Amsterdam, Netherlands

Soft Skills for Business: Influence, Social Perceptiveness, and Charisma

Workplaces are becoming increasingly fluid and interdependent. Now more than ever, professionals need to hone their influencing, charismatic and social perceptiveness skills, in order to achieve their professional goals.

As a business professional you rely on logic, analysis and the clarity of numbers to achieve what you and your organisation need. But your colleague in another department on whom you depend for vital information does not seem to be motivated by the same goals; the managers to whom you are a business partner do not appreciate the importance, urgency or opportunity presented by your work; or you meet unexpected, fierce opposition from a peer to a perfectly reasonable project that you are championing.

Understanding why people behave as they do, and having the mindset, knowledge and skills needed to influence them, can make the difference between good and great for even the most sophisticated professionals and managers.

This course will focus on:

* Understanding the sources of power in organisations
* Appreciating individuals' different motivational, personality and value profiles
* Re-evaluating and dealing with "politics"
* Developing social perceptiveness skills, including emotional intelligence
* Developing influencing skills
* Developing charisma (yes, charisma can be learned!)
* Managing and maximising psychological capital
* Self-leadership under stress.

Course leader

Emilia Bunea, Ph.D.

Target group

This course is suitable for anybody with an interest in developing their influencing skills, social perceptiveness and charisma in a business setting, Master's students and professionals can particularly benefit from this course.

Basic business knowledge is a plus, although not mandatory.

Fee info

EUR 880: Tuition fee

For 2 ECTS courses:
Students, PhD students and employees of VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC or an Aurora Network Partner: €580*
Students and PhD students: €680*
Professionals: €880*
Applications received before 15 October -€50 (Early Bird Discount)

For 3 ECTS courses:
Students, PhD students and employees of VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC or an Aurora Network Partner: €630*
Students and PhD students: €730*
Professionals: €930*
Applications received before 15 October -€50 (Early Bird Discount)

* Auditor participants receive €100 discount. Not available for all courses. Early Bird Discount is not valid on the auditor fee. Find out more under the section: Type of participation

The tuition fee includes: 
* Application and registration
* Exclusive course content for a limited number of participants
* Individual/group guidance from the course organiser
* Access to all online VU facilities such as the library and online learning environments
* A certificate of attendance after completing the course 
* A transcript of records, including the grade and the obtained ECTS
* The full support of the winter school team
* Optional social activities