Influencing Up and Sideways for Tech Leaders

Map your influence gaps and their real cost using a diagnostic workbook exercise

Name your top sabotaging pattern in a live cohort exercise where everyone shares their honest version—not the polished one

Practice showing up as yourself in coached conversations where you bring real scenarios, not hypotheticals

Build a stakeholder map that identifies what each group prioritizes, measures, and worries about

Learn the stakeholder lenses framework to understand how different stakeholders think & prioritize differently

Rewrite one of your current priorities in different ways - tech language, business/ C-suite language, with live group feedback

Practice deep listening in pairs: one person shares a real challenge, the other only listens and reflects back—then you debrief what shifted

Build your question toolkit with examples of questions that open doors versus questions that close conversations

Identify your typical listening pattern (listening to solve, listening to be right, listening to plan your response etc.) and work on it

Research stakeholder priorities using a simple intelligence-gathering framework (their constraints, risks, success metrics)

Translate one of your initiatives live in the cohort workshop—from your domain lens to their business lens—and get real-time coaching

Create a stakeholder map for one decision or initiative you're currently working on, so you stop guessing and start being intentional

Map one real upcoming conversation using the conversation architecture blueprint

Practice opening conversations in a way that creates safety and curiosity instead of triggering defensiveness

Role-play your real conversation live with coaching—bringing an actual stakeholder scenario, not a theoretical one

Create a follow-up plan for your top three stakeholder relationships using a simple tracking framework

Learn how to stay connected after the conversation without being transactional or annoying

See a real conversation walkthrough using all five framework components together—from courage to follow-through.