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- The Influence Formula
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I recently came across this talk from early WhatsApp engineer Jean Lee on the topic of, “how to be a high value person” (great title) in which she talks about her formula for influence. I could be biased given my career in sales, but within a leadership context the ability to influence others shouldn’t be seen as insincere manipulation, instead a way of motivating those around you to achieve a common goal.
Lee’s formula for influence is the combination of likability and reliability, but I prefer to include a wider aperture for the second half of the formula. To me, influence can be defined as the following:
Influence = Likability + Competence
Leaders fundamental job is to build effective teams by motivating a broad coalition of individuals toward a shared outcome. It’s impossible to do this without the ability to influence others.
Likability
Good in camp
Likability is an interesting, and often overlooked, aspect of influence. One of my favorite heuristics for likability comes courtesy of a lesson my Dad taught my brother and I as kids, “be good in camp.” While I think this was a thinly veiled way of just making us do the dishes, it’s a mantra that served me well throughout my life.
To my Dad being good in camp meant, quite literally, when you are on a camping trip with others that you do the small work others don’t want to. Clean dishes, collect firewood, purify water, etc. He extended this notion of “camp” to be anytime you were invited over to another’s house or working on a team environment.
Boiled down, being good in camp means doing the boring jobs others don’t want to do, doing them well, and doing them without martyring yourself or looking for much fanfare.
Low ego
I’ve written about ego a lot before, but I still remain convinced that there is no greater poison to one’s own career or the performance of one’s team than ego. Robin Dreeke, former lead instructor at the FBI’s Counterintelligence Training Center says it best in his book It's Not All About "Me" (great title):
Suspending your ego is nothing more complex than putting other individuals’ wants, needs, and perceptions of reality ahead of your own. Most times, when two individuals engage in a conversation, each patiently waits for the other person to be done with whatever story he or she is telling. Then, the other person tells his or her own story, usually on a related topic and often times in an attempt to have a better and more interesting story. Individuals practicing good ego suspension would continue to encourage the other individual to talk about his or her story, neglecting their own need to share what they think is a great story.
The first part of the above quote is my favorite reminder / test for being a low ego leader, are you able to put the wants, needs, and perceptions of reality of others ahead of your own? Are you more interested in being right or getting work done (hint, it should be the latter).
In the pursuit of getting work done, suspend your ego and get started. You’ll be much more likable and thus, ironically, exert greater influence if you put the needs of others before your own.
Low maintenance leadership
These aspects which make up likability all comprise what I think of as “low maintenance leadership.” In the same way UI/UX designers work to minimize friction between purchase and checkout, you need to work to minimize the friction between someone having high impact work that needs to get done and you being assigned to that work.
Simply put, if you’re difficult to work with you won’t get put on the biggest opportunities.
Think of the example where your boss has the ability to assign someone to that next big project. Mentally we all catalogue those around us on a spectrum of likable and competent. How easy will this person be to work with? Does this person have the capability to get the work done well?
In my experience, if you have the competence to lead the work but are going to be consistently difficult to deal with, be overly concerned with who gets credit for the work, or generally have a high ego you’ll be put in the “high maintenance” bucket and won’t get assigned the work.
This inability to position yourself to lead the highest impact projects will hurt your career and your team over time as other teams will have greater opportunities than yours.
The airport test is a good mental model here. If someone wouldn’t want to be stuck with you at an airport for five hours chances are they won’t want to work with you on a high consequence project. Be a low maintenance leader.
Competence
I’ve written about both competence and proficiency before as I still think they are two of the most important hallmarks any leader can cultivate within themselves and their team. Within the context of the influence formula it’s an important balance to the likability component as likability alone is not enough.
Competence within the influence formula can generally be thought of as the combination of quality and reliability.
From a quality perspective, the question is a simple one. Does this person or team have the skill to deliver a high quality final product? If the answer is no, you will not be able to effectively shape the agendas of those around you, thus losing your influence.
From a reliability perspective, the question is also a simple one. Does this person or team consistently deliver what they say the will when they say they will? As I was finishing college after my time as a Marine I was fortunate enough to speak with a family friend, also a veteran, who was CEO of a publicly traded company.
Over the course of the conversation he gave me advice about the way in which he’d structured his career and how he thought about leading teams. I learned a lot during the conversation, but the single item that stuck with me most was a concept he called the “Say / Do Ratio”. How often do you deliver when you say you will?
Interestingly, he said that no person’s Say / Do Ratio is 100%, but that your goal should be to consistently have it be as high as possible. I’ve always tried to remember his advice in this regard and be cognizant of how often I deliver when I say I will. This Say / Do Ratio is the foundation of reliability that ultimately facilitates competence.
Conclusion
The Influence formula is a simple but powerful one. Influence = Likability + Competence.
In the pursuit of likability:
Be good in camp
Have a low ego
Practice low maintenance leadership
In the pursuit of competence:
Cultivate your ability to deliver a high quality output
Do so reliably by having a high Say / Do Ratio
Influence is a critical aspect to leading great teams. As you pursue influence in your own career remember that likability gets you a seat at the table and competence lets you keep it.