Seizing Influence at Uber While Making Everyone Else Look Good

Inspired by Me

I watched in silent rage as Jason from marketing – a guy who couldn't tell a user story from a bedtime story – got champagne popped for his glorified button color change.

Meanwhile, my meticulously researched product improvements? Trashed for the third time.

Three months of user interviews. Countless late nights building mockups. All dismissed in a two-minute meeting because I "didn't have enough organizational context."

That's when I realized a brutal truth: being right means absolutely nothing if nobody listens to you.

So I did something that felt completely wrong. I shelved every single one of my ideas. For 90 days, I didn't pitch a single product improvement.

Instead, I developed what I now call the "Influence Arbitrage" system – a counterintuitive approach that took me from being completely ignored to running a revenue-critical initiative affecting 5% of our divisions gross revenue in just four months.

No promotion. No additional headcount. Just pure, strategic influence.

The Power-Building Playbook

First: Ignore the C-Suite and Find the Real Power Brokers

While everyone else was busy trying to get face time with executives, I spent my first month with the people nobody bothers talking to:

• Kelly from Customer Support – the 7-year veteran who'd been handling the same damn payment errors since our CEO was still driving his own car

• Mike from Engineering – the "dinosaur" who built the legacy system everyone trashes (but can't function without)

• Denise from Office Operations – the invisible force who knew which executive priorities were real and which were just quarterly hot air

I wasn't networking. I was investigating. I sat at Kelly's desk for three hours straight, watching her system crash five times while handling the same payment error.

I saw the frustration in her eyes.

The workarounds she'd developed.

The broken processes everyone had just accepted as "how things work."

Second: Hunt for "Toxic Intersections" – Organizational Dead Zones

After 30+ of these conversations, patterns emerged. I identified what I call "toxic intersections" – problems that:

• Sit in the DEAD ZONE between at least 3 different departments (creating perfect organizational blind spots)

• Have been complained about for 6+ months minimum (proving they're both excruciating and "unsolvable")

• Can show measurable improvement with less than 14 days of focused effort (critical for rapid results)

At Uber, our billing system was a disaster zone. It had a 90% accessorial failure request rate that was bleeding money and customer goodwill daily. Sales blamed Product. Product blamed Engineering. Engineering blamed "legacy decisions."

Everyone knew it was catastrophically broken. Nobody owned fixing it.

The Weekend That Changed Everything

I spent a single weekend building a process fix. No permission slip. No committee approval.

I ran a quiet test that slashed billing failures by 38% almost overnight.

And here's where most people commit career suicide: I DIDN'T TAKE THE CREDIT.

Every cell in my body screamed to blast the win on Slack. To casually mention it to my VP in the elevator. To finally prove I belonged.

Instead, I created what I now call a "Collaborative Win Document" that looked like this:

BILLING SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT: 38% REDUCTION IN FAILURES

Root Cause Analysis: Kelly Johnson (Customer Support) identified consistent patterns in payment failures

Technical Solution: Mike Chen (Engineering) implemented crucial system optimizations

Customer Impact Validation: Sales team's customer feedback confirmed improvement

Project Coordination: [My Name]

[rest of findings]

Next steps: Expanding rollout with CS team leading customer communication

I sent this to all three department heads, copying their teams. I specifically highlighted how their people were the heroes of this story.

The Influence Explosion

Then something magical happened.

Within 48 hours, the CS Director stopped me in the hallway: "That billing fix was brilliant. We've got another pain point I'd love your eyes on."

Three days later, a VP I'd never even met messaged me directly: "Heard about your work on the billing system. We have a revenue leakage issue. Can I get 30 minutes?"

Suddenly, I had influence my job title could never command.

Within 60 days, I was sitting in leadership meetings despite being four levels too junior to be there. By day 90, our Head of Operations personally asked me to lead a cross-functional initiative that would affect 5% of our divisions gross revenue.

The Proof It Wasn't Just Luck

Sarah, one of my newsletter subscribers, was a junior ops manager whose process redesign proposal had been rejected twice.

After jumping on a call with me, she implemented this exact system (focusing especially on the "make others look good" part), she not only got her proposal approved but was asked to implement it with executive sponsorship.

The Counterintuitive Truth About Organizational Power

Here's what most people never grasp: Real influence comes from solving problems that make OTHER people look good – not from promoting your own ideas.

We're trained to build personal brands. To speak up in meetings. To ensure our contributions are visible.

But the quietest person with the longest track record of making others successful becomes the most indispensable force in any organization.

Your Path to Invisible Influence

Before you close this email, do this:

1. Write down the ONE toxic intersection in your company that everyone complains about but nobody owns

2. Identify the 3+ departments affected by this problem

3. Map out who would look like heroes if it got fixed

That's your ticket to organizational power – no promotion required.