethical persuasion to ensure learners follow along easily.
- Teach ethical influence methods and psychology, using relatable examples people can understand in everyday work situations.
- Mix different ways of learning—use videos, short texts, assignments, and discussions—to keep students engaged.
- Include friendly assessments like quizzes or practice videos, and always offer personalized feedback to help people improve.
- Measure success by tracking completion rates, learner satisfaction, knowledge retention, and real-world improvements in influencing skills.
Develop Courses on Influencing Skills: A Step-by-Step Guide
If you’re planning to create a course on influencing skills, you’re tapping into a fast-growing field that’s projected to reach a market value of over USD 92 billion by 2033. That sounds impressive, but how exactly do you build a course that’s actually practical and helps people learn?
The good news is, anyone can create a successful educational course. But to be effective, you’ll need a clear plan, practical tips, and a lot of real-world advice—so let’s jump straight into how to set objectives, structure your course, and include important psychological concepts.
1. Set Practical Learning Objectives for Influence
First things first, you’ll need clear objectives that tell everyone exactly what they’ll achieve after completing your course. Because influencing skills are considered critical to 85% of career success, your objectives must reflect outcomes people can actually use in real situations.
A simple way to create useful objectives is to think about typical scenarios your learners might encounter—maybe they have team meetings, customer calls, or sales pitches. For instance, an effective objective could be: “After this module, you’ll confidently use non-verbal cues in meetings to build instant credibility.”
Each objective should also pass the “so what?” test. Ask yourself, “If someone achieves this goal, will their life or job performance really improve?”. If yes, then you’re good! If not, try to refine your objectives further.
If you’re still stuck figuring out goals, check out this guide on how to create a course outline—it gives you step-by-step instructions to clarify your learning objectives.
2. Organize the Course into Actionable Modules
Nobody likes feeling lost in a confusing mess of content (least of all, someone trying to learn something practical like influencing skills). The trick to a good course is structuring content into clear, logically ordered modules that build upon each other.
Begin by mapping out the learner’s journey. For an influence-skills course, the modules might look something like this: “Understanding Basics of Influence,” “Body Language Techniques,” and “Handling Objections Ethically.” Don’t cram too much into one module; rather, keep each one short and digestible.
Breaking content into actionable parts helps learners see measurable progress. For example, in your “Body Language Techniques” module, include simple exercises like recording themselves during a practice pitch and analyzing posture or gestures afterward. Actionable content encourages learners to immediately put into practice what they’ve learned.
And don’t forget to show learners exactly what they’re committing to by creating a clear course syllabus—here’s a helpful resource on how to make your course syllabus simple and effective.
3. Teach Psychological Principles and Ethical Influence
Now we’ve got objectives and a nice course layout—great! But how exactly do you teach influencing skills without sounding manipulative or sales-y? The secret is understanding basic psychological principles behind why people say “yes,” and emphasizing ethical ways to influence.
You should introduce frameworks from credible experts, maybe Robert Cialdini’s well-known “Principles of Influence,” which includes concepts like social proof, authority, reciprocity, and the power of liking. But here’s the trick: rather than just listing concepts, make them relatable through real-world stories and workplace scenarios that learners probably recognize and appreciate.
Another thing: always emphasize ethics. Remind your students often that genuine influence comes not from manipulation, but from trust, honesty, and mutual rapport. Your learners will appreciate both the moral integrity of your advice and its effectiveness in building lasting professional relationships.
Finally, consider adding fun, interactive elements like quizzes or discussion forums to solidify these principles in learners’ minds (here’s how to make a quiz that students actually enjoy taking).
4. Use a Blended Learning Format for Better Engagement
If you really want your learners to stick around and enjoy your influencing skills course, mixing different learning formats is a smart way to go.
This means you shouldn’t rely solely on long-guided videos or endless text-based slides (that stuff puts people to sleep!).
Instead, combine videos, short-form lectures, quizzes, practical exercise assignments, and discussion groups in a blended approach.
For example, you might start each module with a brief video introduction explaining a psychological principle of influence—like social proof or reciprocity—and then move onto interactive case studies and discussion forums.
Offering hands-on assignments is also helpful; learners could role-play scenarios, practice presenting ideas on-camera, or analyze real-life situations from their jobs.
This blended method not only keeps everyone’s attention, but research also shows that using varied formats significantly boosts learner engagement in the long term.
Not sure about creating great educational videos? Check out this detailed resource on how to create educational video content that your students will actually watch.
5. Implement Assessment and Feedback Systems
Once people start learning influencing skills, you’ll want to check if your teaching is actually sinking in, right? That’s why assessment and feedback are super helpful.
Assessments don’t need to be intimidating or boring; keep things friendly with quick quizzes, scenario-driven assignments, or even fun group projects that simulate real-world situations.
For instance, you might have learners complete a short quiz validating their understanding of influence principles after a module or submit a short self-recorded video demonstrating key skills in action.
More importantly, giving clear feedback is what helps people genuinely improve.
If learners complete an assignment where they have to use ethical influencing skills in a simulated customer call, providing personalized (but supportive!) pointers on specific areas can really build their confidence and skills.
Consider using peer feedback within your course platform too—allowing learners to critique each other’s assignments creates an interactive, supportive community.
If you’re unsure about making engaging quizzes, you’ll appreciate this guide on how to make quizzes learners enjoy while accurately measuring their progress.
6. Identify Key Metrics for Measuring Course Success
Lastly, how do you know if all your effort in creating this influence skills course pays off? You need to define some clear metrics upfront to measure your course’s success.
Common metrics include completion rates, learner satisfaction scores from course evaluations, knowledge retention (measured by quizzes or follow-up assessments), and real-world application reported by learners after completion.
For instance, if 80% of learners complete your course and feedback forms consistently show learners feel confident applying influencing skills at work, that’s a solid sign you’ve succeeded.
You can also track job performance outcomes related to influencing skills over time; learners themselves can report increased effectiveness in meetings, negotiations, or leadership scenarios post-course.
Just make sure the metrics you pick genuinely reflect impactful learning rather than just time spent or number of videos watched.
To keep your course continually improving, regularly review your chosen metrics and adjust your content accordingly—learners evolve, and your course should too!
Need guidance creating effective teaching strategies or structuring your lessons? This helpful comparison of effective teaching strategies could give some fresh ideas to enhance your influence training further.
FAQs
Define clear, observable actions learners should perform after the course. For instance, setting targets like “participants will be able to effectively present an argument and gain audience agreement,” makes outcomes specific, trackable, and effective.
Effective modules might include communication techniques, ethical influencing strategies, psychological foundations, persuasion approaches for negotiations or meetings, and practical exercises illustrating real-world applications of influencing skills.
A blended learning approach combines online materials, interactive workshops, and group discussions, offering participants flexible access, deeper engagement, practical experience, and immediate opportunities to practice new influencing techniques within supportive environments.
Track improvements using participant feedback, pre- and post-course assessments, manager assessments, behavioral observation, or workplace performance indicators such as increased successful negotiations, better conflict resolution outcomes, or improved stakeholder satisfaction.