Impact through Influence in Engineering Teams
Irina Stanescu
Engineering Leader & Leadership Coach
Having the right idea doesn't matter ... if nobody else joins you.
Changing minds is hard, but not impossible. Winning support, making a case, and driving alignment are skills anyone can learn, but most people get them wrong.
The reality is:
➡️ People are irrational (even when it’s in their best interest).
➡️ Good ideas don’t sell themselves.
➡️ More arguments won’t magically make someone say “yes.”
You need something else. You need influence.
For many people, influence is invisible. It’s a nice-to-have. Yet it‘s the strongest force that drives results.
Without influence, it’s tough to shape decisions, keep people accountable, and move projects forward, leading to frustration and feeling stuck.
💡 But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this course, you'll learn to:
✅ Overcome the inner obstacles that limit your influence
✅ Build trust-based relationships that create real opportunities
✅ Get buy-in and handle pushback with confidence
What you won't find anywhere else:
➡️ Simple frameworks for complex concepts
➡️ Worksheets & templates to apply what you learn
➡️ Ready-to-use phrases & questions
Bonus
📩 Get a 1-year free subscription to The Caring Techie Newsletter ($100 value) www.thecaringtechie.com.
Questions?
Email me at thecaringtechie@gmail.com—happy to chat!
What you’ll learn
Practical skills for engineers & leaders to win buy-in, build trust, and drive results without authority. No fluff, just results.
Identify and reprogram mindset leaks—including impostor syndrome—using the Personal Power Leaks worksheet.
Master confident word choices, body language, and reputation-building moves so you stop underselling yourself and make yourself heard.
Use the 4-stage relationship framework and stakeholder power/interest grid to build, nurture, and maintain a tribe of allies.
Learn to build the most important relationships: with your manager and skip level.
Practice the ACE framework extensively in every conversation to notice, listen, and connect.
De-escalate conflict, land feedback that sticks, and make each stakeholder feel genuinely heard.
Learn the principles for getting to a yes and the 9 persuasion tactics
Then combine them in the “anatomy of an ask” template to structure your requests for maximum buy-in.
Anchor your narrative in time/place, build tension, and close with a clear call to action.
Structure and iterate slides using our spiral editing process to engage and persuade any audience.
Use the questionnaire to find gaps in your organization
Learn to craft compelling pitches, refine them with feedback, rally the right stakeholders, and drive your ideas from concept to reality
Learn directly from Irina
Irina Stanescu
Staff Software Engineer / Tech Lead Manager turned Leadership Coach
Who this course is for
Tech Leads and Senior+ Engineers lacking formal authority to mandate decisions, who rely on influence to lead, motivate, and get buy-in.
Engineering Managers who want to navigate complex, challenging cross-functional projects, where direct hierarchical influence is limited.
Anyone who wants to find a larger scope, have a bigger impact, and get to the next level.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Irina Stanescu in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
6 live sessions • 23 lessons
Week 1
Aug
21
Office Hours
Aug
20
Module 2: Understanding People and Building Strategic Relationships
Aug
18
Module 1: Foundations of Influence & Power
Module 1: Foundations of Influence & Power
Module 2: Understanding People and Building Strategic Relationships
Week 2
Aug
27
Module 4: Putting Influence Into Action - Disagreements, Negotiations, Storytelling & More
Aug
25
Module 3: Putting Influence Into Action - Asking and getting "YES!", Giving Feedback
Module 3: Putting Influence Into Action - Part 1
Module 4: Putting Influence Into Action - Part 2
Aug
28
Office Hours
Schedule
Live sessions
5 hrs / week
Thu, Aug 21
4:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
Wed, Aug 20
3:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
Mon, Aug 18
3:00 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
Projects
1 hr / week
Success stories
- Growing your career hinges on your ability to influence—whether to convince your org to pursue a promising opportunity, address an important challenge, or back a specific choice in a key decision. Irina has mastered this topic from firsthand experience and refined her thinking through writing and community engagement. A value-packed course!
Omar Halabieh
Tech Director @ Amazon Payment Services - Impact through Influence is such an important topic and much needed for Senior+ roles. I have known Irina for a while now and she is an industry expert who shares thoughtful insights from her experience working with top companies. Make sure to learn from her!
Gregor Ojstersek
CTO | Author of Engineering Leadership newsletter - As a tech lead, I've spent last year working on my soft skills and I was still not seeing the results I wanted. This course created a complete picture of how influence works - spoiler alert, it's more than being articulate and having the best ideas.
Andreea Lucau
Staff Software Engineer @ Google - Irina’s course helped me understand what I was doing right and wrong when influencing. She teaches you when to use particular strategies and includes a ton of helpful examples and stories from her own experience. For anyone who has been perplexed by "influence" in the past, this is the course for you!
Jordan Cutler
Senior Software Engineer @ Pinterest | Author of High Growth Engineer Newsletter
Irina's Pyramid of Influence
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