Influence without Authority

A few thoughts on Influence

Perhaps the first thing I heard about product management was that it was about “Influence without Authority”. This was in 2003. I remember thinking to myself, “Hmm — one thing is clear, you have no authority!”

Today, I wanted to unpack a little bit about influence, to demystify it, unlike Dali, who said —

“How should I influence others?” is a common question. A more crass way to put it is — “How do I get others to do what I want them to?”. This is looking at influence from the wrong end.

Influence is about helping others succeed, and the way to do this is to listen to people, find common ground, help them succeed, build trust, have patience — and most of all, help customers win.

Time after time I have seen that when you, as the product manager, speak up for the customer — that person who is not in the room for who you are building the product — then, barriers fall away.

When people trust that you do not have any personal agenda, and the only thing you want is to make the customer successful, then people come together and work towards the success of the customer.

This is the whole of product management.

What about the influencee, if that is a word? Well, to be influenced is a good thing. It demonstrates a willingness to listen and change ones mind, what is often referred to as “Strong opinions, weakly held”. That said, being influenced is not an excuse for accountability. As it goes…

That’s it for this edition of the newsletter, let me know what you think of my new slide format!