Dil Sidhu, DBA, MBA, MSc, MA, CMCT

Cialdini Method Certified Trainer^®

Dil Sidhu is a global executive educator and behavioral science specialist who helps leaders use ethical influence to earn trust, gain decisions and move complex work forward. He designs practical programmes that turn Cialdini’s principles of influence into everyday tools for pricing and fee conversations, proposal strategy, stakeholder alignment and partner business development. His sessions are known for being highly applied: participants work on live opportunities and leave with simple, field-tested habits they can use the next day.

Dil’s career has included 4 distinct but related sectors (Retail, Business Advisory, Government and Academia) and he has spent the last 15 years designing and delivering executive education and development programs with London Business School, University of Manchester, Columbia Graduate School of Business, University of London, and University of Cambridge.  Dil works with organisations worldwide to create research-based, experiential learning that strengthens both commercial performance and leadership capability.

Dil is a long-standing Cialdini Method Certified Trainer, first accredited in 2005 and re-certified in 2025, as well as a Cialdini Influence Institute Master Trainer and Coach and an Online Influence Institute Trainer. He holds an MBA, MSc and MA and is completing a Doctorate in Business Administration, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His design approach borrows from the Kirkpatrick model: always starting with the outcomes desired, diagnosing decision barriers, selecting the right principle or combination, building the message and moment, then coaching individuals and teams as they apply it to real pursuits. Participants leave with practical playbooks for structuring choices, framing messages and applying social proof, authority, reciprocity, commitment and consistency, scarcity and unity in an ethical and transparent way.

Accomplishments

Across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, Dil has helped professional services firms, global brands, universities and public institutions use behavioural science to win more work, navigate change and strengthen client relationships.  Key achievements include:

• Using behavioral science to drive a service turnaround in London local government.
• Revenue growth of 22% in executive education at the University of Manchester.
• Annual increase of 35% in registered learners, to 65m, from 190 countries at Coursera.
• Ethical influence and persuasion used as a foundation to stabilize financial deficit and operations at Birkbeck Business School, University of London.
• Creation of a new online learning offer, at Columbia Business School, to drive new revenues of $9m per annum.

Biggest Influences

Dil names two key influences on his approach. First, was an HBR article in 2001, written by Dr Rober Cialdini, titled, ‘Harness the Science of Persuasion’.  This research-based piece had a seismic effect on my thinking and opened the door to the pursuit of learning more about Dr Robert Cialdini’s work and gaining certification to teach his unique materials. 

Second, was the mantra of the late visionary leader, Paul O’Neill, former CEO of ALCOA, who focused on a single performance indicator that built trust, helped him to resurrect a declining company, manage change, engage with stakeholders and deliver a return on investment outstripping the competitive environment.  That measure was ‘Worker Safety’.  A single, poignant, people-focused metric from which all other strategic initiatives for ALCOA were designed, built and implemented.