PPP 023 | Steve Martin and Andy Kaufman on Influence

Here's the situation... you're responsible for delivering a project. Your boss comes in today and announces that senior management has decided that you must deliver your project 4 weeks earlier than originally planned.

You know that the project is already carrying a lot of risk, and cutting 4 more weeks seems completely unrealistic, at least from your perspective. Yet it also appears, from your perspective, that speaking up or pushing back could be job risking. They aren't looking for your input--they're looking for you to deliver on the demand.

Sound familiar?

Whether you are a project manager or responsible for leading a team, we are regularly faced with situations that require us to influence others. Yet here's my observation: influence skills are one of the most under-trained areas for many people today. It's almost as if we think influence training is for salespeople or lawyers or "those people over in procurement."

We all can benefit from developing our influence skills. One of my favorite influence books in the last couple years is entitled Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. I had the opportunity recently to speak with the co-author of Yes!, Steve Martin, and look forward to your feedback on the interview in this cast. By the way, you'll hear Steve share his thoughts on how to deal with that boss with unrealistic timeframes!

A practical next step to develop your influence skills is to get a copy of the book that Steve authored with Robert Cialdini and Noah Goldstein: Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. Also, check out Dr. Cialdini's classic: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week!