As you advance in your career, a new challenge emerges: how do you amplify your impact beyond your immediate scope? Shaping the direction of projects, teams, and even entire organizations boils down to one valuable skill: scaling your influence.
Building on my experiences at Google and other tech companies, this guide distills my experiences, successes, and failures for those looking to amplify their impact across teams and organizations.
Understanding influence in software engineering
Before we dive into the strategies for scaling your influence, it’s crucial to understand what influence means in the context of software engineering.
At its core, influence is the ability to alter another person’s thinking or behavior. For software engineers, this translates into the capacity to shape technical decisions, drive adoption of best practices, and guide the direction of projects and teams.
Influence is not about wielding authority. Rather, it’s about creating a collaborative environment where your ideas and expertise can impact the outcomes of your team and organization.
As we explore various influence strategies, it’s crucial to keep these core concepts in mind:
- Consensual: influence must be consensual. Coercion is not influence; it’s manipulation.
- Bilateral: influencing is a two-way street. Be open to being influenced as well.
- Situational: the effectiveness of influence techniques varies depending on the context. What works in one situation may not work in another.
Influencing techniques for engineering leaders
In his book, Elements of Influence, Terry R. Bacon outlines several approaches to influencing others. As a senior engineer, I’ve found these techniques invaluable in different situations:
Rational approaches: explaining or telling
- Logical persuading: this is often our go-to as engineers. We use logic or data to explain or justify a position. In my case, when I was previously advocating for a new testing framework, my logical approach consisted of presenting data on how the framework reduced bug escape rates in other companies.
- Legitimizing: this involves using authority or credentials to explain and influence. While it can be effective, I use this sparingly to avoid seeming overbearing.
- Exchanging: this is about negotiating or trading. I’ve used this when working across teams, offering resources or support in exchange for cooperation on a project.
- Stating: sometimes, clearly and confidently stating what you want is enough. This works well when you have a track record of good judgment.
Social approaches: Finding common ground
- Socializing: building rapport can be incredibly effective. Casual coffees with coworkers create a foundation of warmth and friendliness that smooth future interactions.
- Appealing to relationships: with colleagues you know well, you can rely on trust and past experiences. I’ve often been able to get quick support on urgent issues because of the strong relationships I’ve built over time.
- Consulting: asking for input and making decisions jointly can be powerful. Once, while redesigning our code review process, I consulted widely on the matter, improving the final design and increasing buy-in.
- Alliance building: this is about creating a network of supporters and building consensus. It’s particularly crucial for large-scale changes that affect multiple teams.
Emotional approaches: Finding inspiration
- Appealing to values: this tactic helped me inspire cooperation when I was pushing for more inclusive design practices. I appealed to our shared value of making technology accessible to all.
- Modeling: leading by example is a subtle but effective form of influence. By consistently demonstrating best practices in my own work, I’ve often inspired others to follow suit without having to explicitly tell them to do so.
The key is to use a mix of these techniques as appropriate for each situation. No single approach works in all contexts, and the most influential engineers are those who can adapt their style as needed.
Tailoring a compelling message
You need to tailor your message to your audience, whether it’s a group of engineers, product managers, or C-level executives.
When communicating with engineers, I focus on the technical details and the elegance of the solution. With product managers, I emphasize the user impact and how it aligns with product goals. For executives, I lead with the business impact and strategic alignment.
I learned this the hard way earlier in my career when I pitched a new set of performance optimizations for ads to the executive team. My initial presentation was heavy on the technical details of my approach and fell flat with my audience. I had their full attention when I reframed it in terms of potential revenue impact and competitive advantage. Remember to frame your ideas as compelling narratives as opposed to presenting dry facts.
When advocating for increased investment in our testing infrastructure, I could have just shown statistics on build times and test flakiness. Instead, I shared the story of a critical bug that slipped into production, causing a brief but costly outage. I then explained how improved testing could have caught this, tying it back to test coverage and reliability data. This approach not only made the information more memorable, it also created an emotional connection to the problem we were trying to solve.
The power of context
While many engineers believe that technical brilliance holds significance – and it does to an extent – it isn’t the key to everything.
Understanding the broader context in which you operate is crucial. This means knowing your team’s goals and understanding how they fit into the company’s larger structure and strategy.
I once proposed a major refactoring of our ad serving system, convinced it would lead to significant performance improvements. What I failed to consider was that the teams responsible for implementing these changes were in the middle of a critical launch phase for a new product. My proposal, while technically sound, was completely out of sync with the immediate priorities of the organization. It was politely acknowledged and then quietly shelved.
This experience taught me to always consider the timing and alignment of my proposals. Now, before pushing for any significant change, I ask myself:
- How does this align with our current organizational priorities?
- What are the resource implications for other teams?
- Is this the right time, or would it be better to wait?
Be aware of certain political dynamics that may come into play. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything nefarious but rather the natural interplay of different interests, priorities, and personalities.
Understanding these dynamics is key to driving change effectively. Some tips I’ve learned:
- Understand other teams’ constraints. What are their OKRs? What pressures are they under?
- Be aware of the history. That idea you think is brilliant might have been tried before and failed for reasons you’re not aware of.
- Build coalitions. Find allies who share your vision and can advocate for it in spaces you might not have access to.
- Choose your battles. Not every hill is worth dying on. Save political capital for the initiatives that truly matter.
Building and leveraging networks
As an introvert, the idea of networking used to fill me with dread. I’ve since reframed it in my mind: it’s not about working a room; it’s about building genuine relationships with interesting people.
I’ve developed a system that works for me:
- I schedule one or two coffee chats each week with people outside my immediate team.
- I keep a simple document where I note down interesting things about the people I meet – their projects, interests, challenges.
- I look for opportunities to connect people who might benefit from knowing each other.
This approach has led to some of the most rewarding collaborations of my career. A casual chat with a colleague from the Cloud team sparked an idea that led to an optimization in how we handle data processing for ads. Without that relationship, the cross-pollination of ideas would never have happened.
This highlights the importance of “weak ties” – those acquaintances and colleagues you don’t work with closely but know casually. They’re your way of gathering diverse perspectives and opportunities. Attending talks and presentations from other teams is a good way to do this too, even if they’re not directly related to my work. It’s a low-pressure way to expand your network.
Know who to turn to
Large organizations like Google are complex beasts, so it’s useful to try and understand the informal influence structure – the go-to people who might not have titles but who are respected and listened to.
I learned this lesson when trying to push through a major change in our development process. I had buy-in from all the official stakeholders, but the initiative kept hitting unexpected roadblocks. It turned out that I had overlooked a senior engineer who, while not in a formal leadership role, was highly respected and had concerns about the change. Once I engaged with them, addressed their concerns, and got their support, the whole process became much smoother.
Now, when starting any significant initiative, I ask around to understand not just the formal decision-makers, but also the informal influencers who need to be brought on board. Pose questions like, “Who do you think would be most supportive of this idea?,” or “If I were to need advice on this, who should I talk to?”
Influence can be a long game
Driving change in a large organization often feels like pushing a boulder uphill. It’s easy to get discouraged when your ideas don’t get immediate traction.
I once had an idea for improving our code review process that I was convinced would significantly boost productivity. The initial response was lukewarm at best.
- Instead of giving up, I began to implement changes within my own team, gathering data on the impact. Once we started to see small wins, I shared updates on them in the relevant forums. Over time, I was able to refine the proposal based on feedback and objections I heard. It took almost a year, but eventually, the idea gained enough momentum to be adopted more widely.
Big changes often start small. Be patient, be persistent, but also be willing to adapt your ideas based on feedback.
Take the time to reflect on your wins and losses
Post-mortems can be useful tools for reflecting on “failed” influencing endeavors. After every significant initiative, whether it succeeds or fails, I do a personal postmortem. I ask myself:
- What assumptions did I make that turned out to be incorrect?
- Where did communication break down?
- What resistance did I encounter, and why?
- What could I have done differently?
The goal of these post-mortem questions is to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that contributed to the success or failure of an influencing endeavor. By reflecting on these key areas, you can identify patterns, learn from your mistakes, and refine your approach for future initiatives.
Understanding incorrect assumptions can prevent similar mistakes in the future. For example, if you assumed that a certain team would be fully supportive but encountered significant resistance, you might need to reassess your assumptions about their priorities or concerns.
Similarly, understanding the root causes of resistance can help you develop strategies to overcome similar challenges in the future. For example, if you encountered resistance due to concerns about job security, you might need to emphasize the benefits of the change and provide assurances that there will be no layoffs.These reflections have been instrumental in refining my approach to influence.
Mentorship can provide opportunities for influence
Both being a mentor and having mentors has been crucial in scaling my influence. As a mentor, explaining your thought processes and decisions to others clarifies your own thinking. Your mentees can carry your ideas and approaches forward, indirectly influencing their teams.
As a mentee, even at a senior level, I find immense value in seeking guidance from those with different experiences and perspectives. I have a “personal board of directors” – a diverse group of colleagues and leaders I turn to for advice on complex challenges.
Influence as a force for good
As you develop your ability to scale your influence, it’s crucial to remember the responsibility that comes with it. Influence should be used not just for personal advancement, but for the betterment of your team, your organization, and ultimately, the users you serve.
The most satisfying moments in my career haven’t been when I’ve pushed through my own ideas, but when I’ve helped create an environment where great ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. That, to me, is the true measure of scaled influence – not just amplifying your own voice, but amplifying the collective intelligence and creativity of your entire organization.
