* All business anecdotes are my own recollections or are presented as they were told to me. Others may remember the events differently. In most cases, I’ve used real names; where indicated, I’ve used pseudonyms to protect anonymity.

*For more on influence as currency exchange, see Robert B. Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

* Adam Grant’s Give and Take is a modern-day look at influence building as karma building.

* For more on why I have grouped these very diverse cultures together for purposes of learning about influence, see Appendix B.

* For a useful discussion of how East and West differ in their worldviews, see Richard E. Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought.

* See, for example, The Mind of a Leader, by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter. See also Tricycle magazine (online at https://tricycle.org), which contains articles, videos, and general information on Buddhist mindfulness and meditation practices.

* The Forum Corporation is not to be confused with “the Forum,” which was a revamp of Werner Erhard’s notorious EST training. Some EST participants reported verbal abuse, sleep deprivation, and exploitative sales tactics, giving this 1970s self-improvement program a cult-like aura. EST’s reputation created some complications for us at The Forum Corp.; even in the early 1990s we still had to reassure the occasional skittish client or new hire that we had nothing to do with Erhard and weren’t going to scream at our workshop participants or deny them use of toilet facilities.

* The father of kaizen was an American, W. Edwards Deming. Finding his management theories ignored in the United States after World War II, Deming, an engineer by training, took them to Japan, where they were received with eagerness by a business community struggling in the war’s aftermath. Many in Japan credit Deming for the extraordinary success of the nation’s manufacturing industry from the 1950s through the ’80s.

* In 2009, Forum updated the seminar again, under my supervision as head of R&D. We retitled it Leading with Influence. This version did not include 360-degree feedback and did not dwell on lateral leadership, which by then was a familiar concept. In 2016, portions of the program were revamped yet again. While these updates were clearly needed, today I find myself drawn anew to the 1982 and 1992 versions. Some aspects seem quaint when seen through twenty-first-century eyes, but the rigor and innovation of the original research still shines, as does the excitement of the original program developers, who knew they were onto something big.

* The core practices are derived from several sources. Forum’s original influence research identified three practices that correlated most strongly with job performance and reflected influencers’ values: 1) Being supportive and helpful to others; 2) Being willing to share power for an overall goal; and 3) Behaving in a way that leads others to trust you. The 1992 update put less emphasis on those practices but confirmed the three-step process of building-using-sustaining; it also highlighted the importance of continuous improvement. In 2012, the Forum R&D team conducted research that identified the top factors contributing to employee engagement, including belonging, control, and progress. Other researchers have confirmed that a sense of participation, power, and progress is essential to motivation; see, for example, The Progress Principle, by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer; Employee Engagement 2.0, by Kevin Kruse; Drive, by Daniel Pink; and the best-selling self-help book of all time, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People.

* There is ongoing debate among scholars as to precise dates for these authors and their works. All dates supplied herein are intended only to provide a general sense of timing and historical context.

† Hindu, used to denote a religion, culture, or philosophy, is a term of recent vintage. Until the nineteenth century, Hindu generally meant “of the Indian subcontinent” (Hind meaning India). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, British colonialists began to distinguish “Hindus” from Muslims and Buddhists. Today, Hindu is the common term for thought traditions arising from the Vedas and/or Brahmanism. I will use it in that sense.

* The Buddha has never been worshipped as God, or even as a god, properly speaking. Buddhism, however, has many features of a religion, including contemplative orders and practices, doctrines of sin and liberation, and sacred writings and rituals. The Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org) states that as of 2015 there were approximately 500 million Buddhists worldwide, with 50 percent living in China.

These harsh practices may be seen as a form of spiritual bodybuilding, a way to amass psychic strength, magical prowess, and moral virtue. “Beware the power of my austerities!” is a warning intoned often in the Mahābhārata, usually by a sage, mortal or immortal, contending with another sage for superiority.

* Ancient Greek historian Thucydides might with justification claim that same honor, but he was more interested in accounts of specific events, such as the Peloponnesian War.

* In transliterating Sanskrit words, I have used the more common diacritical marks (such as ā for long a and ṛ for vocalic r) but have refrained from using less-common marks that make no difference to an English speaker’s pronunciation (such as ṇ and ḍ for retroflex n and d).

* All quotations from the influence experts are drawn from my interviews with them; see Acknowledgments for the list of interviewees.

* Regarding quotations from the Eastern sages: When a book has universal section and line/verse references, I’ve placed those references directly in the text and included an endnote indicating the edition and translator. When edition-specific page references are needed, they appear in the endnotes.

* Information about classical Chinese characters supplied by Dr. Krishnan Venkatesh, senior faculty in the St. John’s College Program in Eastern Classics.

* The people I quote in the “Influence in Brief” sections are business leaders, consultants, and educators with expertise in quiet influence. Many are Forum alumni. A complete list appears in the Acknowledgments.

* I have often wondered whether Roger von Oech had the Zhuangzi in mind when he wrote his creative-thinking classic, A Whack on the Side of the Head. Whack’s philosophy is certainly in the Taoist tradition, and von Oech’s use of fables, poems, and humor is reminiscent of Zhuangzi’s “wacky” style.

* For more on Zhuangzi’s philosophy, and specifically his views on transformation, see Brook Ziporyn’s essay “Zhuangzi as Philosopher” at www.hackettpublishing.com/zhuangziphil.

* For more on climate, see Leadership and Organizational Climate, by Robert Stringer; Strategic Speed, by Jocelyn Davis, Henry Frechette, and Edwin Boswell; and Primal Leadership, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. See also Daniel Goleman, “Leadership that Gets Results,” in Harvard Business Review, Mar-Apr 2000.

* The American Institute of Masnavi Studies translation has “demonic apparition” instead of “boogeyman.”

* Polling subjects’ ability to decide how they wish to present themselves to pollsters is one reason why political polls are never as accurate as we might wish.

* As noted in the Prologue, ancient Hindu culture regarded such austerities as spiritual and moral strength-building exercises. The discipline required to perform them was seen not only as a mark of existing virtue, but as a developer of greater virtue.

* The Sanskrit word I’ve translated as “the virtuous” is satya or sattva. Van Buitenen translates it as “the strict.” It could also be rendered as “the just,” “the true,” “the worthy,” “the wise,” or “the excellent.” Dharma, often translated as “the Law,” can also mean “righteousness,” “goodness,” “justice,” “virtue,” or “the Way.”

* “O Diligent Devotion!” could also be translated as “O object of my devotion!”–which would provide further textual evidence that Yama wants to grant his new ally’s wish and therefore omits his standard exception.

* For an excellent overview of contemporary research on the tightrope dilemma and other challenges and strategies for women in the workplace, see What Works for Women at Work, by Joan C. Williams and Rachel Dempsey.

* The last third of the novel, which takes place after Genji’s death and follows the exploits of Kaoru, son of Genji’s third wife by another man, is similarly focused on the hero’s female love interests.

* Like many of the episodes in Genji, it is a story of sexual abuse and therefore can be hard to contemplate. I offer it in the same spirit as I believe Murasaki presented all her female characters: as an example of a person using skill, finesse, and courage to gain some measure of influence in the face of overwhelmingly bad odds.

* A reader of this chapter remarked that Tamakazura’s lot in life is hardly worth applauding. I agree; her situation, like that of all the women in Genji, is dismal. What is worth applauding, however, is how she handles her situation. The modern West tends to subscribe to the idea that compassion is the only appropriate response to those making the best of a bad hand. I believe that admiration—for the courage and brilliance to play a bad hand well, as Tamakazura does—is an equally appropriate response.

* Williams and Dempsey also looked at research comparing the workplace experiences of women of color to those of white women. The women of color in their study faced additional disadvantages when it came to three big work challenges, which the authors dub Prove-It-Again, the Maternal Wall, and the Tug of War; when it came to the Tightrope, however, women of color had a small advantage. The authors hypothesize that women of color are sometimes able to play into Western stereotypes that make an outspoken woman of color more acceptable to the dominant culture than an outspoken white woman. If this finding is accurate, it’s another example of smart women using jujutsu tactics to their benefit.

* Hougaard’s and Carter’s previous book (with coauthor Gillian Coutts), One Second Ahead, is a businessperson’s in-depth guide to developing mindfulness. The website of the Upaya Institute and Zen Center (www.upaya.org) offers information on Zen Buddhism in general, plus simple instructions for sitting meditation. An article providing both theory and practice for mindfulness meditation is “The Good Shepherd: Strengthening Our Natural Capacity for Awareness,” by Helen Tworkov with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, in Tricycle magazine (www.tricycle.org), Summer 2014. The New York Times Well Guides (available on www.nytimes.com) include “How to Meditate,” by David Gelles, featuring audio instructions. Mindfulness apps are numerous; Tricycle magazine’s archive of meditation app reviews may be found at https://tricycle.org/magazine/meditation-app.

* As noted in the Prologue, Hindu is the term commonly used today for cultural and spiritual traditions more accurately labeled Vedic or Brahmanist.

* For a deep discussion of how various cultures understand right and wrong, see Riding the Waves of Culture, by Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner.

* The nature of the Wheel-gem is left vague, but it seems to be impressively large and able to roll great distances.

* Some commentators, noting that conquest never happens without bloodshed, have called this scene a “parody” of genuine warfare. I cannot agree. If the story is (as I believe it is) about everyday leadership, not just military leadership, then it serves to highlight the magnetic appeal of an effective leader and the eagerness with which people line up on his or her side—the draw of the humane, as Confucius might say.

* Tai chi, in contrast, takes its name from the Chinese word taiji (“supreme ultimate”) and was originally a martial art, although today, like qigong, it is mostly used as a form of exercise and meditation.

* For a full explanation of the research process, see Strategic Speed, Appendix A.

* For quotations from “Tenzo” in this chapter, I have used the Foulk and Kotler/Tanahashi translations interchangeably.

* I really didn’t spend all my time with Joe staging diva meltdowns. In fact, my normal mode with him was calm competence, which is one reason these incidents stick out in my memory.

* Anthropologist Ruth Benedict coined the terms shame culture and guilt culture. In her classic treatise The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, she says that Japan is a shame culture (wherein bad behavior is constrained by the opprobrium of others and the threat of ostracism) while the United States is a guilt culture (wherein the law and individual conscience are seen as paramount). Eastern cultures, however, see shame as much more than just fear of rejection; it is, rather, a concept arising from a world in which relationships are who one is. Talk of an “individual conscience” distinct from family and friends’ opinions makes little sense in such cultures.

* See, for example, Avi Klein, “What Men Say about #MeToo in Therapy,” New York Times, July 1, 2018.

† I hasten to add that shame, in this context, is not to be confused with the humiliation sometimes heaped on survivors of sexual assault and abuse, nor with the unwarranted shame sometimes felt by those survivors because of society’s tendency to blame the victim.

* For a discussion of these three types of “misleaders”—aka lackeys, tyrants, and bureaucrats—see my book The Greats on Leadership, Chapter 1.

* For more on Islamic thought as a bridge between East and West, see Appendix B.

* Sources for the quiet influence tactics include the two dozen influence experts I interviewed; Forum’s Influence Tactics Guide (1982 and 1992 editions), which compiled advice from high-performing influencers in multiple industries; the works of the Eastern sages cited; and my own leadership experience, professional and personal.

* Of course, different Eastern cultures differ in their conceptions of hierarchy and its value. Elizabeth Griep, a business consultant who has worked with Japanese companies, notes one example: “The Japanese culture is more collaborative than some other Asian cultures. The Japanese tend to value equality and sameness: being one of the whole rather than standing out and being different. Our client at [the US division of a major Japanese manufacturer] said that every year they would fly people over to Japan to meet with the executives. These were the high performers, but the first thing they would do is have everybody put on the same white jumpsuits so you couldn’t tell who was a leader and who was not.”