CHAPTER 1

Leadership Is Influence

I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a longlist of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.

—David Sedaris

It wasn't the most harrowing research junket we had ever taken. Nothing likeearlier adventures in our influencer research to some of the more dangerousparts of the world. No threat of deadly parasites, no confrontation withaggressive panhandlers, no fear of being kidnapped, no wrangling with corruptpoliticians.

This time, our research had taken us to New York City to one of the Big Apple'sfinest restaurants where, as part of our demanding research regime, we'd betossing back scrumptious appetizers while chatting with a brilliantrestaurateur. (It was a tough job, but someone had to do it.) All of this wasbeing done as part of an ongoing project aimed at discovering how some ratherremarkable people routinely influence human behavior in a manner that is theenvy of all who know them.

The person we were visiting on this particular day was Danny Meyer. Danny hadearned the title of "influencer" by fostering a unique culture of customerservice. Every one of his restaurants had been in the top 40 of Zagat's ratingsof customer preference—practically since the day they first opened. Wesoon discovered that the reason behind his unparalleled success was his capacityto influence 1,500 ordinary employees to consistently create extraordinaryexperiences for their 100,000 daily guests. Actually, extraordinary is too smalla word.

For example, a woman frantically rushes through the entrance of Gramercy Tavern,one of Danny's exquisite establishments located in the Flatiron District ofManhattan. The potential diner is distraught because she has just left her pursein the taxi that dropped her off for lunch and then sped away into a sea ofyellow. The blood drains from the woman's face as she realizes that not onlywill she never see her purse again but she also has no way to pay for her meal.Or get back to work.

At this moment, Danny's culture of hospitality kicks into action. An employee(let's call him Carlo) notices the stranger's look of panic, learns of herproblem, and invites her to join her party—who are already seated andwaiting for her.

"Don't worry about paying," Carlo comforts the worried guest. "We'll settle upsome other time. For now, please enjoy yourself. In the meantime, what is yourmobile number?"

Surmising that the frantic customer likely left her cell phone in her purse,Carlo asks a colleague to repeatedly call the number. Thirty minutes later whenthe taxi driver finally hears the ring and answers the call, he's many milesnorth in the Bronx. Carlo then flashes the Batman signal onto the side of abuilding to summon the Caped Crusader ...

Okay, the Batman thing isn't true, ... but what Carlo does do is quite heroic. Hearranges to meet the taxi halfway between the two points, and he pays the driverfor his trouble, retrieves the purse, and presents it to the woman just as shefinishes her lunch. We're guessing she responded by promising to name herfirstborn child after the caring man who has been the very essence ofhospitality.

What makes this incident remarkable is not just that it took place at all butthat similar actions routinely occur in each of Danny's restaurants. AlthoughDanny draws from the same labor pool, works in the same industry, buys the sameingredients, and builds in the same neighborhoods as 20,000 other New Yorkrestaurateurs, he has found a way to differentiate himself from all of hiscompetitors—through influence. Members of Danny's staff behave markedlydifferently from your average restaurant employee, and this has not been theresult of some lucky accident. It's been the result of Danny's systematic andintentional actions aimed at influencing very specific behavior.

That's why we traveled to New York. We went to see what made Danny aninfluencer.

A COMMON THREAD

Now, let's be clear. This isn't a book about customer service. Likewise, when welater visit a woman in San Francisco who has helped tens of thousands of felonsturn their lives around, we won't be studying criminal psychology. And when welook at successful change efforts aimed at implementing Six Sigma, overcomingaddiction, eradicating a pandemic, improving patient safety, reducing violenceagainst women, improving employee engagement, and turning failing schoolsaround, our interest won't be in exploring these topics either.

What we will be doing is looking for the common thread that connects allsuccessful leaders—no matter the objective or the setting. We'll beexploring a common set of principles and skills that help create quick,profound, and lasting change. We call this ability to create changes in humanbehavior influence and the people who do it influencers. At the end of the day,what qualifies people to be called "leaders" is their capacity to influenceothers to change their behavior in order to achieve important results.

Now, as you hear the word "influence," you might think that we're referring tothe less impressive and more suspicious tool called "persuasion." We're not.

This book is not about solving problems or hitting new targets by applying theright combination of verbal tricks. If you're looking to reach rather modestgoals by stealthily exerting your will over others, this book is not for you.This book has much loftier and more enduring goals, requiring much strongertools. It explores how to achieve profoundly better results in everything fromthe nuclear family to nuclear power plants by changing human habits that can beextraordinarily difficult to alter. We'll examine in detail why people do whatthey do and what it takes to help them act differently. Our analysis will revealthat irrespective of whether you're stopping AIDS or starting a safety program,the key to success has little to do with pep talks, bribes, or sermons. Instead,success relies on the capacity to systematically create rapid, profound, andsustainable changes in a handful of key behaviors.

For example, let's say you work as a manager in a software development firmwhere dozens of software engineers write mountains of code every week. Theproducts are so complex that the overall design is divided among several teams.After years of your employees' bringing in projects late or riddled with bugs,you discover that the key to consistent high-quality performance is getting themto practice two vital behaviors: (1)...