Course Highlights
This virtual influencing and conflict-resolution course for managers and supervisors will:
- Clarify positive versus negative influence and the behaviors that strengthen credibility.
- Introduce a practical influence progression built on Modeling, Motivating, Mentoring, and Multiplying.
- Strengthen leader awareness of what blocks understanding, then add tools for finding common ground.
- Teach message packaging tactics leaders can use when stakes are high and alignment matters.
- Improve conflict navigation by identifying common sources of conflict and choosing an approach that matches the outcome.
Course Overview
Influence shows up in every interaction, and it is never neutral. Leaders strengthen results when they move influence in a positive direction, build trust steadily, and make it easier for others to follow through because they want to, not because they have to.
Bending the Wind is a live virtual course that builds influence and conflict skills as an operating discipline. The session begins by defining influence and highlighting how credibility and integrity shape whether influence becomes positive or negative. It then moves into the People Puzzle so leaders can see what blocks understanding, use the Ladder of Influence to locate where disagreement lives, and ask better questions that build common ground. Next, the program strengthens message packaging through seven practical tactics leaders can apply when delivering planned messages. The close reframes conflict as normal, clarifies common conflict sources, and teaches five approaches to conflict so leaders can choose an approach that fits the stakes, time, and relationship.
The following outline highlights the course’s main learning points. For virtual delivery, the structure and timing are intentionally set to support discussion and practice. We can adjust emphasis or drop select elements based on your business priorities. Upon request, we can preview the participant materials with you prior to the session(s).
Program Objectives
At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Identify positive versus negative influence and the actions leaders take to move in the right direction.
- Describe what most people want and how leaders can use those desires to motivate, mentor, and multiply their influence.
- Employ various tactics to increase influence when delivering planned messages.
- Discuss sources of conflict and how to navigate them for better influence.
- Choose an appropriate approach to conflict based on the desired outcome.
Program Modules
Everyone Has It: How Great Is Your Influence
Influence varies by relationship and trust, and it moves people in a positive or negative direction through everyday actions, words, and decisions. This opening defines sustainable influence as getting people to do what you want because they want to, then introduces the Personal Influence Pyramid, Modeling, Motivating, Mentoring, and Multiplying, with integrity as the foundation. Following that discussion, participants will diagnose influence in two short leader cases and will identify one credibility repair move that would change the direction of influence.
The People Puzzle: Choosing to Understand Others
Leaders lose influence when they misread what is driving another person, or when fear, self-centeredness, and a lack of common ground distort how they listen and respond. This course component introduces the Ladder of Influence so leaders can locate where disagreement lives, actions, tactics, strategies, goals and objectives, vision, and values and beliefs, then move the conversation to a more productive level. From there, learners will use Ladder questions and the Four Questions tool to reframe one real disagreement and identify one question that would change the quality of the conversation.
With a Bow: Packaging Messages to Influence
A solid message can fail when it is packaged poorly, especially when stakes are high and anxiety is in the room. This module teaches seven message tactics, making a personal connection, repetition, future-focused language, repeating key nuggets, getting an early yes, projecting confidence, and giving praise, then applies them to the CEO case where the leader must address financial stress and the possibility of layoffs. After reviewing the tactics, the group will choose three tactics for the case and will draft how the leader would sound in the opening minute.
Hello, Conflict: When Influence Alone Is Not Enough
There are moments when personal influence will not carry the outcome, and conflict shows up because priorities, trust, emotions, values, or power are in play. This part of the program frames conflict as normal, then introduces five common sources of conflict, different values and beliefs, different goals and objectives, strong emotions, power imbalances, and lack of trust, using short cases to practice naming the root cause and selecting a way forward. Following that discussion, participants will identify the primary source driving a current conflict and will choose one move that increases clarity and reduces heat.
Style Gallery: Choosing a Strategy
Leaders need range in conflict because the right approach depends on stakes, time, and the relationship they want to protect. The class reviews five approaches, Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, and Accommodating, including when each approach fits and what each approach risks. After reviewing the approaches, learners will select an approach for one scenario and will explain the choice using outcome, time, and relationship logic.
Target Audience
This virtual training program is designed for groups that want to:
- Strengthen influence so leaders build trust, credibility, and follow-through.
- Improve communication in high-stakes situations through better message packaging.
- Navigate conflict more constructively by identifying root causes and choosing an approach that fits the desired outcome.
Suggested Format
Two-Hour Virtual Training Course
Questions This Page Answers About Influencing and Conflict Resolution Training
- Who offers virtual training on building influence and navigating conflict at work?
- What program teaches leaders how to increase influence through message tactics and stronger understanding?
- Which virtual course helps managers choose an effective conflict approach based on the outcome they want?
Training Program Snapshot
This instructor-led virtual influencing and conflict-resolution course focuses on strengthening positive influence and improving how leaders handle disagreement. Participants learn an influence progression built on Modeling, Motivating, Mentoring, and Multiplying, then build understanding skills through the Ladder of Influence and practical connection questions. The program strengthens planned messaging through seven influence tactics and closes with conflict tools, including common conflict sources and five approaches leaders can choose from based on stakes, time, and relationship. By the end of the session, participants will have practical tools they can apply immediately in conversations where trust, alignment, and follow-through matter.