Thomas Sobolik, a Staff Engineer at Datadog, has developed a philosophy for fostering collaboration and influencing colleagues to help with projects without manipulating or strong-arming them. His approach, called "influence without authority," emphasizes the importance of soft skills, sensitivity to developers' bandwidth and incentives, and investing effort to make work easier for others. By appealing directly to stakeholders' interests and concerns, minimizing their effort, offering something in return, and giving generous timelines, Drew is able to bring colleagues on board with his initiatives and support a healthy and productive work culture at Datadog. His ideas have been shared through internal talks and courses, aiming to help other managers and personnel learn new soft skills and nurture the organization's positive work culture.