Influence

Gavin Kennedy

Influencing is how we obtain what we want by affecting the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of others over whom we may have limited or no authority but who are able to make decisions that affect ourselves and our organisation. It is about understanding how managers deal with other managers upwards and sideways in their own organisation and in other organisations. Influence or be influenced, that is the iron law for working with other people.

This elective explains how people are influenced, how to exert influence, how to develop relationships with those around us to achieve personal and organisational goals and how to recognise influencing games played by other managers. These are essential skills for anybody wishing to put into practice the outputs of all the other courses in the EBS MBA.

Topics covered

The need for influence.
What is influencing?.
Building relationships.
The currencies of influence.
GAME.
Influencing for results.
Power and influence.
Retrospection.

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Safwat Kabany
Syria

For Safwat Kabany, from Syria, doing his MBA with Edinburgh Business School was the most logical choice. "I'm in the petrochemical industry and Heriot-Watt University is one of the world-leading academic institutions in this field of industry. I therefore knew a lot about the high standards at Heriot-Watt and these are certainly evident in EBS's MBA programme."

Safwat decided to do the programme as a full-time on-campus student, which was not without its challenges, particularly for a foreign student. "I had to cope with both language and cultural differences, which at first were quite daunting. EBS, however, is very skilled at dealing with people from different backgrounds and cultures and it wasn't long before I felt very comfortable in this environment. The faculty are extremely helpful and take a keen interest in every individual. The facilities at Heriot-Watt for resident on-campus students are excellent and not having to worry about where I would live or how I would feed myself ensured that I could devote all my attention to my studies."...more