🧠 the art of mindful maneuvering

influence without manipulation

June 17, 2025

In partnership with

Howdy HR friends!👋

Hope you’re all having a great start to the week!

Before we dive into all things mindful maneuvering, remember to check out our advertising page if you have something our audience of HR readers would love! 20% off for ads in the newsletter in the next 13 days!

Let’s jump in to today’s topic shall we?

🚦Coming up

In today’s edition

🧠 Why Mindful Maneuvering Matters in Today's Workplace: Reframing "manipulation" as ethical influence with integrity

🛋️ The Break Room: Where do you stand on "mindful maneuvering" as a leadership skill? Essential practice or fancy manipulation?

📚 Human Readsources: The changing landscape of AI in HR - new disclosure laws, skills trumping degrees, and boosting hiring efficiency

💭Opening thoughts

The science of people influence

The Good Doctor GIF by ABC Network

Maybe a bit more subtle than that…

Did you know that 85% of career success comes from people skills, while only 15% stems from technical knowledge, according to research from Harvard, Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford?

Makes you think doesn’t it? Especially as AI picks up speed and seems to be getting better and more useful every week!

Mindful maneuvering, strategic influence built on emotional intelligence rather than manipulation, has become the cornerstone of effective leadership in today's flatter organizational structures where traditional authority holds less sway.

HR professionals stand at a critical intersection, responsible for both modeling these influence skills and developing frameworks that encourage ethical persuasion across all levels of the organization.

Today we have a peek at the neuroscience behind influence and the “why” behind trying out mindful maneuvering techniques in your workplace.

For easy reading
Today’s edition is presented by

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🧠Let’s unpick

🧠 Why Mindful Maneuvering Matters in Today's Workplace

Traditional command-and-control leadership is dead.

What's alive and kicking? The ability to influence without authority.

As one expert puts it, influence is "the skill that makes the rest of leadership work."

But here's the challenge: many professionals shy away from strategic influence because they associate it with manipulation, when in reality, mindful maneuvering is about creating alignment and win-wins, not deception.

Write that on a post-it note, and pop it on your wall next to your desk!

When leaders practice ethical influence like having "the meeting before the meeting" or focusing on others' motivations, they're not being manipulative; they're being strategic.

The key difference? Manipulation serves only self-interest, while mindful maneuvering creates value for all parties.

For us in HR: this means rethinking how we develop leadership skills. See the takeaway and try section below…

And remember: charisma isn't about being the loudest voice; it's about making others feel seen and valued.

In a world where formal authority continues to flatten, your ability to influence with integrity might be your most valuable career skill.

You can read more at...
👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

Forget manipulation: mindful maneuvering creates win-wins through strategic influence, building the trust that drives performance in today's flatter organizations.

Today’s edition is also presented by

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Takeaway and try

🤝 Reframe influence training as "strategic alignment skills" in your leadership development programs to overcome the negative connotations some might associate with workplace influence.

🗓️ Implement "pre-meeting protocols" as a standard practice for project managers, teaching them to have brief one-on-ones with key stakeholders before important decisions are made.

🎯 Add "ethical influence competency" to your performance review criteria, with specific examples of how employees create win-wins versus self-serving outcomes.

🧠 Create short microlearning modules on emotional intelligence techniques that help leaders understand others' motivations and perspectives before attempting to influence outcomes.

📊 Measure the impact of influence training by tracking how often cross-functional projects meet their goals without escalation to higher management, demonstrating true lateral leadership success.

📚Additional reading

Human Readsources

🤖 NY Requires Employers Disclose AI Role in Layoffs (HR Grapevine) - NY requires employers to disclose AI's role in layoffs.

🤖 AI Skills Trump Degrees in Modern Job Market (HR Grapevine) - College major less important than connections and AI skills

🌯 Chipotle's AI Cuts Hiring Time, Supports Workforce Expansion (The HR Digest) - Chipotle's AI hiring platform cuts hiring time while supporting workers.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition sparked some new ideas for your workplace! 🧠

We know you’re super busy and really appreciate you saving some room for us in your inbox 😀

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