We all have power to influence others.  You are exerting influence when you effect a change (the change you desire) on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

Manipulation is simply influencing a change in a clever or unscrupulous way.  Manipulation characterizes the way influence is applied.

Unscrupulous  practices are not about being fair or moral.

Unscrupulous behaviour is targeted at getting what you want without a huge amount of constraint on the behavioural practices beyond the fact they generally do not employ brute force but are rather well planned intelligent and ingenious (i.e., clever).

Effective Manipulation

I often have discussions with others who immediately classify manipulation as inappropriate while influence and impact skills are considered powerful positive tools.

This is not surprising as unscrupulous behaviours have a negative connotation.  On the other hand, manipulation is really just a sub-set of influence.

Additionally it is important to note the determination of  “fair” and “ morale” can be very subjective.  Manipulation can often just define influence behaviour where you have chosen not to let arbritrary constraints hold you back.

Influencers follow the rules, manipulators rule.  Often the rules are framed to be in favour of those you are trying to influence.  Playing within these boundaries will most likely lead to failure.

I acknowledge manipulation is a technique I use, but for me , the key is not to practice it in nefarious ways or with obvious disregard to morales, fairness or others beliefs.

Rather the point is to be clever, not evil, not  disrespectful but really clever.  And it works.