Lenny’s Podcast116 min
The art of influence: The single most important skill that AI can’t replace
Jessica Fain · Mar 22, 2026
Key learnings
- Treat stakeholder conversations as discovery interviews: go in to learn and strengthen your plan, not simply to get approval for…
- Remember executives have chaotic calendars and little context on your topic, so spend under 60 seconds at the start restating why…
- Ground your pitch in the executive's success metrics and board pressures, and show explicitly how your proposal moves those…