Manipulation and Influence

By definition, manipulation means exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one's own advantage while influence is the power of affecting people or events without direct or apparent effort. Apparently, the former sounds more negative, the latter, more positive. Manipulation has a control on people, forcing them into doing things that they may reluctant or unwilling to do. On the contrary, influence inducing people into action with the power of one’s own characterization, prestige, and the power of its culture. Both can make things done as leader’s wish, but manipulation causes a result that is merely accepted passively, behaviorally, and definitely. Influence makes people volunteer to do things, and the result is usually actively accepted and recognized.
As for a leader, influence in a positive way helps win others’ hearts. But when it is being employed in a manipulative way in the interest of certain small groups, it becomes playing politics. If the objective is deviated from the correct path or against the general ethics, the leader is providing wrong direction. However, the other side might argue that playing politics as positive when it is used the right way, which can be helpful to one’s career. I’m definitely not asking you to do unethical things but by referring it as a learning process to adapt oneself to the company’s power structure. For example, you should know the company’s management structure, understand your supervisor and the company’s culture, and ability to see whether it favors employees with influence skills or just basically the rule followers. And then adapt yourself to your supervisor’s leading style to make yourself suitable within the culture.