Lead with Influence - by Matt Norman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Positive influence (without authority) is the superpower that most people never learn to use at work.

Millions of subject-matter experts, functional leaders, requirements gatherers, and problem solvers have opportunities to influence every day. Instead, too often they merely respond to requests and take orders from their stakeholders. By not exercising their unknown superpower, they miss opportunities to break down silos, improve collaboration, and accelerate the best decisions for the organization.

Organizations desperately need more positive leadership and influence to innovate, solve big challenges and develop healthy culture. If more people could discover how to use their superpower, they'd not only drive impact, but they would elevate their own perceived self-worth, leading to higher engagement and better mental and emotional wellbeing.

What do people do instead of using their untapped superpower?

When attempting to influence without much leverage, most people employ logical arguments and repeated pressure. They build a rational case and keep asking.

But that rarely works. Facts, arguments and pressure don't work well trying to influence social/emotional creatures.

As Dale Carnegie said, "When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity."

This book is designed to help people discover the most impactful approach to influencing without authority, coercion, manipulation or force. It is a practical guide to influence that builds trust and relationships. It provides clear patterns and mental models, grounded in neuroscience, for communicating in a way that generates engagement, buy-in and cooperation.

Anyone trying to influence without using "leverage" or "control" will benefit from this book. It's especially suited for influencing in today's fast-paced organizations where so many people have the ability to influence change, even if they don't have the biggest title or the most political capital.

Other books on leadership, influence and trust, offer broad strategies, theories and truisms, but this book provides something more practical and applicable:

• Proven mental models and communication patterns that can be utilized in nearly every communication.
• It's based on Dale Carnegie Training's over 10-years of workshop, laboratory, and field testing with thousands of professionals across the world in multiple cultures and languages, from small organizations to large multi-national, from non-profit to for-profit, from government to the private sector.
• It provides hands on structure and guidance for things like what to write in an email, how to ask the best question in a conversation to unlock new thinking, how to explain a controversial idea, and how to communicate when someone pushes back on you.

If you want to learn to utilize your superpower of influence, you have to figure out how to. It's not self-help, it's how-to.

Review Quotes

Lead with Influence is an invaluable guide that provides keys to garnering commitment from others and outlines effective strategies to influence individuals intranstioning from tactical needs to fostering a strategic partnership. - Deena Ghazarian, CEO, Austere

Lead with Influence provided our technology leaders with actionable, relevant skills to drive more value across the enterprise. The learning approach was structured in an engaging and interactive way, plus the facilitator's coaching mad all the difference. - Rahoul Ghose, Chief Information Officer, ECMC

Lead with Influence provides helpful and practical strategies that leaders can use to improve communication and build trust with key stakeholders enabling a deeper focus on meeting the needs of consumers and quality of care. - Todd Austin, CEO Genoa Healthcare

The FMH Marketing team was able to gain valuable insights from the Lead with Influence training they received and able to deploy these new skills right away. Since the course, the team has been able to continue building stronger collaborative internal relationships and more effectively position FMH as a consultive partner with our external stakeholders. -Dave DeCapp, Sr. Vice President, Marketing, Farmers Mutual Hail

The Lead with Influence program has been super appropriate for what we've needed to help our leaders develop both hard and soft skills as our business has grown rapidly. - Jim Glomstad, CEO, Sportech

Lead with Influence offers excellent strategies to help anyone gain cooperation and support for their ideas. The concepts are very relevant in APAC and build upon proven Dale Carnegie principles. - Her, Yu Lug, Founder of Chinese Dale Carnegie Training

Our directors talk about how relevant Lead with Influence has been for them. So much so that they've asked "Did you somehow schedule this training today specifically for me?" You've nailed it in meeting them where they are. - Anthony Huang, Chief Technology Officer, Cleanchoice Energy

Dale Carnegie's Lead with Influence teaches invaluable leadership insights by giving strategic guidance with practical application. Under the facilitator's expert guidance, our people have advanced their careers with newfound confidence and impact. Highly recommend! - Gary Bridgewater, CEO, Baker Group

Based on decades of research and work with clients, Lead with Influence offers a blueprint for the best way to move others to agreement, partnership and action. It closes the gap between leadership and sales. - Christine Buscarino, Chief Operating Officer, Dale Carnegie & Associates

Leaders across our organization have found the Lead with Influence playbook extremely applicable as they enhance their skills to influence across the company, build more strategic relationships with key stakeholders and ultimately, achieve our goals. - Lisa West, Talent & Leadership Development, Securian Financial Group