Influence without authority | persuasion techniques | communication skills | emotional intelligence | MBTI | negotiation
What You Will Learn:
- Get decisions made and work delivered by people who do not report to you and never will
- Build a persuasive case using AIDA, SPIN and FAB, and hold it together when the first objection lands
- Read the person opposite you through MBTI, DISC, PAEI, Belbin and Big Five, and adjust your argument to their type
- Establish the trust that makes influence possible, using rapport, empathy and emotional self-regulation
- Give feedback that changes what someone does, and ask for feedback in a way that gets you an honest answer
- Handle objections with LAER and Feel-Felt-Found instead of repeating your point louder
- De-escalate conflict and mediate between two people who have stopped listening to each other
- Switch leadership styles by situation rather than defaulting to the one that fits your personality
- Learn alongside Mike’s 1.6 million students from 185 countries
- Get the author’s experience from Preply, Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank
The Reality Check: Why Soft Skills Are the Hardest Part of Tech
Let’s be real for a second. In the tech world, we spend thousands of hours mastering industry-standard tools, chasing the latest certification prep, and grinding through hands-on labs to ensure our code is clean and our architecture is scalable. But here is the cold, hard truth I’ve learned after a decade in the trenches: you can be the most brilliant engineer in the room, but if you can’t convince a stakeholder to pivot or get a cross-functional team to meet a deadline without being their boss, your impact is capped. I picked up ‘Influence at Work’ by Mike because I was tired of seeing great ideas die in committee. This isn’t your typical HR-mandated fluff; it’s a tactical manual for navigating the messy human layer of the stack.
What sets this course apart is the pedigree of the instruction. Mike brings real-world projects and experience from heavy hitters like Wargaming and Preply. You can tell he’s actually sat in those high-stakes meetings where negotiation isn’t just a buzzword, but a survival skill. The course focuses heavily on the “influence without authority” gap, which is the number one hurdle for anyone moving from beginner to advanced roles in leadership or senior IC positions. It’s about building job-ready skills that actually translate to career growth when the technical documentation ends and the office politics begin.
Prerequisites for Success
Technically, there are no hard prerequisites. You don’t need an MBA or a psychology degree to get started. However, I’d argue that the real “prerequisite” is having at least six months of experience working in a team environment. If you’ve ever had a brilliant technical solution ignored or felt the sting of a negotiation gone wrong, you’ll find this content much more resonant. It’s designed for the experienced tech professional who is ready to stop being “just a dev” and start being a driver of organizational change.
The Toolkit: Frameworks Over Fluff
I’m a sucker for a good framework, and this course delivers a massive library of them. Instead of vague advice like “be more confident,” Mike breaks down influence into repeatable systems. We’re talking about industry-standard tools for the mind. Here is a look at what you’ll be adding to your belt:
- AIDA, SPIN, and FAB: These are the gold standards for building a persuasive case. I’ve started using SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) during sprint planning to highlight technical debt, and it’s a game-changer for getting buy-in.
- Psychological Profiling (MBTI, DISC, Big Five): This section helps you “read the room” at a granular level. Understanding whether your CTO is a “High D” on the DISC scale or an INTJ on the MBTI allows you to refactor your communication style for maximum compatibility.
- LAER and Feel-Felt-Found: These are your debugging tools for conflict. Instead of getting defensive when a stakeholder objects, you use LAER (Listen, Acknowledge, Explore, Respond) to de-escalate.
- Emotional Intelligence & Trust: You learn to use rapport and empathy as more than just “nice to haves”—they are the foundational protocols that make influence possible.
Career Benefits & Job Roles
If you are aiming for career growth, this is the missing piece of the puzzle. This course is directly applicable to roles like Staff Engineer, Technical Program Manager, Product Lead, and Engineering Manager. In these positions, your 10x output isn’t measured by your KLOCs (thousands of lines of code) but by your ability to align 50 people toward a single goal. Mastering these job-ready skills effectively prepares you for the transition from a tactical executioner to a strategic influencer. It’s the kind of professional development that justifies a promotion because it proves you can handle the “people debt” that naturally accumulates in growing companies.
Pros: Why This Course Hits Different
- High-Yield Efficiency: There’s no filler. Mike gets straight to the point, treating your time like the experienced tech professional that you are.
- Global Perspective: With 1.6 million students from 185 countries, the principles taught here are culturally agnostic and battle-tested across the globe.
- Actionable Templates: You aren’t just watching videos; you’re getting scripts for feedback and conflict de-escalation that you can use in Slack or Zoom five minutes after the lesson ends.
- Diverse Psychology Models: I appreciated the inclusion of PAEI and Belbin roles. It helps you understand why a team might be technically sound but socially dysfunctional.
Cons: The Honest Take
If I have one gripe, it’s that the sheer volume of acronyms (AIDA, SPIN, FAB, LAER, DISC, MBTI) can feel like alphabet soup if you try to binge the course in one weekend. To get the most out of this, you have to treat it like hands-on labs for your social interactions—apply one framework, see how it performs, and then move to the next. Don’t expect to memorize it all in one sitting; it’s a reference manual for a career-long journey.