What is influence as a tech lead? How do you get it? (No. 54)
Another week, another new topic. This week we dive into the mysterious world of influence.
As mentioned on Sunday’s preview of the week to come, this week we’re going to dive into the mysterious topic of influence and how it specifically applies to tech leads and other first line tech leaders, like engineering managers and even startup CTOs (roles where I’ve had some success wielding some of my own influence).
Influence is fascinating to talk about in the context of tech leads because it’s the first leadership style they need to learn, which is actually really odd in the corporate world.
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What is influence?
Let’s say you walked up to a podium in front of one hundred software engineers and said, “Raise your hand if you want more influence.” I bet at least ninety hands would go up.
Now if you pressed a little, and asked a few folks from the crowd to explain it in their words, I bet you’d get a lot of different definitions.
Like other topics I wrestle with, “influence” is a vague concept for many. Some say influence is good listening. Others say it’s about being respected. Yet others say it’s about making others feel respected. One definition of the word is that it’s the magical force holding stars together.
Today, let’s get specific.
I quite like Merriam-Webster’s definition. Among other things, influence is
the act or power of producing an effect without apparent exertion of force or direct exercise of commandLet’s unpack the elements of that definition. First, influence is not a quality of person or a status (e.g., an “influential person”). Instead, influence is an act. Influencing people is something you have to do. It takes calories. You have to open your mouth and say words. Or do something to set an example. Or make expressions of approval or disapproval in your next Zoom call. Or write something in Slack or email.
You get the point: influence starts not with who you are, but what you do or did.
Next, your act needs to produce an effect. That is to say, there needs to be a specific outcome from what you do. Maybe the software engineers on your team change their coding style. Maybe they build something new. Maybe they change the way code reviews are run. Whatever it is, there needs to be something that actually comes out of the influence.
If you’re only getting head nods and nothing actually happens as a result of the things you do, then it’s just style and not substance.
The next point is that your acts are having an effect without “direct exercise of command.” As I mentioned on the podcast, this is the clearest difference between managers and leaders to my mind. Leaders influence, but managers can directly command results. Of course, it’s better if managers use influence instead of commands; but, at the end of the day, they can directly command results.
Leaders don’t need command and control because they know how to influence.
Now that we’ve unpacked the word influence, hopefully it feels a little more accessible to you. That’s my goal with this email list: give you more clarity and certainty on mysterious leadership topics like “influence” so you can have more confidence following through on them.
Why should tech leads focus on influence?
Returning to our discussion of the elements of the word influence, let’s zoom in the idea of causing effects without directly commanding them.
For most tech leads, this is exactly what they need to be able to do.
With some notable exceptions, most tech leads do not have people management responsibility, so they cannot simply command other software engineers to do things. And while engineering managers can give tech leads the appearance of control by publicly declaring, “Joan is the tech lead; follow her directions,” it’s still up to the engineering manager to decide what actions to take if the engineers refuse to follow Joan.
In my mind, it is exactly this problem that makes the tech lead role so interesting to work with. In other industries, it is more common to give employees minor management roles where they are able to learn management through command and control methods before elevating them further to roles where influence becomes more important.
For example, at Starbucks, you might start your career progression by getting promoted from a barista to a shift supervisor, where you have the ability to define schedules and command certain results from other baristas. Eventually you get promoted to store manager where you add hiring and firing authority, and you’re still primarily using command and control methods or can at least resort to them when influence doesn’t work. Finally, you might get promoted to district manager where, finally, influence because your primary leadership tool.
In software, we flip the model and ask first time leaders to lead with influence, which is really one of the most advanced leadership styles. Thus, influence is something tech leads need to pay a lot of attention to and work a little harder to develop.
Where to get influence.
If you were reading closely, you’ll notice I tricked you with that subheading. Remember, you don’t “get” influence; you DO influence.
But what should you do?
First of all, there are some patterns you’ve probably seen out there in the wild. A common one is the “loud mouth” or dominant influencer. I probably don’t need to go into too much detail because I think we’ve all seen it, but basically one individual tends to be dominant and steps into the role of influencing people through loud noises or an outsized personality. These folks are probably considered “High D” on the DiSC profile.
Basically, because of the noise or presence of this person, other software engineers will start changing their behaviors to either avoid or placate these individuals.
That is a form of influence, and I think, sadly, too many in management roles confuse this with some kind of “leadership trait” or lazily let this behavior go on because “hey, at least something is getting done.”
Hitler had a lot of influence too. Note, however, this style doesn’t need to be negative. Sometimes people are vocal and awesome.
Another, second, approach is influence through a kind of technical or experience-based superiority. I suspect many software engineers, if pressed, would indicate they aspire to this kind of influence. For example, if your team builds its code with Elixir or the Phoenix Framework, and you read a blog from Jose Valim or Chris McCord telling you that you should do something, you are probably going to be influenced to do so. As the creators of these tools, they have superior insight and experience to you, so you follow their guidance, even though you don’t report to them.
There could be similar people within your own company who have accomplished something the company celebrated or are so deeply connected in the company that people respect their insights and will be influenced by them.
There are other styles, to be sure, but those are two common patterns. They are problematic, however. In the first, it requires you to have a certain personality style. In the second, your influence is dependent on deep experience or accomplishment. But worse, in both situations, the model is incomplete. There is nothing to ensure that there is any follow through or execution. These individuals may get a lot of head nods but no real effect.
This is partly why I wrote up and organized the Four Core capabilities (listening, vision crafting, high activity levels, and tracking and adjusting). I think the Four Core is a path to get you really engaged in the team and company to the point where you can start getting a lot of traction to start influencing, and following through, to get the effect you’re seeking.
But there are different paths too, I never claim to be the only path, and you may discover new ones on your own based on what works for you. The key is to remember that influence is something you’re going to need to DO.
We’ll talk more about this thing called influence over the week.
Happy Monday tech leads!
-michael
The Podcast 🎧
Spent some time prepping for this week’s topic over the weekend. This morning’s podcast was a little on the rough side, but that’s because this is a new topic for me to explore. Click here to listen to the raw material!
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