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I FINALLY put this together
The Four Styles of Engineering InfluenceHello Reader, Quick question for you: Why does it feel so hard to get engineers (including yourself) to actually do what you want?
I’ve worked with many engineers for over 15 years with a front row seat to how they influence and lead. Most recently I heard this: “I think we’re overthinking this. Let’s just move on.” That was said in a planning meeting after an engineer had spent time walking through dependencies, trade-offs, and downstream risk. The person speaking wasn’t dismissing the work. They were expressing their natural way of influencing. Then it hit me… Even though we all influence (our teams, our colleagues, our bosses etc.) We all do with a preference for a particular style. That lead probably did really well persuading some colleagues with pure logic and have been doing it since. But I will also bet that the same type of influence focused on using logic didn’t work well in other cases. That got me asking some questions: Were they aware of their own influence stye? Would they have been able to shift their styles if they did? Would they have gotten a better result? For more than a decade, I’ve seen how engineers influence decisions inside complex systems — teams, organizations, products, and processes. Not in theory, but in real work. And one thing became impossible to ignore: Everyone has a preferred way of influencing. Some used data. Some used stories. Some relied on action. Some used their warmth. Some used their experiences. None of these are better than the others. But I do believe that when we don’t recognize our default style — especially under pressure — we may miss certain opportunities where a change of style might alter the final outcome. As personal development expert Jim Rohn said “if you want things you change, you have to change.” And my position is that if you don’t know who you are, how can you change? So over the past months, I carried out research across cognitive psychology, behavioral science and decision-making, coming up with four distinct styles of influence in engineering. To spare you from all the work, I’ve developed a short assessment to see which style(s) you have a natural preference for. It takes an average of about 3-5 minutes (someone actually got it done in 2 min and 7 seconds!), and it shows:
Most engineers finish it thinking: “Oh… that explains a lot and this is how I can leverage it further.” Take the Four Influence Archetype assessment here: You’ll get your results immediately, plus a personalized PDF report emailed to you.
A quick note if you’re curious to go deeperFor a small group of early readers, I also put together an Early Supporter Edition of an Engineering Influence Master Guide. Over 200 pages of searchable and dynamic content built on Notion
and more... The final master guide will be at least $39. For the first 100 early supporters, it’d just be $17. If that’s interesting, you’ll see the master guide after the assessment. No pressure either way. The free assessment and personalized report alone is genuinely useful. I’m super excited that this is finally LIVE! I’ve been working on it for a while and having to keep it under wraps has genuinely been agonizing. Kayode P.S. Go take the free assessment and find out your preferred influence style! |
The Influential Engineer
Join 1k+ other forward-thinking professionals who receive the weekly newsletter, where I provide actionable strategies, insights and tools to escape the grind and build influential, future-proof careers. Sign up to get a FREE copy of my 5-Stage playbook to multiply your impact and build a career that AI can't replace.
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