Influence and Impact

Why do talented, hardworking people sometimes feel invisible at work—stuck, underappreciated, and uncertain about what matters? In Influence and Impact: Discover and Excel at What Your Organization Needs From You the Most, executive coaches Bill Berman and George Bradt challenge a common assumption: success doesn’t come just from doing your best work. It comes from doing the work your organization actually needs—and doing it in a way that fits its cultural DNA.

The authors argue that most professionals misunderstand their jobs. They assume that the formal job description defines success, or that repeating what worked before will lead to new recognition. But Berman and Bradt reveal that misalignment—between your personal priorities and your organization’s mission and culture—quietly undermines influence, performance, and even satisfaction. To thrive, you must decode both the business priorities and the cultural expectations, then adjust what you focus on and how you do it.

Understanding Influence and Impact

The book’s central distinction is between influence and impact. Influence refers to your indirect, human effect—how you inspire or persuade others to believe, trust, or follow your ideas. Impact is direct, measurable change—the tangible improvements you create in the organization. You can’t have impact without influence; you can’t sustain influence without delivering impact. The authors’ mission is to help you synchronize both by aligning your day-to-day work with what your manager, your team, and your company most value.

Why So Many Professionals Get It Wrong

From frustrated middle managers to overwhelmed senior leaders, Berman and Bradt have seen one recurring trap: people do what’s comfortable, familiar, or self-interested instead of what the organization needs most. Some micromanage their teams to avoid strategic uncertainty. Others take on colleagues’ work to feel indispensable. Still others retreat into technical detail or past success patterns. They mean well—but their energy goes in directions the company doesn’t value. This disconnect erodes influence and engagement, making talented people less visible and less powerful over time.

The Path to Realignment

The solution, say the authors, begins with awareness. You must first accept the context you’re in, rediscover your value, and identify what job actually needs to be done—often different from what’s on paper. Then, you gather data from the surrounding ecosystem: your boss’s priorities, your organization’s culture, and your stakeholders’ perspectives. You synthesize those insights into a working job description—a personalized blueprint that defines your mission, deliverables, and relationships in reality rather than theory.

Once aligned, you build a personal strategic plan to practice and reinforce new behaviors. You may expand influence by changing communication style, shifting time allocation, or demonstrating enterprise-level thinking. Over time, those changes boost your credibility and open opportunities—sometimes within your current job (“Plan A”), sometimes through a better-fit role elsewhere (“Plan B”).

The Broader Context: Coaching for Everyone

Influence and Impact democratizes what high-level executive coaching offers: clarity, alignment, and growth. Traditionally, only elite leaders accessed such support. Berman and Bradt’s approach makes coaching tools available for anyone who wants to become more effective and fulfilled. Their practical worksheets and frameworks mirror instruments used in consulting psychology and onboarding programs (George Bradt’s The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan). Together, they teach how to self-coach—to diagnose misalignment, evaluate organizational culture, and recalibrate one’s approach.

Why This Matters

Work consumes much of your life. When alignment falters, motivation collapses. But when you understand what your organization needs and deliver it authentically, influence and impact multiply—and your work regains meaning. You become a valued contributor rather than a frustrated technician. You also learn when it’s time to leave an environment that can’t value your strengths. The heart of the book isn’t about pleasing management—it’s about reclaiming ownership of your professional life through informed, intentional alignment.

As Berman and Bradt remind you, influence isn’t manipulation, and impact isn’t busyness. True professional success comes when what you do, how you do it, and why you do it resonate with your team’s mission. That simple but profound shift—from self-focus to organizational focus—becomes the foundation of influence, impact, and fulfillment in your work.

Bill Berman opens with a paradox: doing your best isn’t enough. You get what you want when you do what your organization needs. Many professionals find themselves stuck performing at full capacity yet missing the mark because their efforts center on personal comfort rather than collective priorities.

What Gets in the Way

Berman identifies several traps. First, people default to what’s easy—handling tasks themselves instead of coaching their teams. The story of Tommy, a talented global leader who micromanaged his staff, illustrates this. He solved problems faster than anyone, but his team felt excluded and demoralized. Once Tommy stopped doing their jobs and redirected energy toward strategic collaboration, his stress dropped and his effectiveness soared. The simple act of letting go became transformational.

Doing the Job You Wish You Had

Another trap: ambition without alignment. Professionals sometimes try to fix colleagues’ work or take on their manager’s responsibilities, believing they’re helping. In reality, those actions can appear arrogant or territorial. Rohit, a marketer in a start-up, lobbied to run every function before proving success in his own. Instead of influence, he created friction. Influence grows when you excel in your domain first, showing value that invites collaboration, not competition.

Doing What’s Familiar

When promotion introduces unfamiliar challenges, people retreat to old habits. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s idea of “System 1” intuition explains this: we lean on autopilot thinking when we’re anxious. Kristy, a product leader, kept micromanaging short-term projects after moving into a strategic role. Only when she shifted her team toward four big initiatives did she reclaim time to innovate and earn recognition from her bosses.

Doing Exactly What’s Expected

Job descriptions often mislead. They outline tasks, not influence. Sarah, a trainer, clung to her formal list and refused to help with implementation work after a merger. When business needs changed, she was the first to be let go. Adaptability—doing what the moment requires—beats rigidity.

Doing It “Your Own Way”

Finally, many professionals resist cultural adaptation. Style conflicts—like being too blunt in a tactful company—can undermine credibility even when results are strong. Influence demands cultural agility: reading and respecting the unwritten rules of how decisions are made and relationships built. Ignoring culture is as fatal as ignoring strategy.

Key Lesson

Success comes from aligning personal effort to organizational need. Doing what feels safe or familiar won’t expand your influence; doing what’s mission-critical will.

George Bradt and Bill Berman remind you that influence begins with self-awareness. You may feel constrained by hierarchy or unclear expectations, but you have far more power to define success than you think—if you understand your context and identity.

Step 1: Accept the Context

Your written job description isn’t the full story. The “psychological contract” with your organization—mutual expectations and unspoken norms—defines reality. Accepting that your role may differ from what you imagined frees you to act purposefully. Lionel, a frustrated biotech cofounder, stopped fighting for equal recognition and focused on research leadership. The moment he accepted that context, his influence grew.

Acceptance also includes managing emotions. Frustration about autonomy or respect is natural. Naming those feelings without acting on them clarifies what’s within your control. Adaptation doesn’t mean surrender; it means learning to play the real game effectively.

Step 2: Rediscover Your Value

Knowing your strengths, opportunities, values, and preferences reinstates agency. The book’s SOVP worksheet—a coaching tool—helps map this. Strengths span technical, managerial, leadership, and personal areas. Opportunities reveal growth points. Values drive decision-making under stress, while preferences shape what energizes you. Carol Kauffman’s guest section on “Authentic Leadership” connects these insights to your life story and crucible experiences—the transformative challenges that build resilience (Bill George’s Discover Your True North offers a deeper model).

Step 3: Do the Job Needed Most

Once you know your strengths and context, redefine your mission. What is truly needed now? Adrián, a partner at a law firm, realized his boss valued client development more than internal mentoring. By shifting focus outward, he proved himself partner material. Doing “the job needed most” bridges who you are with what the organization expects, transforming frustration into growth.

Key Lesson

Power isn’t positional—it’s perceptual. When you accept your reality, rediscover your value, and deliver what the organization truly needs, you reclaim control and influence.

Most organizations expect you to decode your job’s unwritten rules. Berman and Bradt guide you through a data-driven process: understanding your business, your culture, your manager, and your stakeholders. These four lenses reveal the levers of influence.

Know Your Business

Knowing what the organization truly aims for—its “where play” and “how win”—anchors every decision. Dana, a private-equity CEO, realized late that his board’s exit plan demanded fast commercial results, not long-term growth. When he pivoted to day-to-day sales focus, he met targets and secured a successful sale. Understanding the real strategy, not the stated rhetoric, makes influence strategic, not cosmetic.

Know Your Organizational Culture

Edgar Schein’s three-level model—artifacts, values, and underlying assumptions—helps interpret the behavioral DNA of your company. Listen for how feedback is given, how disagreement plays out, which norms define belonging. Cultural fluency is professional survival; even brilliant ideas die when presented in the wrong tone or timing.

Know Your Manager and Stakeholders

Every manager is a microculture. Watch what captures their attention, how they make decisions, and what defines a “win” for them. Zach, an executive who misread his boss’s obsession with sales, struggled until he shifted focus from profitability discussions to pipeline reports. Three months later, his relationship transformed.

Stakeholders—peers, customers, and subordinates—complete the map. Engaging them reveals dependencies and hidden expectations. Trusted colleagues, seconds, and informants help you read informal networks. Information is influence.

Key Lesson

Real influence begins with curiosity. Collect data before conclusions; observe patterns before proposing changes. Knowledge is leverage.

After gathering data, the next step is synthesis. Your working job description distills what your role truly entails—what success looks like, how to achieve it, and what future you’re building toward. It’s not human resources paperwork; it’s your career compass.

Clarify Motivation and Expectations

Berman encourages you to revisit why you joined the organization. Were you chasing impact, learning, or reward? Have those motivations shifted? Identifying what drew you in—and what keeps you—reveals alignment or fatigue. The “three goods” framework (doing good for others, doing what you’re good at, doing good for yourself) balances purpose and practicality.

Summarize the Data

Your working job description defines deliverables, stakeholders, cultural norms, and collaboration methods. It integrates both business priorities and interpersonal dynamics. This image of success should include how your manager judges excellence and how peers define partnership. Sharing this version often reveals blind spots or hidden expectations and drives alignment.

Stand in the Future

Imagine eighteen months ahead: what would stakeholders say about your performance? Projecting forward clarifies priorities today. Managers who envision future praise design present behaviors intentionally—a technique drawn from coaching psychology and leadership visualization.

Key Lesson

Writing your own job description reclaims agency. It shifts you from being evaluated to defining success collaboratively—making invisible work visible.

Dr. Greg Pennington’s chapter on bias brings empathy and realism. Influence and impact exist within social systems, often riddled with prejudice. Leaders from underrepresented groups face extra hurdles—but also have frameworks to navigate them.

Five Strategies for Navigating Bias

• Calibration: Compare experiences with credible reference points. Validation prevents self-blame or denial.
• Information: Gather concrete data showing patterns of inequity. Byron, a Black executive, learned promotion gaps reflected systemic issues—not personal faults.
• Demonstration: Overperform when necessary, proving capability beyond doubt—as Curtis, who later became a Fortune 100 CEO, did despite skepticism.
• Negotiation: Confront issues respectfully. Nigel, a wealth manager, called out subtle disrespect (“What’s up Slick?”) and gauged his leader’s willingness to change before deciding to leave.
• Transformation: Use influence to change systems, as Melvin did—demanding diversity reforms and mentoring future leaders.

Pennington’s insight: organizations may discriminate, but leaders can still choose calibration over despair, demonstration over retreat, negotiation over silence. Influence becomes activism when aligned with values.

Key Lesson

Bias is real, but so is resilience. You can’t control prejudice, but you can control awareness, evidence, and courage.

After alignment comes growth. In Part III, Berman and Bradt turn coaching into action through the Personal Strategic Plan™. The framework helps you map your mission, define your values (ways of working), and choose change strategies—business, interpersonal, and organizational.

Clarifying Your Working Mission

Your mission should merge your aspirations with the company’s purpose. It’s what you do, how you’ll have impact, and why it matters. Example: “Use data science to challenge the status quo and sharpen our marketplace position.” A mission turns effort into intention.

Defining Ways of Working

Values translate into habits. Othmarr Ammann’s bridge story metaphor captures this beautifully: do what clients need, not just what they ask. For you, that might mean “Build alignment before decisions” or “Listen more than speak.” Values in action define influence.

Designing Change Strategies

Strategic change happens across three dimensions:

• Business-focused: Setting priorities, delegating effectively, and creating time for strategic thinking.
• Interpersonal: Developing emotional intelligence—listening, empathy, presence.
• Organizational: Building political intelligence—networks, alliances, and cultural fluency.

Each strategy translates into SMART actions—specific, measurable goals that reinforce new habits. Behavioral change follows routine, not inspiration.

Key Lesson

Strategic clarity transforms effort into effectiveness. Your growth accelerates when mission, values, and actions align consistently.

Change is easy to start, hard to sustain. Part III’s follow-up explores how to turn plans into habits. Growth plans demand persistence, evaluation, and involvement of others. They’re less about grand gestures than small repeated actions.

Plan, Do, Evaluate, Adjust

Drawing from continuous quality improvement and growth mindset research, you treat change like iterative testing. Set SMART goals, act, gather feedback, refine. One client likened it to physical therapy: consistent, small commitments yield transformation, not sporadic effort.

Involve Others

Transformation multiplies through connection. Share goals with managers, mentors, or peers. External accountability boosts consistency. Ask your manager to challenge assumptions, reallocate resources, and celebrate milestones. Coaching becomes partnership, not prescription.

Overcoming Biases in Change

Behavioral change is vulnerable to slips and bias. Negativity, recency, and frequency biases skew perception—others may not notice your progress or may distrust it until proven over time. Stick with repetition. “Change-ability,” writes Aithan Shapira, means practicing stability amidst uncertainty—the art of being fluid yet grounded.

Key Lesson

Small, consistent steps beat sporadic effort. The persistence to repeat new behaviors long enough for others to believe them creates lasting impact.

Once you're aligned and growing, expand your circle of influence. Berman and Bradt’s guidance in “Take on More Responsibility” shows that leadership maturity means pursuing more responsibility without self-promotion—demonstrating rather than declaring value.

Demonstrate, Don’t Sell

The mistaken belief that hard work speaks for itself often sidelines talent. Instead, frame success narratives around results, innovation, and learning. Erica Spencer’s case in hospitality shows how adapting during crisis (COVID-19) made her organization redefine value—pivoting from classroom training to global digital learning reachable by 400,000 associates. Demonstration breeds credibility.

Serve Up Solutions

Influence grows when you solve your boss’s and peers’ problems. Anticipate what keeps them up at night, then deliver insights and alignment. Apply the Japanese principle of nemawashi—build support and seed ideas early. Alignment is the currency of impact.

Expand Authentically

Volunteer for stretch projects, step in during crises, and lead among peers. The story of Alexander Haig misstepping during Reagan’s assassination—asserting authority instead of influence—shows the peril of ego leadership. Effective expansion relies on humility, relational trust, and calm presence under pressure.

Key Lesson

To grow influence, show impact, solve problems, and elevate others. Promotion follows purpose, not pursuit.