When you approach them with respect and openness in this way, what would it take? You get to shift them from resistance to pressure to collaborative problem solving. And then the last maybe most important piece of the magic question is that if they can give you an answer, which happens more often than you would think,. It's not a magic wand, but when they give you this trail of breadcrumbs that can be followed.
Being influential sounds great, even desirable. But doing influence? That’s when alarm bells go off in our brains—because we tend to imagine the act of influencing as manipulative, coercive, and 100% transactional. And sure, we’ve all had icky experiences with influence. But when we flatten its inherent complexity, we risk missing out on influence’s ability to instigate positive impact.
Yale School of Management professor and author Zoe Chance believes influence is an untapped superpower; that’s why she recently published the book, Influence Is Your Superpower: The Science of Winning Hearts, Sparking Change, and Making Good Things Happen. And it’s why we asked her onto the show to help us break down some common misconceptions about influence, better harness its power to catalyze systemic change, and learn how to ask what she calls the “Magic Question.”
Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com
We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.com
Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com