Influence is what turns a good idea into a decision, and a capable manager into a leader that people choose to follow. Influence rests on emotional intelligence, judgement, and empathy, and it can be learned.
Each one of our Influence Skills programmes builds a specific capability, but they share one aim. They help your managers and leaders influence the outcomes that matter, whether that is a difficult conversation, a stalled idea or a team moving through change.
None of these programmes are off-the-shelf. We start with the challenge in front of you, shape the content around your people and your sector, and design for a change you can see back in the business. Programmes run on-site across Northern Ireland and Ireland and as hybrid or virtual delivery for multinational teams.
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See the programmes
We co-designed a development initiative with Bespoke Communications to empower, connect, and advance female talent within GRAHAM. This initiative is not simply a training programme; it is a cultural intervention aligned with our values and long-term strategic aims. In a short time, we have seen 21% of participants promoted or progressed into new roles and 15% growth in female leaders.
Helen Vint
Head of Learning and Development, GRAHAM
Camilla Long is a skilled communication expert and facilitator who continues to make a significant impact on team members at Herbert Smith Freehills. She continues to support our leaders and professionals improve their impact and communication skills. Camilla combines professional expertise with a flexible and pragmatic approach which is highly valuable to delegates. I would strongly recommend Camilla to anyone seeking to enhance their communication content and delivery.
Melanie Colwill
L&D Manager, Herbert Smith Freehills, August 2024
We co-designed a development initiative with Bespoke Communications to empower, connect, and advance female talent within GRAHAM. This initiative is not simply a training programme; it is a cultural intervention aligned with our values and long-term strategic aims. In a short time, we have seen 21% of participants promoted or progressed into new roles and 15% growth in female leaders.
Helen Vint
Head of Learning and Development, GRAHAM
Camilla Long is a skilled communication expert and facilitator who continues to make a significant impact on team members at Herbert Smith Freehills. She continues to support our leaders and professionals improve their impact and communication skills. Camilla combines professional expertise with a flexible and pragmatic approach which is highly valuable to delegates. I would strongly recommend Camilla to anyone seeking to enhance their communication content and delivery.
Melanie Colwill
L&D Manager, Herbert Smith Freehills, August 2024
Below are the areas we are asked for most.
Tell us what is surfacing in your organisation and we will design the right programme around it.
AI leadership training
Helps leaders to use AI as a thinking partner. AI can draft, analyse and summarise in seconds, but leaders still own the calls that follow. The challenge moves from creating content to exercising judgement, building trust and making confident decisions. This programme helps leaders use AI as a thinking partner that exposes blind spots, tests assumptions and sharpens reasoning.
Strengthscope® and AI-driven team productivity
Helps teams focus their strengths on the work that matters most. A team is under pressure to deliver more, engagement is slipping or leaders sense untapped potential. Using individual BPS-accredited Strengthscope® profiles for each person on your team, you work out what energises people and drives performance. AI then maps those strengths across the team, revealing hidden capability, collaboration opportunities and smarter ways to organise work. Productivity improves because people spend more time doing what they do best and less time working against their natural strengths.
Change management and resilience training
Equips managers to lead people through disruption without losing momentum. A new operating model, a systems overhaul or an AI-driven shift lands on the team, and the day job still has to get done while everything underneath it moves. Managers learn to have honest conversations when the answers are not fully formed and to keep energy up when fatigue sets in, so the change sticks and you keep your best people on the journey.
Coaching skills training for managers
Teaches managers to develop people by asking rather than telling. Most managers were promoted for having the answers, so their instinct is to fix. The best do the opposite. When Google studied what made its top managers great, coaching came out on top. Managers learn to hold back the quick answer and ask the question that helps someone think it through. That shift builds ownership, initiative and psychological safety.
Feedback training for managers
Helps managers give honest feedback early and take it well. Most people do not leave a job, they leave a manager who never told them where they stood. An engagement survey flags weak feedback scores, or a 360 exposes a senior leader who avoids the hard conversations. Managers learn to say the useful thing clearly, and to hear it back without getting defensive. Small issues get named while they are still small, and trust starts to build.
Delegation training for managers
Frees managers by teaching them to hand over real ownership, not just tasks. Managers hold on to work because it feels faster or safer to do it themselves. It looks like protecting quality, but that need for control costs the manager, the team and the organisation. Decisions bottleneck, meetings multiply, and good people leave because they have no autonomy. Leaders learn to let go properly, so they get their capacity back and their people get room to grow.
Time management training for teams
Helps teams protect focus and get the real work done inside the working day. Managers now lose more than 20 hours a week to meetings, so the real work gets pushed into evenings and weekends and the space to think disappears. Managers and their teams learn to protect focus time, cut the meetings that add nothing, and stop the out-of-hours creep, so people bring their best thinking to the decisions that matter.
Design thinking training for leaders
Teaches leaders to build ideas that earn backing through evidence, not opinion. Good ideas rarely fail on merit. They stall in the pilot because they were built on a hunch rather than a real grasp of the problem. Leaders learn to start with the people they are solving for, frame the problem before chasing the solution, and prototype quickly, so they walk into the executive forum with a tested concept, a clear story and sponsors already on side.
Coaching skills training for managers
Teaches managers to develop people by asking rather than telling. Most managers were promoted for having the answers, so their instinct is to fix. The best do the opposite. When Google studied what made its top managers great, coaching came out on top. Managers learn to hold back the quick answer and ask the question that helps someone think it through. That shift builds ownership, initiative and psychological safety.
Feedback training for managers
Helps managers give honest feedback early and take it well. Most people do not leave a job, they leave a manager who never told them where they stood. An engagement survey flags weak feedback scores, or a 360 exposes a senior leader who avoids the hard conversations. Managers learn to say the useful thing clearly, and to hear it back without getting defensive. Small issues get named while they are still small, and trust starts to build.
Delegation training for managers
Frees managers by teaching them to hand over real ownership, not just tasks. Managers hold on to work because it feels faster or safer to do it themselves. It looks like protecting quality, but that need for control costs the manager, the team and the organisation. Decisions bottleneck, meetings multiply, and good people leave because they have no autonomy. Leaders learn to let go properly, so they get their capacity back and their people get room to grow.
Time management training for teams
Helps teams protect focus and get the real work done inside the working day. Managers now lose more than 20 hours a week to meetings, so the real work gets pushed into evenings and weekends and the space to think disappears. Managers and their teams learn to protect focus time, cut the meetings that add nothing, and stop the out-of-hours creep, so people bring their best thinking to the decisions that matter.
Design thinking training for leaders
Teaches leaders to build ideas that earn backing through evidence, not opinion. Good ideas rarely fail on merit. They stall in the pilot because they were built on a hunch rather than a real grasp of the problem. Leaders learn to start with the people they are solving for, frame the problem before chasing the solution, and prototype quickly, so they walk into the executive forum with a tested concept, a clear story and sponsors already on side.
Women’s leadership development programme
Helps more women progress into senior roles and stay there. A pay gap deadline, a thin pipeline of women ready to step up, or retention slipping among your female talent brings this to the surface. The programme builds confidence and a strong network of peers, amplifies voices that are not being heard, and deepens your leadership bench.
Prefer to read first? Download the Influencing Skills programme outlines
