How to develop influence and lead with impact. Learn from 25 leaders and 166 real stories how to bring your boss, your peers and your team along with your ideas.
A leader who has spent three decades getting people to say yes. He interviewed 25 senior leaders and poured their stories and his own into this book.
You cannot deliver alone. Every result depends on people who think differently, want different things and often do not report to you.
articles and books mention leadership and influence together. Seven hundred thousand times, researchers and practitioners reached the same conclusion.
Harvard Business Review research by Benjamin Laker and Charmi PatelInfluencing is the most important skill that separates top performers from average ones. They were not the smartest or the hardest working. They could mobilise people and support.
Spencer and Spencer research on top performersIf you are not growing despite delivering excellent results, most likely your missing link is influence. Yet very little exists to help corporate professionals learn it. Most books on influence are written for marketing or social media.
A potter was shaping fine clay into a hookah. His wife walked by and said, “The season is changing. Make a pitcher instead.”
The potter liked the idea and reshaped the clay.
The clay asked, “You were making me a hookah. Why did you turn me into a pitcher?”
One book that covers influence in every direction a leader works
Get buy in from bosses, promoters and boards, even when they do not listen.
Build alliances with people who owe you nothing and turn rivals into partners.
Build high performance through shared purpose instead of authority.
From why influence matters, to the theory behind it, to building it, applying it and turning it into a daily habit.
The importance of influence in leadership and careers
The theory behind influence
Your brand, presence and alliances
Applying influence in every direction
Action planning and your personal playbook
Everything is covered so you can start applying it at work the very next day.
Once upon a time there was a potter. The potter had the finest clay in his hands. He began to shape the clay into a hookah. Just then, his wife walked by.
“The season is changing. You should create a pitcher instead.”
The potter paused. He liked the idea…
I found a Harvard Business Review article by Benjamin Laker and Charmi Patel. They found 700,000 articles and books where leadership and influence appear within the same publication.
Leadership and influence are two sides of the same coin.
Trust is not magic. It is math.
If consistency is zero, credibility is zero, no matter how competent or honest you are.
How a finance leader who was undeniably skilled but invisible became an industry voice.
Networking · Approachability · Stature · Anchor
Seven levers that change how an organisation thinks and behaves.
Paradigm · Routines and Rituals · Organisation Structure · Controls · Equations of Power · Symbols · Stories
CEOs, CHROs, CFOs, a Chief Creative Officer, a civil servant, a scientist with 55 patents and a yoga entrepreneur with seven lakh daily students.
Hover over a leader, or tap on a phone, to read about them.
Every framework comes alive through a real leader's story. Frameworks marked Original were created by Harjeet Khanduja for this book.
who deliver great results but feel overlooked and want to break the glass ceiling.
who need buy in from bosses, alliances with peers and commitment from teams.
who drive cultural change, navigate crises and align boards and stakeholders.
who must influence business leaders to make people decisions happen.
who turn policy into action by inspiring collaboration across departments.
who must win over investors, partners, customers and their first team.
Popularly known as the R. K. Laxman of Business for turning complex business and leadership ideas into simple, relatable stories.
Come for the conversation on influence, stay to get your copy signed.
No. The difference lies in intent. Helping someone see things from your perspective is influence. Making people believe things that are not real is manipulation. The book shows the line through real examples.
Yes. Influence matters most where you have no formal authority, with peers, partners, customers and even your own boss. And if you are a boss, every boss has a boss.
Yes. All of us influence every day, often without knowing the technique. The book structures what 25 leaders learned through experience into frameworks and habits you can practise.
Most books on influence are written with a marketing mindset or for social media. This one is written for organisational leaders and combines credibility, relationships, alliances and context with Indian wisdom and modern research.
How Leaders Influence releases in November 2026 from Rupa Publications as a hardcover at ₹599.
A leadership program can take weeks away from work and cost lakhs. This book puts the lessons of 25 leaders on your desk.
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Gift the book to your leadership team, or invite Harjeet to speak on influence.
A premier Indian publishing house founded in 1936 by D. Mehra and headquartered in New Delhi. One of India's largest publishers, known for a wide range of fiction, non fiction and popular, high quality bestsellers.