You Have More Influence Than You Think with Vanessa Bohns

As a leader, we want to have a positive and important effect on our team. Through her research, Vanessa Bohns has found we often feel ineffective, or inadequate, or believe we said the wrong words. She joins Kevin to discuss why we don’t always recognize the influence we have and how that can lead to lost opportunities or misuse of power.

Key Points

• Vanessa discusses what we can learn from a “stain on our shirt”.
• Reasons why it’s hard for us to say “no” and what we need to think about when we “ask.”
• The role of positional power on influence.
• How to influence when you don’t have the power.

Meet Vanessa

• Name: Vanessa Bohns
• Her Story: Author of You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion and Why it Matters. She is a social psychologist and professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University and her research focuses broadly on social influence and the psychology of compliance and consent. In particular, she examines the extent to which people recognize the influence they have over others in various interpersonal interactions, including when asking for help, suggesting that someone engage in unethical behavior, and making romantic advances.
• Worth Mentioning: Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and Harvard Business Review, and her research has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and NPR’s Hidden Brain.
• https://www.vanessabohns.com/
• https://twitter.com/profbohns
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-bohns-33219710/

This episode is brought to you by…

Remarkable Masterclass. Classes are broken down into short, bite-sized lessons (5 – 10 minutes each) – allowing learners to take it at their own pace, wherever they are, and most importantly, when they are ready to learn.

Book Recommendations

• You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters by Vanessa Bohns
• Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross

Related Podcast Episodes

• Transformational Influence with Walt Rakowich.
• Influence Redefined with Stacey Hanke.