Influencing Styles Questionnaire

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Find Out Your Influencing Style

You can complete this influencing styles questionnaire to identify your influencing style. Or you might ask others to complete it about you. Then you can compare the two; how you see yourself, and how others see you. Interesting!

Overview

There are 4 steps to identifying your influencing style:

  1. Step One – Statements: There are 72 statements for you to read. Yes, it’s a lot, but we want it to be accurate.
  2. Step Two – Scoring: Reading each of the statements you score yourself from rarely to very frequently.
  3. Step Three – Grid: Transfer your scores to identify your influencing style.
  4. Step Four – Adapt: This page shows how you might use another style, other than your own.

>> Access the questionnaire <<

Detailed Instructions for Influencing Styles Questionnaire

Step One: Statements

Click the image below to print the PDF version of our 72 influencing styles statements. This will print as a portrait page. To fit all the statements on one page we had to make them quite small, so keep the window open on your computer and use CTRL and the ‘+ button to zoom in.

Links to List of 72 influencing styles statements PDF
The first step is answering all 72  statements

 

Step Two: Scoring

Put the printed copy of the Step One Statements on the left-hand side of your desk. Then click on the image below and print the PDF of the Scoring Page. Put this on the right-hand side of your desk.

Links to Influencing Styles Scoring Page PDF
Use our separate scoring sheet to jot down your answers

 

Read the first Statement from Step One, which is, ‘Makes high-quality suggestions and proposals’. Considering this statement, and if you are scoring for yourself, consider how often you do this. Choose from one of the 5 possible answers below:

  1. Rarely; hardly ever do this.
  2. Occasionally, but infrequently; that is less often than most other people you see in similar situations.
  3. An average amount; that is about as often as most other people you observe in similar situations.
  4. Fairly frequently; that is somewhat more often than most people you observe in similar situations.
  5. Very frequently; that is considerably more often than most people you observe in similar situations.

On the Scoring Page, now go to slot number ‘1’ and write your score in that box. This can be either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Repeat this exercise for each of the remaining 71 Step One Statements. Finally, tally the totals of each row, as you will need to transfer the total in the next step.

Screenshot of the scoresheet
This step is about scoring yourself in different areas

 

Influencing Skills Training Course banner with green button and course can
Click the green button to learn more

 

Step Three: Grid

Discard the Step One Statements Page and place the Step 2 Scoring Page on the left-hand side of your desk. Print the PDF Step 3 Grid Page below and place this on the right-hand side of your desk.

Links to Influencing Styles Grid PDF
Don’t be alarmed. The additional 6 rows are for assessing other people

 

Write your name, if the questionnaire is about you, in the first row under ‘Name’.

Then, transfer the ‘Row Totals’ from the Step Two Scoring Page to the Step 3 Grid Page. If you had written ‘6’
as the total of the row of statements 1, 13, 25, 37, 49, and 61, then write a ‘6’ in the box under ‘Proposing’.

Cropped version of score sheet
This is an example of how you can add your scores to your sheet

 

Repeat this exercise until all the numbers in the column of ‘Row Totals’ on the Step 2 Scoring Page have been transferred to the Step 3 Grid Page.

The additional 6 rows on the Step 3 Grid page are for you to complete this exercise for other people. Or if you have asked other people to complete the influencing styles questionnaire for you, then you could add their names and their scores, comparing their view of you to your view.

Step Four: Adapt

Using Step 3, add totals up under each of the 4 sections and the one with the most is your influencing style.

This step is to help you recognise your style. Plus, having identified your influencing style, this Adapting Page is to help you to influence using another style. For example, if you identified your influencing style as ‘Persuading’, then you could add to your ‘toolbox’ of influencing the ‘Bridging’ influencing style by reading the Step 4 Adapt Page and using that influencing style next time instead.

Just click on the image below to print the PDF version.

Links to Influencing Styles stage 4 Adapt PDF
Finally, you should have recognised your influencing style with this last sage

 

Parting Thoughts

We hope our influencing styles questionnaire has been useful in understanding which influencing style best suits you, and how best you can use this to further your influencing impact.

Action: For even more useful content on influencing, check out our ultimate guide on Influencing Skills.

Related Articles:

Communication and InfluencingInfluencing Skills Tips

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