Connie Dieken
Senior leaders consistently overestimate how much influence they have and underestimate how quickly they are losing it. Strategy and execution draw investment; the ability to earn genuine stakeholder commitment rarely does. That gap is where change initiatives fail, talent walks, and executive teams fragment.
When stakeholder resistance stalls leadership priorities, Connie Dieken, founder of the Influence360° assessment and Wiley bestselling author of Talk Less, Say More and Become the Real Deal, gives leaders a research-based method to earn genuine commitment from the people who matter most.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Connie Dieken
- The Influence360° assessment is the only validated psychometric instrument built specifically to measure how individual leaders influence stakeholders. Organisations gain hard data on a capability they have previously only been able to assess anecdotally – or not at all.
- The Connect-Convey-Convince® methodology, developed through more than 15 years of research with over 20,000 participants, gives leadership teams a shared, actionable language for a problem most organisations misdiagnose as a personality issue rather than a learnable skill gap.
- Twenty years interviewing presidents and global CEOs for ABC and NBC gave Dieken direct observational data on how influence operates under pressure and at scale. That empirical foundation is not available from the executive coaching mainstream.
- Her training programmes are licensed in corporate universities worldwide and both her Wiley books reached No. 1 on Amazon and Audible – which means her frameworks carry weight in the room before she enters it.
- Membership of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches, a highly selective global practitioner community, places her within the most rigorously vetted executive coaching cohort in the world and signals peer-level recognition, not self-designation.
Biography highlights
- Founder of Influence360°, a validated leadership influence assessment, and The Dieken Group, a C-suite executive advisory firm operating on five continents
- Author of two Wiley bestsellers: Talk Less, Say More (Connect-Convey-Convince® methodology) and Become the Real Deal (Three Layers of Presence and Return on Influence® framework)
- Five-time Emmy Award winner and inductee of the Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the National Speakers Association Speakers Hall of Fame, and the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame
- Named Top 10 Executive Coach globally by the Global Gurus organisation; member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches (2019)
- Guest lecturer in executive education and MBA programmes at Case Western University, Indiana University, and Ohio State University
- Thought leadership featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times
Biography
Most leaders believe they are more persuasive than others experience them. Connie Dieken, a broadcast journalist for ABC and NBC for two decades, built her career on closing that gap. Interviewing presidents and global CEOs, she identified the patterns that divided leaders who drove genuine action from those who merely spoke at people.
That observation became a research project. Fifteen years of structured study involving more than 20,000 participants produced the Influence360° assessment, a validated instrument for measuring how leaders influence stakeholders. Two Wiley bestsellers followed: Talk Less, Say More, built on the Connect-Convey-Convince® methodology, and Become the Real Deal, which introduced the Three Layers of Presence and the Return on Influence® concept.
The Dieken Group now advises C-suite executives at organisations including Coca-Cola, HP, Nestlé, BNP Paribas, and The Cleveland Clinic. Her influence training programmes are licensed in corporate universities on five continents. She is a guest lecturer in executive education at Case Western, Indiana, and Ohio State universities, and a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches.
Dieken has been inducted into the Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame, the National Speakers Association Speakers Hall of Fame, and the Million Dollar Consulting Hall of Fame. She has been named a Top 10 Executive Coach globally by the Global Gurus organisation and has delivered keynotes on four continents to audiences numbering in the thousands.
Key speaking topics
- Leadership influence and stakeholder commitment
- Executive presence and authentic authority
- Influential communication under pressure
- Change leadership and stakeholder buy-in
- Human influence and decision-making in AI-shaped organisations
- Presentation strategy and persuasion
- Leadership assessment and behavioural diagnostics
Ideal for
- Senior leadership teams navigating change, mergers, or strategic realignment where stakeholder buy-in is the critical variable
- CHROs and talent leaders designing executive development programmes where influence and presence are identified capability gaps
- Sales leadership and commercial functions where the ability to earn commitment is a direct performance driver
- Boards and executive committees seeking a research-grounded framework for developing leadership effectiveness at the top
Audience outcomes
- A clear diagnostic of their personal influence pattern, including where they are most likely to lose stakeholder commitment and why
- A three-step methodology – Connect, Convey, Convince – they can apply immediately to high-stakes conversations, presentations, and change initiatives
- Understanding of the Three Layers of Presence and how inner, outer, and verbal presence affect their credibility with senior stakeholders
- Frameworks to distinguish between genuine influence and manipulation, and to lead without coercion or compliance-seeking
- Practical tools for navigating resistance from difficult stakeholders, including those who are dominant, anxious, or disengaged
Talks
This talk equips leaders with the Connect-Convey-Convince® methodology to secure genuine commitment from resistant stakeholders in conditions of division and disruption.
Key takeaways:
- The three-step influence cycle and how to apply it when resistance is highest
- Why most leaders unknowingly overuse one influence habit and how to rebalance
- How to navigate the most difficult stakeholder types, including the dominant, the anxious, and the disengaged
This talk separates sustainable influence from manipulation, giving leaders a framework for driving commitment without coercion or dependency.
Key takeaways:
- The difference between influence, persuasion, manipulation, and dominance – and why the distinction determines leadership reputation
- How to earn unwavering stakeholder commitment without creating resistance or resentment
- Practical techniques for advancing high-stakes initiatives while maintaining trust across divided audiences
AI changes the conditions under which leaders earn commitment. It does not change the requirement. This talk applies the Connect-Convey-Convince® methodology to the decisions, conversations, and stakeholder dynamics leaders now face inside AI-shaped organisations.
Key takeaways:
- Where AI changes the stakeholder dynamics around leadership decisions, and where it does not
- How to keep influence credible when colleagues and reports are using AI to form their own conclusions
- How the Connect-Convey-Convince® methodology applies inside AI-augmented decision environments