Most managers have two default tools when they need something to happen: tell people what to do, or escalate to someone who can. Direct communication and the chain of command. Both have their place. But if they are your primary or only tools for getting things done across an organization, you have a problem. Not because they don’t work, but because they work less and less the higher you climb and the more complex your environment becomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The managers and project managers who consistently get things done are not the ones with the biggest title or the loudest voice. They are the ones who understand that in most modern organizations, influence is the currency that actually moves things. Directives produce compliance. Influence produces commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article gives you a practical new toolbox, and more importantly, a new mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is nothing wrong with being direct. Clarity is a leadership virtue. But directness without influence is just noise. And escalation without relationship capital is a reputation tax you can’t afford to keep paying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consider the project manager’s dilemma, and it is one of the most under-discussed challenges in organizational life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAccording to PMI research, project managers are routinely expected to produce change through other people, while lacking any formal authority over those people. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Team members report to functional managers who write their appraisals. Stakeholders have competing priorities. Budget owners have their own agendas. The project manager sits in the middle, accountable for outcomes, but armed primarily with a project plan and a meeting invite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same dynamic plays out for middle managers in matrix organisations, for department heads who need cooperation from peers, and for anyone trying to move an idea upward in a hierarchy that has more experienced people above them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The core problem is not a lack of authority. It is a lack of influence skills and, underneath that, a mental model that still operates as though authority and results are the same thing. They are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Mindset Shift: From Position to Persuasion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Before we get to tactics, we need to address the mindset. Because most of the practical tools will be wasted if you carry the wrong mental model into the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The old mental model says: I have a position. My position gives me the right to ask for things. People should respond to that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe influence mindset says: I need to understand what matters to the people around me, how I can create value for them, and how I can build enough trust and momentum that my ideas become theirs too.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This is not manipulation. It is leadership. And it requires you to shift your attention from yourself, from your proposal, your timeline, your goals to the people whose cooperation you need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That shift sounds straightforward. It rarely is and it is worth being honest about why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most managers who struggle with influence are not lacking information. They have read the books and attended the workshops. What stops them is something older and less rational than a skill gap. For a start, there is what you might call the career success trap: the habits that got you to your current level, being the person with the answer, driving the result, solving the problem independently. And these are precisely the habits that work against influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCompetence got you noticed. But influence requires patience, ambiguity, and often giving credit to others. It can feel like the opposite of what made you good.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Then there is the identity threat. Many managers carry a quiet contempt for what they call “politics” and they have unconsciously labelled influence as a version of that. They see their own directness as a virtue, their willingness to just say what they think as a form of integrity. In that framing, investing time in relationships before you need them feels transactional. Adapting your message to what others care about feels like compromise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe idea that you might need people to want<\/em> to help you, rather than simply being entitled to their cooperation, can feel like an uncomfortable admission. This is not weakness \u2014 it is ego maturity. But it takes real self-awareness to get there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Finally, there is the time horizon problem. Influence is slow. Mapping a landscape, building coalitions, creating relationship capital – none of it delivers an immediate, visible result. In environments that reward speed and output, it can feel like wasted time. The payoff is real, but deferred. And most managers do not have a way to measure it, so they default to what feels productive: telling people what to do and hoping the system enforces it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knowing this does not make the shift automatic. But it does mean that if you have tried to be more influential in the past and slipped back into old patterns, the reason is probably not that you forgot the technique. It is that the technique was in conflict with a deeper belief about who you are as a leader and that belief is what needs to change first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Eric Anicich from USC Marshall School of Business captures the challenge well: at junior levels, being competent gets you noticed. But at senior and mid-level positions in complex organisations, nobody is questioning whether you are smart enough. Everyone is smart. What separates those who move things from those who don’t is the ability to mediate their ideas through relationships, coalitions, and exchanges of value and not just the strength of their argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThat shift \u2014 from argument<\/em> to relationship<\/em> \u2014 is the foundation of influence.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nThe New Toolbox: Six Influence Capabilities Every Manager Needs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Map the Landscape Before You Make Your Move<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Most managers do their stakeholder analysis too late, they do it after they have already formed their position and are trying to win people over. By then, you are defending, not building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before you pitch anything significant, invest time in understanding the landscape. Who are the people who matter to this outcome? What are their current priorities? Where are the tensions between their goals and yours? Who are the informal influencers, the people who do not necessarily hold power on paper, but who have credibility and connection in the network?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Vanessa Bohns, professor of organisational behaviour at Cornell University, notes: senior people are particularly prone to assuming their peers think like they do. You share a level and a background, so of course they see things your way. They often do not. The assumption is dangerous. The antidote is reconnaissance – genuine, curious conversation before any formal pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For project managers, this is stakeholder mapping done properly: not just a chart of names and interests, but a living understanding of what each person fears, what they want to protect, and what they actually care about beyond the project brief. Make it highly personal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Build Organisational Currency Before You Need to Spend It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Cohen-Bradford Influence Without Authority model, developed by professors Allan Cohen and David Bradford, offers one of the most practical frameworks for influence in organisations. Its central premise is this: influence is a form of exchange. People do things for each other because there is a mutual flow of value – what Cohen and Bradford call “organizational currency.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Organisational currency can take many forms: information, visibility, access, recognition, solving a problem for someone before they ask, protecting someone from political fallout, making their work easier. The exchange does not have to be explicit. In fact, the best influence practitioners do it naturally, and the people they work with simply feel that this manager is someone worth helping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The critical lesson is timing: you need to invest in currency before you need to spend it. Project managers who wait until they are behind schedule to start building relationships with resource managers will find the cupboard bare. The time to build goodwill is when you have nothing to ask for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask yourself: whose goodwill have I built in the last quarter? Who owes me nothing, and why might that be a problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Lead with Their Interests, Not Your Logic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
When you do bring forward a proposal or a request, resist the urge to lead with your rationale. Most managers front-load their pitch with data, timelines, and business cases. This is not wrong, but it is incomplete. Logic informs; it does not move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What moves people is the feeling that their concerns have been heard, their priorities have been respected, and that what you are proposing will not damage them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bohns’s research makes this concrete: the best way to understand what people are worried about is to ask, not to guess. Before your formal pitch, have one-on-one conversations. Hear specific questions and objections. Pay particular attention to what your proposal might cost people: budget, headcount, autonomy, specialist status or other status, or political standing. Then address those costs honestly before they raise them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is not about softening your message. It is about demonstrating that you have thought about them, not just about yourself. That demonstration alone dramatically increases receptiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cialdini’s principle of liking reinforces this point from a different angle: people are more easily influenced by those they feel understand and respect them. Influence does not operate in the abstract. It operates in the space of relationships where the other person feels seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Build Coalitions, Not Just Cases<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
One of the most consistent findings across influence research is that ideas gain momentum not from the quality of the argument, but from the number and credibility of people who are seen to support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anicich calls this “surround sound”, when a decision-maker starts hearing the same message from multiple trusted sources, the idea begins to validate itself. It feels inevitable. Your job is not just to convince the decision-maker. It is to build a network of convinced colleagues who will carry your message through their own networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This requires you to identify natural allies early, people whose priorities align with yours, or who stand to benefit from what you are proposing. Then ask them explicitly to advocate: not just to agree with you in a meeting, but to talk about the idea with their teams, surface it in conversations you are not part of, and signal their support to the people who matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For project managers, this is a reframe of stakeholder engagement. You are not just managing stakeholders to keep them informed and compliant. You are converting stakeholders into advocates. That is a different activity, requiring different conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Use the Influence Cycle, Not the One-Time Pitch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Kristine Hayes Munson, whose research on influence in project management has been presented at multiple PMI Global Congresses, proposes a five-stage influence cycle that is particularly useful for managers dealing with recurring relationships: Prepare, Ask, Trust, Follow Up, and Give Back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is powerful about this model is that it is a cycle, not a sequence. Each project, each initiative, each request runs through these stages, and the “Give Back” step feeds the next “Prepare” phase. You are not trying to win a single negotiation. You are trying to build a track record of being someone who delivers, listens, follows through, and reciprocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is influence as a practice, not a technique. The managers who are consistently influential are not the ones who read one persuasion article before an important meeting. They are the ones who have cultivated these habits across months and years until they are simply how they operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The discipline of following up, going back to people after the outcome to acknowledge their contribution, reflect on what worked, and acknowledge where the process fell short, is one of the most commonly skipped steps in influence practice. It is also one of the most powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
6. Make the Ask Clear and Confident<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Here is the final irony: after all this preparation – the landscape mapping, the currency building, the coalition work, the one-on-ones – many managers still sabotage themselves at the moment of the actual ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They hint instead of asking. They hedge instead of stating. They present information and hope the other person draws the right conclusion, rather than being explicit about what they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bohns’s research on this point is striking: people chronically underestimate how much others pay attention to them and how willing they are to say yes. Imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and the assumption that resistance is higher than it actually is cause managers to pull back precisely when they should lean in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The principle that emerges from her work is straightforward: your hesitation is often a bigger barrier than the other person’s resistance. You have more sway than you think. Once you have done the preparation, make the ask directly. State what you need, explain why it matters now, and let the other person respond. Do not psyche yourself out before you have even started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where possible, make the ask in person or by phone. Bohns’s research consistently shows that face-to-face requests are significantly more effective than written ones. The human voice – the ability to convey genuine interest, to adapt in real time, to signal relationship – matters more than most managers realize in an age of email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Special Note for Project Managers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The project manager role is arguably the most instructive case study in influence without authority that exists in organisational life. You have responsibility. You have accountability. You have a deadline. And you have, in most cases, very little formal power over the people you depend on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The PMI research literature is unambiguous: the project managers who consistently deliver are not necessarily the best planners or the most technically proficient. They are the ones who invest in relationships before they need them, who understand the political landscape of their organisation, who make their stakeholders feel heard and respected, and who know how to build momentum for their initiatives across multiple levels of the organisation simultaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are a project manager reading this, the most important reframe you can make is this: stakeholder management is not a risk mitigation activity. It is an influence-building activity. Every conversation with a stakeholder is an opportunity to deposit something into the relationship – information, recognition, help, a connection – that you may draw on when the project needs it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putting It Into Practice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Influence is not a personality trait. It is a skill and like any skill, it requires deliberate practice and honest self-assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are four questions worth reflecting on:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
- Who am I currently underestimating my influence with?<\/strong> Research consistently shows that we underestimate how much attention others pay to us and how willing they are to say yes. Where might your hesitation be the problem, not their resistance?
<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Whose interests have I actually mapped recently?<\/strong> Not assumed \u2014 actually asked about and listened to. Who in your stakeholder landscape might be surprised to know you understand what matters to them?
<\/li>\n\n\n\n- What organisational currency are you currently building?<\/strong> Not spending \u2014 building. Who are you investing in before you need anything from them?
<\/li>\n\n\n\n- What is the ask you have been avoiding?<\/strong> And what would it take to make it \u2014 clearly, directly, and with confidence?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
The managers who get things done in complex organisations are not the ones with the most authority. They are the ones who have learned to think and act in terms of influence, every day, long before any single high-stakes moment arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is the real toolbox. And it is available to everyone willing to build it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJan Salomons is an executive coach and member of the HBR Advisory Council, working with senior leaders and leadership teams across Europe. His coaching practice, Salomons.Coach, focuses on leadership presence, performance under pressure, and the human side of organisational change.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nInfluence is a skill \u2014 and like any skill, it develops fastest with good coaching and intentional practice. If you’d like to explore how to build your own influence capability as a leader or project manager, I’d be glad to talk. [Book a discovery call] or [explore the coaching programmes] at Salomons.Coach.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nReferences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
- Bregman, P., & Jacoby, H. (2025). How Senior Leaders Build Influence<\/em>. Harvard Business Review. https:\/\/hbr.org<\/a> (HBR Advisory Council article \u2014 source for Bohns and Anicich insights)<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Bohns, V. K. (2021). You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters<\/em>. W. W. Norton & Company. https:\/\/vanessabohns.com<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (2005). Influence Without Authority<\/em> (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. https:\/\/www.influencewithoutauthority.com<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Munson, K. H. (2016). Getting Things Done \u2014 Influence Without Authority<\/em>. Paper presented at PMI\u00ae Global Congress 2016, San Diego, CA. Project Management Institute. https:\/\/www.project-management-podcast.com\/podcast-episodes\/episode-details\/episode-376-influence-without-authority<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Larson, E., & Larson, R. (2006). Influencing Without Authority: Rev Up Your Internal Consulting Skills<\/em>. Paper presented at PMI\u00ae Global Congress 2006, Seattle, WA. Project Management Institute. https:\/\/www.pmi.org\/learning\/library\/influencing-without-authority-project-requirements-8100<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Gottwald, W. D. (2008). Influence Without Authority and Navigating Through Internal Politics<\/em>. Paper presented at PMI\u00ae Global Congress 2008, Denver, CO. Project Management Institute. https:\/\/www.pmi.org\/learning\/library\/influence-without-authority-six-step-process-7018<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion<\/em>. Harper Business. https:\/\/www.influenceatwork.com<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most managers have two default tools when they need something to happen: tell people what to do, or escalate to someone who can. Direct communication and the chain of command. Both have their place. But if they are your primary or only tools for getting things done across an organization, you have a problem. Not because they don’t work, but because they work less and less the higher you climb and the more complex your environment becomes.<\/p>\n
The managers and project managers who consistently get things done are not the ones with the biggest title or the loudest voice. They are the ones who understand that in most modern organisations, influence is the currency that actually moves things. Directives produce compliance. Influence produces commitment.
\nThis article gives you a practical new toolbox, and more importantly, a new mindset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,196,193,194,192],"tags":[23,251,72,552,553,550,551],"class_list":["post-12145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-change-transformation","category-self-personal-growth","category-teams-collaboration","category-vuca-leadership","tag-coaching","tag-leadership-influence","tag-leadership","tag-management-skills","tag-persuasion","tag-project-management","tag-stakeholder-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t