In part one of this series, The Myth of Just Letting Your Work Speak for Itself, I provided the rationale and research supporting the need to deliberately build your influence. Unfortunately, your great work isn’t enough. In this article, I help you get started with this important, too-often-overlooked work.

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Jump-start building your influencers

Getting started is the hardest part, particularly when it involves doing something as awkward sounding as ‘building your influence.’

Step one: identify your influencers

Sure, your boss and their boss directly influence your priorities and assignments; however, it pays to look in all directions and apply some unique filters to build your complete list. Additional suggestions for your influencer list include:

Contributors, including technical and subject matter experts.

You don’t need a team to have influence. Many of the most influential individuals in organizations are the ones who have the ears of top executives on specific subjects, audiences, or technologies. Observe in meetings who holds sway over topics and direction.

Economic decision makers (budget owners)

Particularly in larger, matrixed organizations, budget ownership for initiatives is often not your direct line of command. It pays to understand who controls the purse strings for key initiatives.

Decision Makers operating horizontally

Again, our default thinking is that decisions flow from the top down. In reality, most decisions take place below the top and often between individuals operating horizontally (not sleeping…at the same level or across functions). Pay attention to how decisions are made on initiatives, resourcing, and priorities, and note the individuals who seem to have a significant impact.

Culture Shapers

In every organization, there are individuals who wield influence on the culture, including culture-impacting initiatives and priorities, as well as values and even behaviors. If your initiative runs up against or into their territory, you need them on your side.

Executives outside your function

I guarantee there are some executives who wield more organization-wide influence than others. Watch and listen for those who fit this description.

Golden Person

This is an odd-sounding label, perhaps, but at some points in time in organizations, there’s one individual who seems to have rockets attached to their back, moving fast on the organization’s most important initiative. These people wield a lot of power; however, it tends to be localized to the initiative. There are pros and cons to attaching yourself to these characters.

Step two: assess the influencers on your list

The list of influencers from above is important in building your map. Yet not all influencers are created equal. You are looking initially for individuals who directly affect your initiatives and priorities. Here are some questions to help with your assessment: (Note: I worked with ChatGPT to create a worksheet to support your influencer mapping and assessment. If you would like a copy, drop me a note at [email protected], and I will send it your way. Or, create yours and send it my way for sharing with our audience!)

What’s the source of their influence?

• Decision authority
• Expert authority
• Network strength
• Resource control
• Culture shaper
• Strategic initiative leader

I recommend using a simple rating system (Low, Moderate, High, Critical) that grades each influencer. Your emphasis is on the relative level of influence over your area of responsibility, initiatives, or aspirations.

Step three: What do you know/need to know?

Having the list is great, and your assessment is important. Now, let’s create a summary listing based on the following statements/questions:

• In priority order, which individuals are my initiatives dependent upon for support? What’s important to these individuals?
• The two most critical relationships for me to start are… . What’s important to these individuals?
• The two most critical relationships for me to strengthen are… . What’s important to these individuals?

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In the next installment of this Build Your Influence series, I share strategies for approaching and engaging with your targeted influencers. 

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The Bottom Line for Now

Intentionally investing in developing the right relationships in your organization will determine your future influence. Remember, in every organization, a few individuals determine what gets done and who does what. Start by building quality relationships with these individuals, and you might just wake up one day and find yourself in this role.

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Building your influence is a module in each of my Manager of Managers and Emerging Executive Accelerator programs. Drop me a note to explore enrollment or bringing a program to your group.