Ways and means of influence
Navigating work with maximum influence and minimum authority
Unpacking influence
Last week, I was contemplating last years work for the annual review ritual. Overall it was a valuable exercise and it led me to reflect the shift in my default way of work.
I have written about this a couple of times when talking about the shift in my position(title) going in the opposite direction.
… in terms of positional leverage, these things matter for such exercises, I have moved in the opposite direction. From being a founder to now being an individual contributor.
Slowly I am realising the influence you have on peers and community around you not necessarily be direct or formal. It can come from walking a tight rope of being omnipresent and useful. It is now being recognised by others as well as I use levers of writing more frequently at work.
I didn’t want the responsibilities of having direct reports once I shifted to being an operator. I am continuing to stick to the same direction in my current role as well. The closest thing to managing people was when hearing fellow managers discuss their problems. So far I have been content with the decision.
Which brings me to the topic of this issue, influence. Writing is my default mode of showing rigour in thought and the derived conclusion. It is similar to solving a math problem back in school days. The relevant formula is used and steps of the equation are jotted down with the final answer.
So, my hypothesis that if they also read the reasoning and logical steps taken by yours truly, they will understand the decision being made clearly.
The challenge is the work shared by me is laborious for a reader. It was feedback that was shared with me. Many people in the past also mentioned the same when it comes to my public writing.
It clicked instantly that this is similar to what I preach when designing interfaces in business products. The level of innovation on design is pegged to the maturity of the end user. Similarly, my writing needs to factor the reader’s previous understanding.
My default channel of writing and my skill of writing are letting me down on exerting the influence to shape the future direction. It was initially hard to accept the verdict on my writing.
As course correction, I am focusing on editing my writing from the lens of the reader. At work it happens to be my peers, superiors and executives. In public it will be folks from the domain and friends who show their support by reading everything I publish.
If you bracket all of my writing into a larger theme. It all boils down to writing explainers. For example let us take the case of product roadmap which is an explainer about the bets we are planning to work on in the future. And the public writing on LinkedIn and digital homesteadare explainers about the vocation of product management in the domains like logistics and agriculture.
If I look back on the literature that influenced me in my carreer, most of it was from public writing of others. They have shaped the direction of my work without any direct relationship. This is the type of influence that I would like to have on the next set of practitioners operating in complex domains.
The framework and advice that I am now putting into practice comes from this post written by David R. Maclver ;
There are exactly three things you need to do in order to explain things well:
Decide what you want to explain.
Find out what the listener already knows.
Express the first in terms of the second.
The process is to write to explain things to people in order to influence their thinking about the topic I am addressing. It doesn’t matter whether they agree or disagree with it. All that matters is it makes them to take a note.
Good writing in public provides each individual an opportunity to influence a community at scale subtlety. Its a powerful medium if you have something worth saying. The reward to the work of putting yourself out in public space could be multifold. I have been a beneficiary in the past and will continue to tread on a similar route with higher stakes going forward.
Round up
Way of Ways
John cutler whose influence is splintered in my work illustrates the cycle of “Way of work”.
The wheel keeps churning a new style of work. I am cognisant of not getting influenced by the latest version and stick to fundamentals.
The trap of PLG
There is an article in HBR which talks about the pitfalls of product led growth and why it leads to an eventual trap when selling to enterprises.
This article is an example of what John cutler illustrated above. The entire product fraternity was pushed to go in the direction of product led growth and now the same practitioners are cautioning others about the pitfalls.
The core being context and relevance are two dimensions on which any abstracted framework is applicable to your situation
Links that resonated
How I write with Howard Marks
I have been enjoying the podcast of David Perell, “How I write?”. It captures the writing process of people writing on the web.
Howard Marks who is an investor of Oak Tree capital talks about his practice of writing investor analysis reports which have influenced the investment fraternity.
This episode is about writing an artefact that helps the readers see the topic in a new light.
People and Blogs
An another interview series that I am thoroughly enjoying is that of “Peoples and blogs” by Manuel. He is doing a series with the OG bloggers who have been writing in the public for over a decade. My RSS feed has many new editions thanks to this series.
Honing the skill
The skill of harnessing influence and distilling it subtlety is a long and arduous process. It doesn’t bode well for times when you are in war mode like finding product market fit or getting a startup off the ground. Formal authority and direct relationship is more effective during such times.
The game of influence is for the long term and I am currently trying to partake in it.
Signing off till next time,
Vivek, influencing himself to write this newsletter