The workplace has changed from a hierarchical structure to a more horizontal one, with teams of people of various positions. Workers are expected to be involved in many decisions and help push a company's agenda, no matter their title.

In the past, "you could give people orders," said Robert Bontempo, an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School who will teach a course on persuasion in the school's executive MBA programme this summer. "Now, even in the military, you have to work in cross-functional teams."

More business schools are building soft skills such as persuasion into their curricula.

"There are those who are going to be gifted in certain things," said Scott Koerwer, associate dean of the Robert Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. But even if people aren't naturally persuasive, they can learn to be more so. "In order to have an effective, valuable society, you need these skills," Koerwer said.

Calculating net present value

Bontempo is basing his class on his years of study in psychology. If you understand how you, your co-workers and your bosses make decisions, he believes, you can use that to your advantage and give people the arguments that speak most to them. "There are lots of people who can calculate the net present value five ways,'' said Bontempo.

"But not many who can build a consensus for ideas."

One approach he takes is dividing people into two types of assertiveness: 'ask-assertive' or cautious and reserved about sharing opinions, questioning, low-key and quiet; 'tell-assertive' or opinionated, forceful, tending to direct the actions of others.

Strategising

These are behaviours we can learn to change, Bontempo argues. Say you're tell-assertive and you boss is ask-assertive. When trying to win her over to your way of thinking, it's best to tone it down a bit and ask questions instead of making statements.

It can be hard to figure out what kind of decision maker your client or boss is, but there are ways. Focus on observable behaviours, Bontempo said.

Does he make fewer statements when you meet with him? Lean back and make fewer movements with his hands? Then he is probably ask-assertive. Those who are tell-assertive typically speak loudly, use their hands for emphasis, lean forward and talk a lot.

Bontempo's course is part of a new Columbia programme based on psychology and the social sciences.

The idea for the programme came from businesses and former students, said Associate Dean Troy Eggers.

"They shared with us that not only do people need technical skills, but they also need the soft skills that can engage people of different backgrounds, cultures and learning styles to lead teams and to execute upon a plan with support rather than opposition."

- LA Times-Washington Post