How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 36

ACTION
I explained the situation to the academic staff at UKC and
negotiated new terms for the exchange programme.
RESULT
Being the spokesperson of my university, I successfully
persuaded the administration in Seville to accept these
conditions during this period. I learned that it takes sometimes a
lot of time, effort and patience to achieve common agreements,
especially when two different cultural backgrounds are
involved.
How have you used your communication skills to
PERSUADE others to follow your lead?
CONTEXT
As a camp counsellor I was responsible for a hut housing a
group of ten children, helping the children settle in to the camp
and encouraging them to join in activities. The hardest part was
getting the children to keep the hut tidy and join in the daily
'household chores' session - a problem which I found was
shared by other counsellors.
ACTION
We decided to motivate the children by turning this session into
an inter-hut competition with a progress chart and prizes and
arranged for the camp director to carry out daily inspections. I
produced a wall chart to show the points awarded to each hut
and explained to the children how the points would be won and
lost.
RESULT
The competitive spirit transformed the children's attitude to
tidying up as each hut worked as a team to keep their
surroundings clean and tidy. There were no more problems with

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