How to influence before you have the title

Nemawashi: the practice of carefully digging around a tree's roots, in preparation for transplanting, to give it the best chance of becoming established in the new location.

How do you influence people at work when you’re more junior and have no formal authority? Get inside people’s heads 🧠.

Influencing peers, stakeholders, clients—this isn’t just the domain of senior leaders—it’s something you can get good at from year 1.

It’s also easier than you think.

❌ TRAP: We make assumptions about why people act a certain way.

❌ TRAP: There are always invisible agendas at play that make decisions people make confusing on the surface.

✅ WIN: Think about influence as an always-on thing. It starts earlyyyy (not just in the meeting room when you’re trying to get a ‘yes’ on something).

Nemawashi 根回し — hallways over boardrooms

My strategist friend JC introduced me to this concept (he’s an epic follow if you want to learn to be more strategic btw).

The original literal meaning of Nemawashi: the practice of carefully digging around a tree's roots, in preparation for transplanting, to give it the best chance of becoming established in the new location.

I love a bit of behind-the-scenes influencing. OK, let’s get inside people’s heads…

Without even talking to them

👉🏼 What do they spend time on?

👉🏼 What do they get worked up or emotional about?

👉🏼 How is their success measured?

👉🏼 What are they into outside of work (interests etc.)?

For general chats (or start of the year, new relationship etc.)

Ask open ended questions:

👉🏼 What do you personally think our biggest opportunity is as a company right now? People usually answer through the lens of what's important to them/their team or a skill / strength they have. Ask some probing questions and read b/w the lines.

👉🏼 What’s our biggest threat or problem? You’ll hear what they’re nervous about, risks for their team etc.

👉🏼 If you were in my position, where would you focus your energy? You’ll see what they think you should be doing or where they think you’re lacking.

You can even get suuuper specific

For example:

👉🏼 Who approves this stuff on your side?

👉🏼 What’s the hardest part of doing that [thing/task] you have to do?

👉🏼 Can you show me how you actually use this [thing/doc] I send you each week? This’ll help me make it better for you.

👉🏼 What does your manager think about this?

Pre-align if you’re trying to get a ‘yes’ in a big meeting

👉🏼 What’s your biggest priority when it comes to [topic of the pitch]? Helps you understand their POV and you can try to lead your pitch with what matters / benefit to them.

👉🏼 Here’s what I’m planning to present/propose. What’s going to make this hard/ not work? Surface objections early so you can address them before/in the meeting.

👉🏼 What would need to be true for you to feel confident backing this? Similar to the ‘magic question’ in negotiation. Gets them to define their criteria for a ‘yes,’ giving you a roadmap for how to position your pitch.

👉🏼 How do you think others in the room will react to this? Helps you anticipate pushback and identify allies.

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Downside?

Aligning with people behind the scenes takes a lot of time. So use it strategically for the stuff that matters.

Love and marriage

Soph ✌🏼