The Chart
Week 1 deals with the fundamental techniques in handling people. In a nutshell, be hesitant to criticize others, but unload on the praise and appreciation. Flattery is the enemy of appreciation; make sure you praise people with full sincerity.
A memorable theme for this week is "I will speak ill of no man… and speak all the good I know of everybody." For future weeks, please continue practicing them alongside the other goals for that day.
These basic skills set the stage for the future weeks' skills, and therefore they can't be underestimated.
Week 2 takes the basics to another level.
This week is geared towards helping you make the most of every social interaction around you. You're not trying to influence anyone or be a leader here, you just want to practice being someone that people want to be around.
Just take some time to improve on your existing relationships with friends, coworkers, and everyone else, solely for the goal of becoming a friendlier, more likeable person. Practice these skills diligently. There are some skills down the road that are situational and don't need to be exercised regularly. These are not those skills; the skills in week 2 can and should be exercised all day, every day.
Weeks 3 & 4 revolve around the concept of truly understanding other people's motives and emotions, and building off of that understanding to influence them so they will in turn become more accepting about your thoughts and views. Your goal is to build a foundation of firm respect from other people by showing that you care about their thoughts and interests. Building that respect is one of the most important concepts throughout this whole program, and once you have started gaining it, you can really begin to influence others.
To make the most of these couple weeks, you will need to jump out of your comfort zone a bit and initiate conversations with friends or coworkers about things that are going on in their lives. Do your best to understand your colleagues' struggles and to show that you are interested in them. Don't worry about how to respond, just let them do the talking and be a good, attentive listener. Ask questions, show them you care. Then, once you have enhanced your connection with them, you can start to bring up your own ideas. Maybe you have some thoughts on how to improve the company, or employee happiness, or maybe you just want someone to hear out your ideas too.
Some days will require unique situations in order to practice, such as minor conflict or someone having made a mistake. These days may be tough to practice on, as you certainly don't want to promote conflict just to practice handling it, so just do your best if those situations arise and keep in mind these skills. Other days will require you to promote your thoughts onto your friends, and this is much easier to practice; even if it's not work related, try to find areas of common ground with your friends, and practice influencing your thoughts and ideas.
Weeks 5 & 6 are the last weeks, and are rooted in trying to improve verbal leadership skills.
The buzz word for these couple weeks is feedback. To be a great leader, you have to give feedback. Even if you're not of a "managerial" position, you can still act as a leader amongst your coworkers and friends and give them the praise they deserve for their accomplishments (dig deep to find those accomplishments; deeds like refilling the community coffee pot still deserve appreciation).
The problem with most people's feedback though is that it's typically only negative; we forget to praise people for their good doings, and only comment on what we don't like. These last weeks will focus on giving the right kind of feedback, beginning heavily on the "praise" side of the spectrum. Go a little overboard with your praise, because chances are that you're not giving enough of it anyway. Make sure that it's 100% sincere and honest though; incessant flattery will most likely grant you negative points.
Then, once you understand how to properly praise others' accomplishments, you can begin to bring up some areas of improvement. Remember, anyone can criticize, and anyone can also be hated for it. Utilize your new verbal skills to help others improve their faults, and you might even gain some more respect in the process if you do it with sincerity.
Many of these skills involve you finding opportunities to praise your colleagues, and therefore aren't difficult to practice. However, similarly to weeks 3 and 4, other skills may be more difficult to practice since they're situational, such as finding a fault in someone that you wish to correct. Don't go out of your way to find faults, but if you do find an opportunity where these situations arise, then practice these skills!