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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Influence by University of Pennsylvania

4.7
stars
315 ratings

About the Course

What does it mean to be influential? How does one persuade others to pursue a unified goal? How does one leverage power? In this course, you’ll learn how to develop influence and to become more effective in achieving your organizational goals. Professor Cade Massey of the Wharton School has designed this course to help you understand the framework of power and influence and the dynamics of effective networks, and shows you how to develop your skills of persuasion and leverage. By the end of this course, you’ll know your own strengths and how to use them to get what you need, how to gain power and influence, and how to leverage relationships and alliances to achieve your goals in both business and in life....

Top reviews

MW

Jan 9, 2019

This Influence course takes a different approach, and while it takes awhile to appreciate, I ended up really liking it! I won't spoil the surprises, but nevertheless, this is a course not to miss!

CS

Apr 6, 2018

I worked with my corporate leaders. This course helped me understand why they act the way they act, as well as helping to improve my people skill and understanding my bottomline as a professional.

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1 - 25 of 92 Reviews for Influence

By John R G J

Jul 19, 2019

Once in a while, I will google some of my favorite topics or skills in Coursera or edX to see what new courses are out there. Ironically, as a communications professional, the courses that interest me are almost always at Wharton, probably the best business school in the world. This time around I found "Influence" with Professor Cade Massey of the Wharton School’s Operations, Information and Decisions Department. This is one of those courses you start because you're interested in the topic, the course's syllabus looks interesting; and by the time you're half way through the course you begin to ask yourself, "imagine if I passed this up?" You will finish this course asking yourself, "How'd I ever survive as a professional without this course?" This course is a must. You must take it. It's hard to survive & thrive in today's economy and workplace without having a good hand on "Influence."

By tracy

Jun 18, 2018

This has been the most useful and insightful business class I have taken to date. I appreciate the instructors examples, methods, and especially the incorporation of ethics into the conversation. It gives me hope for being able to be successful in the business community while still keeping to my principles and ethics - and I think that any discussion of influence and power without discussion of ethics would be leaving a key element out on the table - and I thought this course combined them in a way that highlighted the dilemnas that I have often struggled with to a lesser degree in my business experience.

By Mukesh T

Oct 30, 2020

Amazing!! I learnt a lot of things. Looking forward to implementing lot of tactics. One of the best courses I took. Every video was a wow moment for me. Thanks Prof. Massey.

By Lawrence L

Feb 2, 2020

The information provided was very helpful and beneficial, and presented in a very interesting way. Many tools were provided to help both personally and professionally.

By Lavanya Y

Aug 5, 2021

This course was the most surprising one for me, in an extremely positive way, in the entire specialization. To be honest, I had the least expectations before I began the course, partly due to the fact that I do not enjoy participating in any discussions that involve organization politics let alone exercise those tactics myself. But my perceptions totally changed after listening to the Just World Fallacy lecture. Throughout the course, you get to understand why - although often you do not like to use the influence tactics - you should still find ways to use them so as to achieve your end objectives or goals without compromising on your principles or values

Professor Cade Massey captivates the audience through his sufficiently-paced video lectures. Throughout the 4 modules, he uses examples, research studies, and data to objectively help us understand the key points/thoughts in using Influence Tactics. I have thoroughly enjoyed taking the Leverage Inventory and Hard Questions Survey. I also liked the way the professor presented facts after you take the survey to help understand where you stand or how you could improve

I would highly recommend taking and completing this course if you are doing the Success course, as it is a logical add-on to help you craft an execution plan for what you would have envisioned for yourself in the Success course

By Lais P

Apr 18, 2021

Influence was an amazing opportunity to get in touch with valuable tools and concrete examples on how to build sustainable influence and power base.

I also learned that I don’t need to become a new individual to be more influential. I discovered tactics, dimensions and principles that can guide my decisions to more effectively achieve goals. I would highlight the important statement that “Effectiveness often requires flexibility and compromise. Idealism is costly.”

One of the precious principles Professor Cassey presents is to “Look for the third way”, incentivizing us to find out more creative alternatives to navigate into smart choices.

Finally, I’m deeply connected with a closing thought that will definitely inspire me on my future career and life challenges: “How do you get people not only to follow their own passion but to create passion in others and lead them in that way?” and this experience gave us tools to be successful on it.

By Elle C

Apr 23, 2020

Great, well-framed concepts, highlighted by studies and interesting cases. Valuable concepts, frameworks, and exercises to reflect on self and devise personal action plans…I especially liked The Leverage Inventory, network and coalition building, and intentionality, as well as the 10 Hard Questions Survey (assessing ethics and idealism vs. pragmatism). It’s great that this course is online, since the professor (though clearly very knowledgeable and an expert on this topic) speaks very quickly and does not leave slides up long enough during most of the course.

By Andrei V

Jul 31, 2021

Out of the four courses in the specialization this one resulted in by far the longest list of notes after the lectures. Prof. Massey shares presents a lot of valuable, practical points that give you an all-around perspective on the subjects of influence and power. Assessments essays are of their own value – not exhausting but facing you with important question you are unlikely to ask yourself on your own. I am really happy to have taken this course and definitely recommend to complete it.

By Suhaimi C

Aug 15, 2021

Great course and explanations by the professor. Giving lots of insights about things to look at, list of things to do to influence people and things we can do to improve. Highly recommend taking this class if you would like to learn about influence.

By Mohammed E

Jul 26, 2018

In my opinion this is one of the most important courses anyone can take in order to learn how to use what he got to influence others, and how to use science in doing this. Great course and greatly recommended.

By Hamza A

Apr 9, 2019

This is by far the most fun, engaging and useful course I've taken on Coursera. I learnt a lot from the Professor and the material provided and genuinely did not want the course to end. 100% recommended!

By CHIH T S

Apr 7, 2018

I worked with my corporate leaders. This course helped me understand why they act the way they act, as well as helping to improve my people skill and understanding my bottomline as a professional.

By Mike Y W

Jan 10, 2019

This Influence course takes a different approach, and while it takes awhile to appreciate, I ended up really liking it! I won't spoil the surprises, but nevertheless, this is a course not to miss!

By Kyle M

Sep 23, 2020

The professor was exceptional in the way he presented the course. I'd highly recommend this course to anyone wanting to learn more about influence and power.

By Joseph S

Nov 7, 2018

Excellent course. Great skills for everyone interested in understanding how power works and how to be a more influential individual in general.

By Atilio M

Apr 11, 2019

Maybe the best course in the entire specialization

By Louis P

Mar 25, 2019

One of the best courses I've taken on Coursera.

By Joann N B

Jul 22, 2023

I enjoyed all four of the courses in this group. The courses have moved right along without me being able to keep up, so I have needed to extend deadlines on each of them. I do this because my standard is high, I expect to get at least 90 percent, so I study hard and take many notes. I work hard on all assignments. It was fascinating going over ethics and that several psychological studies show we all have biases. I find comfort in talking things over with my husband regarding all decisions. Part of honesty and high standards for honesty in all aspects of life. I hope others enjoyed this group as much as I did.

By Nadia B

Mar 7, 2024

Very powerful and great course. The instructor is very good in teaching the content, the way he handles the training is very engaging, there is a lot to think about, to reflect, loved the high content on Ethics, I think this is the course I have been needing in the past 2 years the most, super happy I had the opportunity to get to this content. Thank you and congratulations to the instructor, this has impacted my life in a very incredible way.

By Gilbert C

Feb 9, 2020

This is a good introduction to influence and power that is based on a realistic understanding of the diverse work environments students might encounter. It takes into account the possibility that you might end up in toxic environments, which is more common than students tend to think. While the subject matter is seemingly easy, it's actually a very complex model and you can learn something here at any stage in your career.

By Mark D

Apr 8, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. Professor Massey is exceptionally relatable and the course encourages thoughtful introspection on not just how to gain influence - the methods and tools - but the personal responsibilty and risks that come with it. This could be offered as part of a number of different speciality certificate programs.

By Alex P

Oct 31, 2017

The course content is in equal measures challenging, thought provoking and exceptional. Expect to find out a few things about yourself you did not know or could not see and be prepared to take a new perspective on life. Clearly Prof. Cade Massey is an excellent tutor and he has a first-class understanding of his field.

By Sharad A

Nov 12, 2019

Powerful, telling, insightful! It unravels exactly what you were not doing in your last job! Enormous research, material and quotes compellingly delivered! Very, very good course! In future, would love to see examples from outside the American continent, given the global scope of the online courses.

By Kathy C

Apr 3, 2021

One of my favorite courseras, which was unexpected. But what he said made a lot of sense, and I liked his practical and thought-provoking advice. It's definitely helped me clarify my Values, as well as understand my work-relationships better. He's a wonderful professor, highly recommended.

By Alexander M

Apr 14, 2020

Really excellent course. Fascinating stuff, made incredibly enjoyable by Prof Massey. A superb mix of anecdotal, theoretical, emipirical, practical and self questioning material, presented clearly, concisely, and with a pinch of humour. Thoroughly recommend. Thank you!