How to use invisible influence in the classroom – Part 1

The art of invisible influence has been used in business since business began. But what if we could lose the Machiavellian label and use it to positively influence our students in the classroom. As a manager or leader imagine invisibly lifting your team to an improved attitude without any conflict or confrontation.

When teachers come to me for advice, it is often with what they perceive to be impossible situations. Invisible influence is often the technique they have been searching for, and once mastered they find it is easy to understand how turn the ship around.

The thing is that we influence our students invisibly all of the time. We don’t mean to – we do it unconsciously, and it sometimes, often, it can work against us. So just by bringing what we do to our own attention means we can alter it – turn the invisibly unconscious into the invisibly conscious. The only real question is: why wouldn’t we?

Invisible Influence – Exercise 1

Tension. Oh yes, tension. When you get tense, your class reacts to that tension. Full stop. No argument. And when you pretend not to be tense, or fool yourself you are not, then your class picks up on that too, and reacts accordingly. Really they do. And if we look at all the wonderful things lack of tension can bring: spontaneity, happiness, enjoyment, infinitely better learning environment, then we stumble across our first possible contradiction.

So, here’s what to do:

Before you enter the room make sure that you are physically relaxed and make a pledge to stay that way. Now this doesn’t mean that as you walk in you talk like mouse in a hole or speak through a distant relaxed haze. Of course you don’t. You discipline as you would, raise your voice as you would, organize the class as you would. The only difference is that you do it without getting physically tense.

What you may find when you first try to remain physically relaxed throughout an entire lesson (yes, an entire lesson) is that you forget and find yourself a bit, well… knotted. Other times you may notice your tension triggers and just not be able to do anything about them. This is where a coach comes in really handy to keep you on track. Coach or not just keep on with it. If you want to get there, if you see the true value of it, then you will. After all it’s not rocket science, it just takes a bit of determination.

One thing I know for sure is that if you are living a tension-free existence in the classroom then without saying a word, without nagging or cajoling, you will begin to invisibly influence your class to do the same. When my clients start to succeed they tell me they are beginning to remember why they came into teaching in the first place. Lack of tension can do that for you.

Any questions so far?

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