Aaron, your article and this post with its replies is a nice musing about one of the most important aspects of project management that nobody talks about.
Influencing is part of EI, emotional intelligence, the lower right corner, when we not only try to understand others by empathy, but we also try to influence them by trying to make them do something they did not think about yet. It is sometimes shyly labeled as relationship skills.
In other professions, it is known as marketing, propaganda, power games, and politics, the movie industry creating emotions in us, the gaming industry creating addiction, the drug industry making us dependent, trying to own the narrative, and yes, manipulation. Persuasion is one tool of influencing. Clearly, there is an ethical component to influencing. Sun Tzu said: “All warfare is based on deception.”, which means influencing others to believe something untrue.
We are learning it early; every toddler knows how to influence their mother to feed them. Every leader has, mostly unconsciously, influenced others to follow, copy their behaviors, and even develop affection for them. Negotiation indeed is based on influencing, as is using SCARF or other tools to induce our biases and fears.
Influencing with power is easy; without power is the art.
Community Champion
