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."

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Maybe the best course in the entire specialization

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Well-built course about Influence. It's clear, well-explained and easy to follow. Assignment will help you to have a real reflection about what you'll study and you'll do some nice tests about your personnality. Great course, really helpful.

Fantastic course for anyone to learn about human behaviour and how best to be persuasive. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and it has stoked my interest in pursuing further studies in Business Management / Entrepreneurship / Marketing.