56. Strategic Influence: The Feminine Way to Build Power Without Politics
You’ve worked your way to the table… but are you shaping the conversation, or reacting to it?
This week, I’m breaking down what strategic influence really means for women leaders in male-dominated spaces who want to move from being seen as capable to being recognized as powerful. Influence isn’t about playing politics or performing; it’s about understanding who holds power, how trust flows, and where your voice needs to land.
If you’ve ever felt like your hard work isn’t translating into the opportunities you deserve, this episode will change the way you think about influence. Join me this week to learn how to map power dynamics, build authentic connections, and make yourself known to the people who can open doors for you. I’ll also show you how to step into relational leadership, where trust, authenticity, and calm conviction become your greatest tools for advancement.
Interested in working with me? Book a free 1:1 consultation here!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
How to create your strategic influence net.
Why the difference between presence and performance determines whether you build genuine influence or just temporary visibility.
How strategic sponsorship happens through conversations in rooms you're not invited to yet.
Why influence isn't about chasing power but standing in yours and making yourself known strategically.
What makes the distinction between work networks and power networks critical for career advancement.
The practical approach to positioning yourself as an authority while building genuine rapport.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
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How to Thrive in the C-Suite: 20 Expert Tips for Women Leaders - Forbes article
Full Episode Transcript:
You've worked your way to the table. But are you shaping the conversation or reacting to it? Strategic influence isn't about visibility. It's about intentionality, knowing who holds power, how trust flows, where your voice needs to land. Whether you're a manager, director, or executive, your ability to influence is what determines how much impact you truly have. And in male-dominated environments, that doesn't happen by accident. It's built with strategy. Let's dive into today's episode on strategic influence.
Welcome to The Balanced Leader, hosted by Yann Dang, a Leadership and Life Coach with over 20 years of corporate experience. Drawing from her journey as a former global finance leader and second-generation immigrant, Yann understands the unique challenges women face in male-dominated workplaces.
Each episode offers insights on balancing masculine and feminine energies, mastering soft skills, and building emotional intelligence. Join us to transform frustration into empowerment and unlock your authentic leadership potential.
Hey podcast listeners, welcome to today's episode on strategic influence, how women leaders build power that lasts. This is a very special conversation because when I'm talking to women, especially when they've made it to a certain level, they're like, "Okay, great. I have the title, but I know that I'm not influencing to the ability that I could." And I know that there's a way. Sometimes people call it the corporate politics game, but they're like, there's a way that I could be more impactful, more powerful. And what I let them into is this strategic influence net. And I describe this to them as a way, a real tool, a real tangible thing to understand the power dynamics at play, where you are in those, how you're influencing, and what you might need to do in order to amplify that influence, and how you might need to put yourself in different people's thought patterns in order to do that.
So, let me just share with you why this is so important. According to McKinsey and Lean In Women in the Workplace 2024 report, women hold just 29% of senior leadership roles. So that's the C-suite level. And only about 7% are women of color. So the reason I bring that stat up is because there are still a big gap of women in leadership roles between men and women. And part of this gap relates to this ability to strategically influence. One of the main ways that women ascend into those leadership roles, and I'll share it for myself, is through strategic sponsorship.
What is strategic sponsorship? It's literally people, senior-level leaders, whether they're the CEO or whether maybe they're just an executive level. They are speaking up for you in meetings that matter. What happens oftentimes, right? I'm going to share from my own experience because I was in the boardroom with all these other leaders, right? The CTO, the CMO, the CEO. We're talking about projects and we're talking about people who can do those projects for us, people who can lead those projects. You want to be somebody who is talked about in that room. And the only way you could be somebody who's talked about in that room is because somebody believes in you, somebody knows you really well, somebody wants you to succeed, somebody sees that you are capable of more, and they're willing to say it in a group of people and say, "Hey, I think Sarah would be amazing for this role. I think she could lead this team, and I think we should back her. I think we should do X, Y, and Z."
This is why on the other side of it, you might be like, "Oh my God, I didn't even know Sarah was trying to get promoted," and somehow she did. These are the conversations that happen. And this happens through influence. You could be a great worker, you could be amazing at what you do, but if you don't have that senior-level person or that powerful person that's able to speak for you in rooms that you're not invited to yet, that this could be really limiting for you. I want to share this because I have recently been in an article for Forbes where it was about how to thrive in the C-suite. Now, the C-suite is, you know, C-level people, CMOs, CEOs, all of those types of things. But this is impactful for all women leaders. And we'll put the article in the show notes here so you could look at it, but it's 20 expert tips for women leaders.
And my tip was actually, it's first on the list and what we have been talking about here is that strategic influence. I basically had shared the importance of being able to map stakeholder influence strategically. So I'm going to talk all about that. But I'm really having people think about this and giving you a tangible way to not just think about this as politics, but as strategic protection, as strategic influence. So, let's dive into all of the layers of what this looks like and how you can start building this for yourself. Another study I wanted to share is that a Harvard Business Review study found that while women are rated higher on 17 of the 19 leadership competencies, they still receive less access to sponsorship and strategic visibility opportunities. The very thing that fuels influence, right?
So, when you hear things like, "Oh, John went to play golf with the CEO," or, "Adam was invited to X, Y, and Z," right? That's actually strategic influence. It sounds just like they're going for a jolly and they're going to go have a great time and they're probably going to have a great time playing golf, but they're also strategically influencing. They're building trust and rapport. And when somebody knows you, like when somebody does something with you outside of work and they know you at a deeper level, they're going to be more willing to sponsor you. They're going to be more willing to risk for you.
So, what I want you to know is that the problem isn't about capability. It's access. And access is built through influence. And what this episode is really going to talk to you about is how to manage and how to take care of that strategic influence, right? If you think about it as a muscle. How to do this in a way that empowers you. So, let's first talk about strategic influence as an art, right? It's an art of intentionally shaping perceptions, relationships, and decisions without manipulation. This is not about manipulating people. It's literally about building trust, understanding power dynamics, and being real about the environment around you. So for women, it's about learning how to navigate power networks instead of just work networks, right? It's how do you look at a network and how do you strategically make it important for you?
I think oftentimes women feel like, "Oh, it's not me. Like I'm trying to be something I'm not." And I'm like, "No, you are literally trying to influence and you need to influence at the right levels. You could make friends with everyone, but there's only going to be a handful of people that are going to be in a position to actually help you get to that next level." Right? So you don't need to become political. You need to become purposeful. This is about purpose. This is about intentionality. And it's not about manipulation. It's literally about understanding the power dynamics and understanding what you can be doing within these networks to amplify your influence and your voice.
So, there is a visibility challenge because oftentimes as women, we don't like to take up space. We don't want to brag about ourselves. We often want to be rewarded for execution, not elevation of a new idea, right? I talk about this a lot. Women are much more focused on the deliverable versus the delivery. And the delivery, talking to people, right? Because you're not going to be working with all of these people, actually talking to them and allowing yourself to be known by them is what's going to change things for you. Oftentimes, women over-deliver instead of strategically leveraging their influence. They're not asking for things enough. They're not being known enough. So I'm going to talk more about that because influence isn't about doing more, right?
You may be listening to this episode and you're like, "I'm already so busy. I don't have time to nurture these relationships." Well, what I want to share with you is if you want to make it to the top, you don't have time to not work on this. And it's not about time, it's about you, right? Getting more comfortable with taking up spaces that you haven't been maybe in the past. It's about ensuring that what you already do actually moves the system. Think about your company as a system. You want to find the most strategic way to take up space in that system to move your agenda forward, to move your career forward.
So, one powerful way to build strategic influence is what I call strategic power mapping, or you can talk about it as your influence net, right? Like this is you. So the first thing you can do, this is really tangible. Think about the people in your sphere, in your company right now. You could also expand this to vendors, or you can expand this to if you're an entrepreneur, you might expand this to people in the industry for you. But number one, list key cross-functional and senior players in your organization or industry. You want to list them out. You want to have a list of these people. And you say senior leaders. They are in some sort of power position. You want to rank your relationship with them from 1 to 10. 10 being, we are like besties. We're really good. He knows me really well. He's worked with me in the past. One being, oh, he barely knows me. Maybe we met once or twice. I haven't really had any one-on-ones with him. That might be one. So rank it from 1 to 10 because you want to see what your relationship's like, right? No judgment, just, you know, take imperfect action here. You want to look at what that is. And then you want to rank their influence.
Who holds decision-making power? Who shares opinions? Who has a really deep relationship with the CEO or with another decision maker, right? So again, you're going to rank their influence. So number one, you've got the list of people, then you're ranking your relationship with them from 1 to 10. Then you're going to rank their power. So 10 being the most powerful. So maybe 10 might be the CEO. Maybe your CEO is not as influential as like the CFO. So maybe 10 is the CFO, but you want to see what their influence level is. And then you want to pick the five most powerful relationships that you want to move forward.
Now, they might not be the very tip of the iceberg people for you, even though they're the most powerful. You want to also tie this into your area and what it is that you want to be focusing on. So, if there are, for example, you know there's a big project happening and it's in the technology space. Maybe it's AI-related. They might be more important from that perspective because you're like, "They're making lots of decisions there." So I want to strategically focus on building out my relationship with them.
This isn't politics. It's strategic protection. I want you to really think about this as a way to position yourself and to understand how to use and influence within that power mapping net that you have. Because this is truly what's happening, right? There's a system at play, and you should be revisiting this. You should be seeing, oh wow, I'm actually at a conference with these people. I really want to push this agenda forward, right? I want to make myself known to them. I want to deepen my relationship with them. This is where it's important.
There's also energy behind the influence. I want to discuss the emotional intelligence and self-regulation. This is not performing. This is about being grounded and known. So for me, one of the things that I did in my leadership team meetings, right? There were certain relationships that I wanted to build more on. And if there were some people that were new to the C-suite that I didn't know that well, I would make myself known to them. Not in a way where I'm trying to impress them or perform, but really get to know them. And so it's about presence over performance.
This distinction is really important because I think what women fear a lot of times is they don't want to be seen as some political animal, some ambitious person. The way you don't do that is where you're connected to yourself, where you understand your come from. I actually want to get to know this person better. I really want to know Joe's AI strategy as it relates to tech. I want to hear what he has to say, what's important to him. And then I want to share what's important to me in a real way that is meaningful and not about us just like performing for each other, but really connecting, right?
The leaders who hold influence aren't always the loudest, right? They're the clearest. They speak from calm conviction. And that's what I want for you, right? You don't have to go take up space and feel all ungrounded and feel out of control. This is not about that. This is about the energy of influence. And if there are things you want to achieve, which you're listening to this podcast, so you're probably a highly ambitious woman who wants things, right? This is your map to do it. And it gives you a clear way to do it. And it's not about manipulation. It's all about you strategically influencing and gaining the support you need to move your, you know, problem forward, to move your solution forward, to move your idea forward, right?
So, I want you to do this tangible action this week, right? Number one, create that influence net, just like I said. Number two, identify one relationship to deepen this week. Reach out, align on a goal, offer support. I remember there was a new sales leader. She joined our team and she was in town. And I said, "Hey, I know we're going to be in a bunch of meetings together, but I'd love to just do a one-on-one, either have drinks with you after work or have coffee with you." I wanted to build my relationship with her. I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to also let her know some of the dynamics on the team, to build trust with her and to build rapport with her. And so these are things you can do, right?
Oftentimes, we're so busy in our day-to-day, we're not zooming out to think, where can we be strategically influencing? Where could we be just having that little coffee chat, having that extra connection point to build this out? It doesn't happen overnight, but if you have your mind set on it, then you'll start synergistically thinking about ways to do it, right? You'll start being like, "Oh, that's right. We're all going to go out together. Let me make sure I sit by this person. Let me make sure I talk to this person more." You want to be thoughtful about it. And you want to practice visibility with intention. Share one insight, ask one strategic question. You know, we're really talking, it's not supposed to be transactional, it's relational. These are relationships that we're managing. And oftentimes, women like to not be uncomfortable and we want to stick our heads into solving problems and not taking up space, not networking, right?
But this is a big reason why there's only 29% of women in the C-suite, right? We're not doing those things that, you know, I'm not telling you to go play golf on a golf course with your CEO, but I am telling you, if you've got a meeting, if there is a dinner, then I'm telling you to try to sit next to him, at least talk to him, tell him about some strategic idea, let him know you personally. I think that's a big thing too. People oftentimes don't think about that personal connection, right? People think that you have to be talking about business all the time. But again, connections and strategic influence happen by relationships. And relationships are about knowing people and connecting with people in a human way.
So, highlight a win in a way that links it back to the business impact. Talk about something personally, you know, one of the things that I talked about a lot was really like the coaching that I was getting because it allowed people to get to know me, to know that I care about my leadership and my ability to communicate. And you know, I would make it strategic. I wouldn't just be like, "Oh, I'm part of this coaching program, blah, blah, blah." I'd be like, "Oh, like let me tell you something that's really helped me to navigate conflict, particularly with these two groups of people," right? And I'll tell them about the functional area and I'm really strategic about layering in that story in a way that is connected, relational, but also related to something business. I'm also positioning myself as an authority in some way. I'm really good at working with a shared services. So if you ever need help with that, let me know. I'm letting them know what my strategic power is too. And I'm also asking them like, "Hey, I've seen you. You're so good at getting our customers to come on board and do things and test things out with us. How do you do that?"
So, you want to just zoom out and give yourself time and space to really be thinking about how could you be strategically influencing? How can you be building this relationship and building this rapport with folks? Because the people who do this, the men who do this, they're the ones that are getting talked about. They're the ones that people know. They're the ones that aren't feeling like they have to, like, advocate for themselves because they're doing it like step by step all the time, you know, through their interactions.
So I want you thinking for yourself about this empowering message, which is that influence isn't about chasing power. It's about standing in yours. And oftentimes, women are not giving them the time and space to stand in their own power, to really step back and say, "What am I really good at? How can I add value to these conversations? And how can I be relational with this person? How do I do that in a way that is really genuine and authentic?" And sometimes it's a muscle. You might be like, "Oh, I don't know. I'm not used to talking about myself in these spaces." Well, it's a muscle. You get to practice this, right? Every conversation, every connection is an opportunity to expand your reach, not your workload. And to have more connection with the people around you.
So ask yourself this week, am I just present in the room or am I shaping what happens inside of it? It could be something as simple as, "Hey John, how are your kids doing?" I know, it sounds like such small talk, but that small talk, that ability to connect with somebody on a human level, on a relational level will have you being able to influence them in even in a deeper way. If you have that conversation with John, when you need something, when you want to come back to him for something, you'll already have a basis of connection. And that's where your influence becomes even more powerful when you have that rapport, right?
When you're like, "Hey John, I want to be the one that is leading this AI piece for my practice. Can you help me in positioning myself that way? Are you able to talk to the leadership team about allowing me to do this?" Of course, you've got to understand what is the level of rapport. But you need to start somewhere. So, I want you to get started this week. I want you to map out your influence net. I want you to be curious about it. And I want you to just take it one relationship at a time, one conversation at a time. And as you track yourself and you're shifting these numbers so that you are more and more connected and closer and more aligned and have more rapport with these power players, I want you to see what happens and what changes in your career because this really works. This actually is what has people ascending to leadership and collapsing time much more quick than trying to have the best deliverable, having the best work, right? Influence and relationships matter at this level.
All right. DM me if you have any questions. I want to hear how this is landing for you. If you want to send me your influence map, I would be happy to take a look at it and celebrate you. So also share this episode with any woman leader who feels like they don't know how to strategically influence and maybe they're just surviving their career instead of thriving in it. Share it widely and broadly. I want to support as many women as possible to feel empowered in their life and their leadership. All right. Have a beautiful week. Go work your strategic influence net. Bye.
Thank you for being a part of The Balanced Leader community. We hope you found today's episode inspiring and actionable. For more resources and to connect with Yann, visit us at aspire-coaching.co. Until next time, keep leading with confidence and purpose.
Welcome to The Balanced Leader, hosted by Yann Dang, a Leadership and Life Coach with over 20 years of corporate experience. Drawing from her journey as a former global finance leader and second-generation immigrant, Yann understands the unique challenges women face in male-dominated workplaces.
Each episode offers insights on balancing masculine and feminine energies, mastering soft skills, and building emotional intelligence. Join us to transform frustration into empowerment and unlock your authentic leadership potential.
Hey podcast listeners, welcome to today's episode on strategic influence, how women leaders build power that lasts. This is a very special conversation because when I'm talking to women, especially when they've made it to a certain level, they're like, "Okay, great. I have the title, but I know that I'm not influencing to the ability that I could." And I know that there's a way. Sometimes people call it the corporate politics game, but they're like, there's a way that I could be more impactful, more powerful. And what I let them into is this strategic influence net. And I describe this to them as a way, a real tool, a real tangible thing to understand the power dynamics at play, where you are in those, how you're influencing, and what you might need to do in order to amplify that influence, and how you might need to put yourself in different people's thought patterns in order to do that.
So, let me just share with you why this is so important. According to McKinsey and Lean In Women in the Workplace 2024 report, women hold just 29% of senior leadership roles. So that's the C-suite level. And only about 7% are women of color. So the reason I bring that stat up is because there are still a big gap of women in leadership roles between men and women. And part of this gap relates to this ability to strategically influence. One of the main ways that women ascend into those leadership roles, and I'll share it for myself, is through strategic sponsorship.
What is strategic sponsorship? It's literally people, senior-level leaders, whether they're the CEO or whether maybe they're just an executive level. They are speaking up for you in meetings that matter. What happens oftentimes, right? I'm going to share from my own experience because I was in the boardroom with all these other leaders, right? The CTO, the CMO, the CEO. We're talking about projects and we're talking about people who can do those projects for us, people who can lead those projects. You want to be somebody who is talked about in that room. And the only way you could be somebody who's talked about in that room is because somebody believes in you, somebody knows you really well, somebody wants you to succeed, somebody sees that you are capable of more, and they're willing to say it in a group of people and say, "Hey, I think Sarah would be amazing for this role. I think she could lead this team, and I think we should back her. I think we should do X, Y, and Z."
This is why on the other side of it, you might be like, "Oh my God, I didn't even know Sarah was trying to get promoted," and somehow she did. These are the conversations that happen. And this happens through influence. You could be a great worker, you could be amazing at what you do, but if you don't have that senior-level person or that powerful person that's able to speak for you in rooms that you're not invited to yet, that this could be really limiting for you. I want to share this because I have recently been in an article for Forbes where it was about how to thrive in the C-suite. Now, the C-suite is, you know, C-level people, CMOs, CEOs, all of those types of things. But this is impactful for all women leaders. And we'll put the article in the show notes here so you could look at it, but it's 20 expert tips for women leaders.
And my tip was actually, it's first on the list and what we have been talking about here is that strategic influence. I basically had shared the importance of being able to map stakeholder influence strategically. So I'm going to talk all about that. But I'm really having people think about this and giving you a tangible way to not just think about this as politics, but as strategic protection, as strategic influence. So, let's dive into all of the layers of what this looks like and how you can start building this for yourself. Another study I wanted to share is that a Harvard Business Review study found that while women are rated higher on 17 of the 19 leadership competencies, they still receive less access to sponsorship and strategic visibility opportunities. The very thing that fuels influence, right?
So, when you hear things like, "Oh, John went to play golf with the CEO," or, "Adam was invited to X, Y, and Z," right? That's actually strategic influence. It sounds just like they're going for a jolly and they're going to go have a great time and they're probably going to have a great time playing golf, but they're also strategically influencing. They're building trust and rapport. And when somebody knows you, like when somebody does something with you outside of work and they know you at a deeper level, they're going to be more willing to sponsor you. They're going to be more willing to risk for you.
So, what I want you to know is that the problem isn't about capability. It's access. And access is built through influence. And what this episode is really going to talk to you about is how to manage and how to take care of that strategic influence, right? If you think about it as a muscle. How to do this in a way that empowers you. So, let's first talk about strategic influence as an art, right? It's an art of intentionally shaping perceptions, relationships, and decisions without manipulation. This is not about manipulating people. It's literally about building trust, understanding power dynamics, and being real about the environment around you. So for women, it's about learning how to navigate power networks instead of just work networks, right? It's how do you look at a network and how do you strategically make it important for you?
I think oftentimes women feel like, "Oh, it's not me. Like I'm trying to be something I'm not." And I'm like, "No, you are literally trying to influence and you need to influence at the right levels. You could make friends with everyone, but there's only going to be a handful of people that are going to be in a position to actually help you get to that next level." Right? So you don't need to become political. You need to become purposeful. This is about purpose. This is about intentionality. And it's not about manipulation. It's literally about understanding the power dynamics and understanding what you can be doing within these networks to amplify your influence and your voice.
So, there is a visibility challenge because oftentimes as women, we don't like to take up space. We don't want to brag about ourselves. We often want to be rewarded for execution, not elevation of a new idea, right? I talk about this a lot. Women are much more focused on the deliverable versus the delivery. And the delivery, talking to people, right? Because you're not going to be working with all of these people, actually talking to them and allowing yourself to be known by them is what's going to change things for you. Oftentimes, women over-deliver instead of strategically leveraging their influence. They're not asking for things enough. They're not being known enough. So I'm going to talk more about that because influence isn't about doing more, right?
You may be listening to this episode and you're like, "I'm already so busy. I don't have time to nurture these relationships." Well, what I want to share with you is if you want to make it to the top, you don't have time to not work on this. And it's not about time, it's about you, right? Getting more comfortable with taking up spaces that you haven't been maybe in the past. It's about ensuring that what you already do actually moves the system. Think about your company as a system. You want to find the most strategic way to take up space in that system to move your agenda forward, to move your career forward.
So, one powerful way to build strategic influence is what I call strategic power mapping, or you can talk about it as your influence net, right? Like this is you. So the first thing you can do, this is really tangible. Think about the people in your sphere, in your company right now. You could also expand this to vendors, or you can expand this to if you're an entrepreneur, you might expand this to people in the industry for you. But number one, list key cross-functional and senior players in your organization or industry. You want to list them out. You want to have a list of these people. And you say senior leaders. They are in some sort of power position. You want to rank your relationship with them from 1 to 10. 10 being, we are like besties. We're really good. He knows me really well. He's worked with me in the past. One being, oh, he barely knows me. Maybe we met once or twice. I haven't really had any one-on-ones with him. That might be one. So rank it from 1 to 10 because you want to see what your relationship's like, right? No judgment, just, you know, take imperfect action here. You want to look at what that is. And then you want to rank their influence.
Who holds decision-making power? Who shares opinions? Who has a really deep relationship with the CEO or with another decision maker, right? So again, you're going to rank their influence. So number one, you've got the list of people, then you're ranking your relationship with them from 1 to 10. Then you're going to rank their power. So 10 being the most powerful. So maybe 10 might be the CEO. Maybe your CEO is not as influential as like the CFO. So maybe 10 is the CFO, but you want to see what their influence level is. And then you want to pick the five most powerful relationships that you want to move forward.
Now, they might not be the very tip of the iceberg people for you, even though they're the most powerful. You want to also tie this into your area and what it is that you want to be focusing on. So, if there are, for example, you know there's a big project happening and it's in the technology space. Maybe it's AI-related. They might be more important from that perspective because you're like, "They're making lots of decisions there." So I want to strategically focus on building out my relationship with them.
This isn't politics. It's strategic protection. I want you to really think about this as a way to position yourself and to understand how to use and influence within that power mapping net that you have. Because this is truly what's happening, right? There's a system at play, and you should be revisiting this. You should be seeing, oh wow, I'm actually at a conference with these people. I really want to push this agenda forward, right? I want to make myself known to them. I want to deepen my relationship with them. This is where it's important.
There's also energy behind the influence. I want to discuss the emotional intelligence and self-regulation. This is not performing. This is about being grounded and known. So for me, one of the things that I did in my leadership team meetings, right? There were certain relationships that I wanted to build more on. And if there were some people that were new to the C-suite that I didn't know that well, I would make myself known to them. Not in a way where I'm trying to impress them or perform, but really get to know them. And so it's about presence over performance.
This distinction is really important because I think what women fear a lot of times is they don't want to be seen as some political animal, some ambitious person. The way you don't do that is where you're connected to yourself, where you understand your come from. I actually want to get to know this person better. I really want to know Joe's AI strategy as it relates to tech. I want to hear what he has to say, what's important to him. And then I want to share what's important to me in a real way that is meaningful and not about us just like performing for each other, but really connecting, right?
The leaders who hold influence aren't always the loudest, right? They're the clearest. They speak from calm conviction. And that's what I want for you, right? You don't have to go take up space and feel all ungrounded and feel out of control. This is not about that. This is about the energy of influence. And if there are things you want to achieve, which you're listening to this podcast, so you're probably a highly ambitious woman who wants things, right? This is your map to do it. And it gives you a clear way to do it. And it's not about manipulation. It's all about you strategically influencing and gaining the support you need to move your, you know, problem forward, to move your solution forward, to move your idea forward, right?
So, I want you to do this tangible action this week, right? Number one, create that influence net, just like I said. Number two, identify one relationship to deepen this week. Reach out, align on a goal, offer support. I remember there was a new sales leader. She joined our team and she was in town. And I said, "Hey, I know we're going to be in a bunch of meetings together, but I'd love to just do a one-on-one, either have drinks with you after work or have coffee with you." I wanted to build my relationship with her. I wanted to get to know her. I wanted to also let her know some of the dynamics on the team, to build trust with her and to build rapport with her. And so these are things you can do, right?
Oftentimes, we're so busy in our day-to-day, we're not zooming out to think, where can we be strategically influencing? Where could we be just having that little coffee chat, having that extra connection point to build this out? It doesn't happen overnight, but if you have your mind set on it, then you'll start synergistically thinking about ways to do it, right? You'll start being like, "Oh, that's right. We're all going to go out together. Let me make sure I sit by this person. Let me make sure I talk to this person more." You want to be thoughtful about it. And you want to practice visibility with intention. Share one insight, ask one strategic question. You know, we're really talking, it's not supposed to be transactional, it's relational. These are relationships that we're managing. And oftentimes, women like to not be uncomfortable and we want to stick our heads into solving problems and not taking up space, not networking, right?
But this is a big reason why there's only 29% of women in the C-suite, right? We're not doing those things that, you know, I'm not telling you to go play golf on a golf course with your CEO, but I am telling you, if you've got a meeting, if there is a dinner, then I'm telling you to try to sit next to him, at least talk to him, tell him about some strategic idea, let him know you personally. I think that's a big thing too. People oftentimes don't think about that personal connection, right? People think that you have to be talking about business all the time. But again, connections and strategic influence happen by relationships. And relationships are about knowing people and connecting with people in a human way.
So, highlight a win in a way that links it back to the business impact. Talk about something personally, you know, one of the things that I talked about a lot was really like the coaching that I was getting because it allowed people to get to know me, to know that I care about my leadership and my ability to communicate. And you know, I would make it strategic. I wouldn't just be like, "Oh, I'm part of this coaching program, blah, blah, blah." I'd be like, "Oh, like let me tell you something that's really helped me to navigate conflict, particularly with these two groups of people," right? And I'll tell them about the functional area and I'm really strategic about layering in that story in a way that is connected, relational, but also related to something business. I'm also positioning myself as an authority in some way. I'm really good at working with a shared services. So if you ever need help with that, let me know. I'm letting them know what my strategic power is too. And I'm also asking them like, "Hey, I've seen you. You're so good at getting our customers to come on board and do things and test things out with us. How do you do that?"
So, you want to just zoom out and give yourself time and space to really be thinking about how could you be strategically influencing? How can you be building this relationship and building this rapport with folks? Because the people who do this, the men who do this, they're the ones that are getting talked about. They're the ones that people know. They're the ones that aren't feeling like they have to, like, advocate for themselves because they're doing it like step by step all the time, you know, through their interactions.
So I want you thinking for yourself about this empowering message, which is that influence isn't about chasing power. It's about standing in yours. And oftentimes, women are not giving them the time and space to stand in their own power, to really step back and say, "What am I really good at? How can I add value to these conversations? And how can I be relational with this person? How do I do that in a way that is really genuine and authentic?" And sometimes it's a muscle. You might be like, "Oh, I don't know. I'm not used to talking about myself in these spaces." Well, it's a muscle. You get to practice this, right? Every conversation, every connection is an opportunity to expand your reach, not your workload. And to have more connection with the people around you.
So ask yourself this week, am I just present in the room or am I shaping what happens inside of it? It could be something as simple as, "Hey John, how are your kids doing?" I know, it sounds like such small talk, but that small talk, that ability to connect with somebody on a human level, on a relational level will have you being able to influence them in even in a deeper way. If you have that conversation with John, when you need something, when you want to come back to him for something, you'll already have a basis of connection. And that's where your influence becomes even more powerful when you have that rapport, right?
When you're like, "Hey John, I want to be the one that is leading this AI piece for my practice. Can you help me in positioning myself that way? Are you able to talk to the leadership team about allowing me to do this?" Of course, you've got to understand what is the level of rapport. But you need to start somewhere. So, I want you to get started this week. I want you to map out your influence net. I want you to be curious about it. And I want you to just take it one relationship at a time, one conversation at a time. And as you track yourself and you're shifting these numbers so that you are more and more connected and closer and more aligned and have more rapport with these power players, I want you to see what happens and what changes in your career because this really works. This actually is what has people ascending to leadership and collapsing time much more quick than trying to have the best deliverable, having the best work, right? Influence and relationships matter at this level.
All right. DM me if you have any questions. I want to hear how this is landing for you. If you want to send me your influence map, I would be happy to take a look at it and celebrate you. So also share this episode with any woman leader who feels like they don't know how to strategically influence and maybe they're just surviving their career instead of thriving in it. Share it widely and broadly. I want to support as many women as possible to feel empowered in their life and their leadership. All right. Have a beautiful week. Go work your strategic influence net. Bye.
Thank you for being a part of The Balanced Leader community. We hope you found today's episode inspiring and actionable. For more resources and to connect with Yann, visit us at aspire-coaching.co. Until next time, keep leading with confidence and purpose.
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