Introduction to Power and Influence for Positive Impact
 

Power and Influence for Positive Impact

$1,750
Next 6-week session starts October 11th
Understand how power really works and develop your own power to gain influence and make an impact.
6
weeks
6-7
hours per week
6
modules
Self-Paced
with regular deadlines

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Understand how power really works
Cultivate power to make an impact
Avoid the pitfalls of power
Build networks as a source of power
Assess your organization’s political landscape
Develop influence skills to shift power dynamics
Exercise power ethically and responsibly
Hold the powerful accountable

Who Will Benefit

Gain credibility to be more impactful at work and navigate organizational politics.
"HBS Online doesn't teach you knowledge or prescribe to any cookie-cutter solutions to problems. Rather, it teaches you how to think about business problems and arrive at a solution yourself."
Sichao Ni
Desk Officer, Office of Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia at U.S. Department of Commerce
Develop the skills to implement meaningful change and challenge the status quo.
HBS Online courses are excellent for anyone who wishes to learn more about a particular subject area or further develop their career.
Corina Cristea Lavoie
Corporate Services Manager at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Understand power and how to use it responsibly to make a positive impact on society.
The program expertly leads you through progressively more complex theories and analysis with a pace that keeps you challenged and engaged.
Lisa Arpey
Executive Board Member at Ford's Theatre

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of leadership and management

Earn by: completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

6 Modules, 35-40 Hours
Download full syllabus
4-7
hrs
Module 1

Understanding the Nature of Power

Appreciate the fundamental elements—and common misconceptions—of power and how to apply strategies for shifting the balance of power in relationships.

Highlights

Analyzing the Fundamentals of Power
Tactical Choices
A Developmental Path to Power
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Analyzing the Fundamentals of Power
  2. Shifting the Balance of Power
  3. Coming to Terms with Power
  4. Limits of Personal & Positional Sources of Power

Featured Exercises

  • Identify your own personal and positional sources of power
  • Analyze the power relationships between different parties and identify different power-shifting strategies
4-7
hrs
Module 2

Building Relational Sources of Power

Learn how to read and diagnose an organization’s political landscape through power mapping and apply strategies for cultivating and maintaining professional relationships in an authentic and mutually enriching manner.

Highlights

Mapping Power Dynamics
Building and Maintaining Networks
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Mapping Power Dynamics
  2. Building and Maintaining Networks
  3. Analyzing Your Network
  4. Developing Your Network

Featured Exercises

  • Analyze patterns in your own professional network and the fit between your network composition and your aspirations
5-8
hrs
Module 3

Earning Trust and Exercising Influence

Understand how to earn people’s trust so that you can uncover and respond to what they value and apply a repertoire of behaviors for leveraging influence in relationships. Navigate difficult conversations and interpersonal conflicts.

Highlights

Developing Your Influence Approach
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Understanding Universal Human Needs
  2. Earning Other People’s Trust
  3. Understanding Influence Styles
  4. Analyzing and Developing Your Influence Approach
  5. Building Trust & Influencing Others

Featured Exercises

  • Identify and describe stereotypes that may bias our perceptions and impede your or others’ ability to earn people’s trust
  • Identify which influence styles will most benefit specific situations
  • Complete the Influence Style Exercise to identify which influence styles and behaviors you use most frequently in various contexts
4-7
hrs
Module 4

Encountering Entrenched Power

Explain how power hierarchies develop and perpetuate themselves and understand and apply organizational and cultural strategies for overcoming the impact of stereotypes.

Highlights

What Are Power Hierarchies?
Institutional Interventions to Overcome Inequities
Empowering Smallholder Farmers in India
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. What Are Power Hierarchies?
  2. Why Do Power Hierarchies Persist?
  3. Overcoming the Impact of Stereotypes
  4. Empowering Smallholder Farmers in India

Featured Exercises

  • Identify and describe the mechanisms behind the power hierarchies you have experienced
5-8
hrs
Module 5

Leading Change in Organizations and Society

Prepare for change-leadership roles, understanding the sources of power leaders can draw from in launching and sustaining a movement for change, the limits of individual influence, and the importance of building collective support in order for change to happen.

Highlights

The Challenges of Change Implementation
Making Change Happen
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. The Challenges of Change Implementation
  2. Understanding the Conditions that Enable Change
  3. Performing a Stakeholder Analysis
  4. Building Legitimacy
  5. Understanding the Roles for Leaders of Change

Featured Exercises

  • Analyze your environment and assess its readiness for change
  • Perform a stakeholder analysis for a potential change initiative
4-6
hrs
Module 6

Managing Your Relationship to Power

Understand the personal consequences of gaining power and apply strategies for protecting yourself from abuses of power, for democratizing power, and for holding the powerful accountable.

Highlights

Cultivating Empathy
Capstone Case: Umaimah Mendhro and VIDA
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Managing Power Responsibly
  2. Leveraging Power for Good
  3. Capstone Case: Umaimah Mendhro and VIDA

Featured Exercises

  • Create an action plan that will help you begin to achieve your aspirations, synthesizing what you’ve learned in the course
Free E-Book

How to Become a More Effective Leader

Learn about the difference between leadership and management, uncover the qualities and skills that characterize an effective leader, gain an understanding of common leadership styles, and explore how you can unleash the potential in yourself and others.

Our Difference

Power and Influence for Positive Impact is a field guide that helps individuals at any stage of their career understand how power really works and develop their own power to gain influence and make an impact—within their professional relationships, organizations, and society at large.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes, including assessing your own professional network and the influence styles and behaviors you use most frequently in various contexts.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes, including assessing your own professional network and the influence styles and behaviors you use most frequently in various contexts.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading experts from media, nonprofits, fashion, and agricultural technology.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading experts from media, nonprofits, fashion, and agricultural technology.

About the Professor

Julie Battilana
Power and Influence for Positive Impact

Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School
"Power and Influence for Positive Impact is a field guide that helps individuals at any stage of their career understand how power really works and develop their own power to gain influence and make an impact—within their professional relationships, organizations, and society at large."

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Oct
11
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline October 2
View weekly calendar
Apply Now
Starting
Jan
17
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline January 8
View weekly calendar
Apply Now
Starting
Mar
13
6 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline March 4
View weekly calendar
Apply Now
  • Free application
  • No documentation required
  • Confirmation within one week

All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

80%
say HBS Online offers a better overall experience than competitive online business programs
I'm now more mindful of how my colleagues are experiencing me, and less averse to having difficult conversations.
Juliana Casale
Head of Marketing at Crazy Egg
HBS Online courses are excellent for anyone who wishes to learn more about a particular subject area or further develop their career.
Corina Cristea Lavoie
Corporate Services Manager at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Power and Influence for Positive Impact FAQs

A limited number of scholarships are available for the course through the Harvard Kennedy School's Social Innovation + Change Initiative. Priority will be given to applicants who demonstrate financial need, current involvement in addressing a social problem(s), and a compelling rationale for how the course will accelerate their capacity for advancing social change. You can learn more about the scholarship and apply for it by visiting the Social Innovation + Change Initiative.

Participants in Power and Influence for Positive Impact are eligible for a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Business School Online

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein. This helps ensure participants proceed through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect you to offer feedback on others’ reflections and contribute to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Power and Influence for Positive Impact. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

The Influence Style Exercise (ISE) is a 20-30-minute self-assessment designed to help you identify which influence styles and behaviors you use most frequently in various contexts. The ISE questionnaire was compiled by HBS faculty member Lakshmi Ramarajan and researcher Serenity Lee based on published research. The exercise is made available to participants in Module 3 of the course. Upon successful completion of the ISE, you will receive a report that provides insight into your influence style.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

At the end of each course module, you will be able to download a PDF summary highlighting key concepts used throughout the course. At the end of the program, you will receive a PDF compilation of all of the module summary documents. We hope the module summary documents will serve as a helpful resource after you finish the course.

Harvard Business School Online

Certificate in Power and Influence for Positive Impact

[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Power and Influence for Positive Impact
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: "Complete"
Activities and Societies: Leave blank

For the program description on LinkedIn, please use the following:

Power and Influence for Positive Impact is a 6-week, 35-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. Power and Influence for Positive Impact helps individuals at any stage of their career understand how power really works and develop their own power to gain influence and make an impact—within their professional relationships, organizations, and society at large.

The program was developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and is delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning model.

 

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