A Gift That’s Useful Long After the Holidays

Some gifts get used once. Others become part of everyday life. What if your gift helped someone approach a difficult conversation, present an idea with more confidence, or get some extra cooperation at and home?

That’s why I wrote Influence PEOPLE: Powerful Everyday Opportunities to Persuade that are Lasting and Ethical.

We all influence people every day. A manager asks a team to embrace a change. A parent encourages a child to work hard at school. A colleague needs help moving a project forward. The question is whether we understand how to make those conversations more effective.

Drawing on the science of persuasion, Influence PEOPLE offers practical ways to turn good intentions into action. It brings research into everyday situations so you can recognize opportunities to communicate more thoughtfully and help people take the next step.

My years teaching Robert Cialdini’s work have reinforced my conviction that influence carries responsibility. Getting agreement matters, but so does how we get it and whether the other person benefits.

That’s the heart of the PEOPLE acronym. These are Powerful Everyday Opportunities to Persuade in ways that are Lasting and Ethical.

Consider a familiar situation: someone agrees with your idea during a meeting, but nothing happens afterward. You leave wondering whether you explained yourself poorly or whether the other person ever intended to follow through.

Understanding influence encourages you to look more carefully at that communication. Did you understand what really mattered to them? Was your request clear? Did they have a reason to act, and did you make the next step manageable? Those questions can change the way you prepare for future conversations.

The same care belongs at home. People we love deserve our attention and understanding. Familiarity can tempt us to assume we already know what they think or need. Becoming more intentional about influence starts with a desire to understand their perspective.

You can approach this book a little at a time. Read with a particular relationship in mind, consider an idea, and look for an appropriate opportunity to practice it. Then reflect on what happened. Learning becomes more useful when it changes something you actually do.

That makes a book a particularly personal gift when you include a note explaining why you chose it. Perhaps you admire someone’s leadership or see their desire to grow. Tell them because your encouragement may matter as much as the pages inside the cover.

Two endorsements capture what I hoped readers would experience:

“extraordinarily useful tips” — Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D., author of Influence

“highly reliable and endlessly practical” — Roger Dooley, author of Brainfluence

If you’re shopping for a leader, salesperson, business owner, or someone who enjoys understanding people, this book could be a thoughtful holiday gift. You might also pick it up for yourself as you consider what you want to do differently in the new year.

Here’s a question worth asking: Which relationship could improve if you became more intentional about your influence?

Visit Amazon to learn more about Influence PEOPLE.

Brian Ahearn

Brian Ahearn is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE and a faculty member at the Cialdini Institute. An author, TEDx presenter, international speaker, coach, and consultant, Brian helps clients apply influence in everyday situations to boost results.

As one of only a dozen Cialdini Method Certified Trainers in the world, Brian was personally trained and endorsed by Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., the most cited living social psychologist on the science of ethical influence.

Brian’s first book, Influence PEOPLE, was named one of the 100 Best Influence Books of All Time by Book Authority. Persuasive Selling and Influenced from Above were Amazon new release bestsellers. His LinkedIn courses on persuasive selling and coaching have been viewed by over 850,000 people around the world and his TEDx Talk on pre-suasion has more than a million views!