Influence happens—intentionally or not and it’s the engine of modern leadership. Caitlin Collins unpacks the line between guiding and manipulating at work, revealing why leaders need more than authority to truly move people. This is the leadership skill hiding in plain sight—and it’s time we made it teachable.
When a former tech executive recently shared that she had used “manipulation” to pivot her career, the reaction online was swift—equal parts shock and curiosity. The word “manipulation” triggered something. And rightly so. We’ve all been manipulated at work. Some of us have even done it, dressed it up in strategy decks or change initiatives and called it alignment.
Influence without integrity is manipulation, even if the slide deck says “collaboration”
Underneath the headline is a more honest truth we don’t talk about enough: influence is a skill. And when it’s grounded in empathy, integrity, and intention, it becomes a leadership capability. Mindful manoeuvring is the ability to navigate complex dynamics, move people toward shared outcomes, and build trust while doing it. It’s influence with emotional intelligence and strategic clarity. Not control dressed as collaboration.
What mindful manoeuvring actually is
Mindful maneuvering isn’t soft. It’s disciplined. It requires leaders to step back from authority and lean into relational power using trust, content, and curiosity to guide teams forward. It’s knowing when to push, when to pause, and when to pivot. It’s understanding that people don’t move because you told them to, they move because they believe in it and volunteer to.
It only works if you lead with integrity. It requires a nuanced understanding of how people learn, change, and respond to interpersonal dynamics, key areas of focus for any PEOPLE leader. Influence without integrity is manipulation, even if the slide deck says “collaboration”. The goal isn’t to control outcomes but to create the conditions for alignment, motivation, and growth.
Why it matters now
Today’s organisations are flatter, with less authority and more complexity. They are more agile, cross-functional, and distributed than ever. Leading in this world requires more than good intentions and communication training. It demands the ability to influence across ambiguity, across silos, across differences.
It also requires that influence is no longer called a “soft skill.” It’s not. It’s the skill that makes the rest of leadership work. Especially when the stakes are high, the teams are distributed, and the priorities shift quickly.
Employees, too, are increasingly expected to be influencers. Whether securing buy-in for a new idea or rallying a team around a shifting goalpost, the ability to persuade, align, and engage without hierarchy is now a baseline requirement for high performance.
Mindful maneuvering supports this need by turning influence into a teachable skill rather than an instinct some people “just have.” It gives managers and individual contributors a framework to operate with intentionality and empathy.
Building influence into leadership (not just hoping it shows up)
The good news? We don’t need a brand new program to build this. It can start where real work already happens:
- 1:1 conversations should become spaces to build alignment and uncover motivation, not just status check-ins
- Feedback can become moments to test influence, exploring what someone believes, not just what they’ve done
- Recognition can reinforce not just outcomes, but how those outcomes were achieved
This isn’t about doing more. It’s about using what you already do, differently, more deliberately, and more humanely.
Embedding this concept into existing leadership development initiatives can also elevate more traditional training. Role-plays, simulations, and peer coaching models can all be designed with influence scenarios in mind, helping managers practice the subtle art of guiding without pushing.
Make it real
People leaders are the architects of capability. They shape what’s rewarded, taught, and scaled. Influence needs to be on that list, not as a module in manager training, but as a throughline in every development experience.
Ask yourself:
- Are we training leaders to get compliance or build belief?
- Are we disguising systems that reward positional power or relational trust?
- Do our talent processes reinforce control, or do they unlock connection?
Here’s the truth: if we’re not teaching people how to influence with care and intention, we’re leaving manipulation on the table as the default.
This isn’t soft, it’s a strategy.
Mindful maneuvering strengthens core leadership muscles: emotional regulation, systems thinking, negotiation, boundary-setting. It builds psychological safety, drives faster decision-making, and creates a culture where performance isn’t forced, it’s inspired.
And when done right, it becomes the flywheel for trust. Influence builds trust, trust creates autonomy, autonomy drives performance. That’s the system. That’s the ROI.
Choose your legacy
Leadership is no longer about being in charge. It’s about how you move people, with what tools, with what ethics, and with what outcome. Influence is always happening. The question is: is yours intentional with integrity?
Caitlin Collins is Organisational Psychologist and Program Strategy Director at Betterworks
