How to be influential at work

Influence is a life skill and something we should all consciously apply at work. Here is how.

This is an article written for an audience trying to get a promotion, switch careers/titles, get leadership buy-in or understand more about the basics of influencing. Illustration Credit: Comics Kingdom

👋 Hello! Welcome to the first edition of this newsletter. When I first started at Airbnb as an entry level Product Manager, I noticed a massive opportunity for scaling Airbnb and building rapid prototyping loops for the company if we re-architected our technical stack. My manager noted that I would have to convince the Airbnb leadership team that this was a particularly good idea. Me? A new junior PM trying to convince Airbnb leadership to re-prioritize some of the things the company was doing? Impossible. It was then that I learnt to develop my influencing muscle more.

Influencing was something I only thought business leaders and politicians did. I didn’t think it was applicable to me.

After spending months honing my influence skills, I realized:

You don’t need authority in order to influence. Authority is the least optimal way to influence at work. The truth is, everyone's an influencer. Whether you realize it or not. You convinced your parents at some point to let you see that movie. You might have tried talking the flight attendant into upgrading or changing your seat. Influence is a life skill and something we should all consciously apply at work.

Let’s get a quick primer on how you can do this. 

First, the basics - What does influence at work really mean?

Influence is the ability to get your audience (manager, recruiter, teammate et. al.) to believe in you or your message, and then happily take up your request. (Note: using your authority/title/position to “influence” someone is always the last resort.) 

When influence comes into play at work:

• Advocating for a salary, promotion or change of role/title

• Receiving more relevant peer reviews

• Securing commitment for a project/goal

Why do we get influenced:

As the heart of influence is trust. If someone does not trust you, you cannot influence them. Key ways to build trust and influence:

Reciprocation: We are more likely to return a favor. This is why companies offer trial periods. 

At work, genuinely try to be helpful. If you find yourself thinking you don’t know enough, or don’t  have all the context to offer help, remember - no one does. You can simply be helpful by being a good listener and investing time to get others to share more about their situations. A simple way to do this is to ask “What else?” and pause.

Commitment and Consistency: We are more likely to commit to your ask if it is written down or established as a goal.

A study showed that people who place a bet on a horse are more likely to think their horse will win after they place their bet than before. Nothing changed about the horse’s chances! But the way the betters perceived success did.

Some of the ways you can secure commitment are: adding ask to team goal, develop a performance development document with clear expectations that your manager and you regularly follow upon.

Establish credibility by being consistent. For example, do not  speak with a mentor or offer help to a coworker and never follow through. This will affect your credibility more than you realize.  

Social Proof: We tend to follow what others are doing.

Notice how it takes only one bystander to curiously look at the sky, and soon there is a group which gathers around to figure out what is going on. You and I have participated in this at some point too!

At work you can apply this by figuring out which one person/team/business unit needs to buy into your proposal. Once you get one yes, you can take that result to other stakeholders. Focus on getting one yes at a time rather than fanning out and trying to get everyone to agree all at once. 

Likability: We are persuaded by those similar to us. People don’t buy what you sell, they buy why you sell it based on what you believe.

At work you can apply this through building authentic relationships and really investing time in knowing people. For Product Managers, people managers and senior tech leads on my teams, I suggest focusing on this for at least 6-8 weeks when new to a team. Identify the things you and your coworkers have in common - maybe its work style or company goals and lead with this.  

How to apply these to work:

Situation A: Trying to switch from Software Engineer to Product Management or from Software Engineer to Senior Software Engineer

1. Identify who the decision maker is who you need commitment from (usually your manager or skip level manager) 

2. Sit down with the decision maker and outline the work that needs to happen for the switch

3. Write down the agreement and send regular updates to the decision maker when you hit the goals. Be sure to acknowledge where the decision maker’s insights have been helpful (Be honest here, don’t suffocate someone. People can tell when your compliment is genuine and can be put off by unauthentic statements)

4. Once goals are completed, prepare your own promotion packet (yes, in some companies your manager is supposed to do this but you can help them craft your story. After all, no one knows your story better than you)

5. Review the packet with your manager and if needed also review it with your skip level manager

Situation B: Getting leadership buy-in on a project/idea

1. Identify who the decision maker is who you need commitment from (usually your manager or skip level manager). 

2. Meet with the decision maker or ideally some of their teammates to understand the decision maker’s priorities

3. Craft your narrative around how your proposal will benefit the decision maker. This is important

4. Get approval from a few of the decision maker’s teammates

5. Pitch your proposal to the decision maker addressing: benefits to them, list of teammates who approve (be sure they have agreed to being listed here to not cause a strife), ways you can help decision maker so the project is a success

Office Hours

If you have a specific situation you want to get advice on or practice a conversation with me, please feel free to sign up for my office hours here. 

Interesting Read

If you are interested in diving even deeper check out, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It is a terrific primer for going deeper into understanding each of the elements I mentioned above with real life scenarios. 

If you are based in the US, your local public library should have an ebook for you to borrow.  

Hope you fund these tactics useful and try them out. In the process you might realize the influencing ability you already have.

Until next time, stay safe.
👋 Zainab