Slide #10: "How can I have influence" is naive. It's a great concept, and I hope everyone follows that link of thinking. It's the equivalent of "dress for the j

Slide #10: "How can I have influence" is naive. It's a great concept, and I hope everyone follows that link of thinking. It's the equivalent of "dress for the job you want, not the one you have." And I've found that most people gravitate to this mentality, too. But the key to this is that companies need to support this from the top down, and frankly most don't. Seniority-based hierarchies abound, and influence is nearly always associated with title. The people who have the most to gain from the notion of influence-in-spite-of-role tend to report to the people who have the most to lose from it.