8 Comments

Thank you so much for writing this! Having worked in a SaaS company that was very focused on sales, successful product management and executive leadership was modeled as having a loud voice and being able to command crowds. Those skills might still be necessary at times, but it’s the behind-the-scenes relationship building that will get you far. What a great article that helps us introverts be able to visualize ourselves in positions of leadership! 👏🏼

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Love this, thank you for your perspective, Yue. Can you address how to help people (“influence”) when you already feel stretched thin? I have more meeting and advice requests than I can accommodate. Thanks for your wisdom!

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Knowing how and when to say no is an important part of doing influence well! Who do you want to strengthen relationships with? What’s your current capacity? Which asks play to your strengths?

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What great wisdom, thanks for sharing. That is very smart and strategic. Any advice on "how" to say no? Love this. I definitey want to say no more than I do, because I have a hard time letting people down, including strangers. :/ I think I've been conditioned to help, and I definitely want to, but it is hard to do it for all requests! Thanks again and I subscribed to your Substack!

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I recently wrote a post on non promotable tasks and in it I talk about how to say no to them. Particularly when women are more often expected to do them. Similar approaches can work well here!

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Love this thank you!

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This is a great article, thanks Yue 👍

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Thanks for sharing this, Yue. It makes me reflect on how tightly coupled the idea of influence is to that of trust. Nurturing and validating trust is a critical foundation for either influencing others, or being influenced by them. Relatedly, trust also acts as the foundation for us discovering positive-sum ("win-win") possibilities with others.

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