This newsletter edition is a little different because I’m thrilled to share some exciting news: I’m re-launching my live course, “Impact through Influence in Engineering Teams”!
You might have seen me mention the course here and there throughout past editions of this newsletter, but I never really talked about what inspired me to create it and what makes it special.
Before I dive into it, here are the key details:
Dates: February 17th - February 28th, 2025
Time: Classes are held every Monday and Wednesday at 8am PST
Where: On Zoom via the Maven platform
For the next 72hrs, use the code NEWSLETTER to get 10% off:
In this course, we’ll tackle how to:
Unlock personal power: Identify limiting mindsets, reprogram them, and align body language to enhance influence.
Build your reputation: Define and showcase your expertise to be seen as a strategic contributor.
Foster trust: Create meaningful, reciprocal relationships with peers, allies, and sponsors.
Persuade effectively: Frame, present, and pitch ideas to gain buy-in and support.
Navigate conflict: Handle resistance and disagreements to strengthen your influence.
What motivated me to create this course?
If you’ve been here for a while, you might already know that influence is a topic I’m deeply passionate about—and one I’ve written about often in this newsletter.
Influence is a critical skill for engineers, yet it’s rarely taught. As a Tech Lead, I quickly realized that I couldn’t just tell people what to do and expect everyone to listen to me. I needed something else: influence.
I made many mistakes along the way, but with time, influence became my most powerful tool, especially since I didn’t have formal authority over my team.
Looking back at my journey, and after talking to many of you, I realized influence is a common challenge, especially after senior levels, for both individual contributors and managers. This is how “Impact through Influence” was born about a year ago.
Since then, five public and one private cohort have graduated from the course, totaling over 100 students, and the feedback has been incredible.
Who is this course for?
This course is great for anyone working in Tech, but the emphasis is on the following audience:
Tech Leads or Senior+ Engineers who lack formal authority but need to lead, motivate, and drive decisions.
Engineering Managers who want to navigate challenging cross-functional projects where hierarchical influence isn’t enough.
Anyone who wants to expand their impact, take on bigger challenges, and level up in their career.
What’s special about this re-launch?
As I mentioned, last year over 100 students took the course, and with each cohort, I made continuous improvements to keep making the course better and better for you. The last time I taught this course was in September 2024, and since then, I wanted to invest an extended time to take the course to the next level.
Here’s what’s new:
More hands-on exercises and breakout rooms to practice what you learn.
Cheatsheets for every module that you can start using immediately.
Condensed theoretical content to make room for more actionable insights.
Why this course might be a good choice for you
It’s more accessible than 1:1 coaching but just as impactful.
While 1:1 coaching can be incredibly valuable, it’s often expensive and time-intensive. This course is designed to deliver a similar level of insight and transformation in a more affordable and scalable format. You’ll get actionable strategies, personalized feedback, and the opportunity to learn alongside people just like you who share similar challenges.
It solidifies the topics I’ve covered in this newsletter.
If you’ve been following my newsletter, you know I often write about critical skills such as influence, communication, emotional intelligence, and managing up. This course takes many of the ideas from my articles and turns them into a structured, step-by-step influence-building framework. You’ll walk away with a clear roadmap for applying these concepts in your day-to-day work.
It addresses real-world challenges faced by software engineers, tech leads, and managers every day.
This course is about solving the problems you actually face. Whether it’s getting buy-in for a technical decision, motivating a team without formal authority, or navigating cross-functional conflicts, we’ll tackle the issues that matter most to you.
It’s packed with lessons from my own mistakes, so you don’t have to repeat them.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my career, especially when it came to people stuff. This course is built on those hard-earned lessons. I’ll share what went wrong, how I fixed it, and how you can avoid those pitfalls altogether by discussing real-life case studies.
It teaches everything I wish I had known when I became a senior engineer.
Stepping into a senior role often comes with a steep learning curve. You’re expected to lead, influence, and deliver results—but no one teaches you how. This course fills that gap. It’s the playbook I wish I had when I first became a senior engineer, packed with practical tools and strategies to help you succeed.
What do we cover in the course?
The course is divided into two parts:
Part 1: Building Influence: In modules 1 & 2, you build the foundations of influence. We cover: influential mindsets & presence, creating a strong reputation, building strategic relationships, and managing stakeholders.
Part 2: Putting Influence in Action: In modules 3 & 4 we dive into real-world scenarios and hands-on exercises to master: asking for anything, giving feedback, handling negotiations and disagreements, and getting buy-in on any proposal.
A sneak peek into the course: Free resources
What previous students have to say
“As a staff software engineer who has focused most of my career on improving my technical skills, I have failed to influence what I thought was a better output in some situations. Those experiences made me seek the help of an expert, and I couldn't have landed in a better spot than Irina's course. Irina's course made me rethink how I showed up in these situations and helped me expand my toolkit to increase the impact of my work. I am excited about the growth opportunities ahead of me, from improving my personal brand to building stronger relationships to achieve better outcomes.” - Francisco, Staff Software Engineer
“I am a tech lead and the classic description of the role is 'lead through influence'. As I grew in my career it became obvious that being a strong engineer was not enough. I've spend last year working on my soft skills and I was still not seeing the results I wanted. This class came at the perfect moment. It pulled together all the separate concepts I've read about and created a complete picture of how influence works - spoiler alert, it's more than being articulate and having the best ideas. Irina created a useful framework to make things easy to understand and remember. The real-world use cases resonated perfectly with my role as a tech lead. They significantly helped me internalize the concepts and apply them in my daily interactions. This class was an investment absolutely worth making, both in terms of time and money.” - Andreea, Staff Software Engineer
“Really amazing course. The material is packed full of information and the lectures were very easy to follow. The teacher, Irina, presents a very complex topic in a very calm, mindful, and approachable way.” Fabricio, Principal Software Engineer
“I can't recommend this training enough. The course's structural approach deconstructs the complex topics of influencing into digestible pieces. With a focus on engineers, it delivers directly applicable knowledge. A major advantage is the real-world examples Irina includes to connect theory and practice seamlessly. If you are thinking about enrolling, do not hesitate - it's a game-changer.” - Adrien, Engineering Manager
If you’re ready to take your influence and impact to the next level, I’d love to see you in the next cohort. Spots are limited, and we’re already 50% filled!
Let’s build influence together and create the impact you’ve been striving for!
Until next time,
Irina
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