YBB Newsletter

A question I regularly put to my coachees is:

What keeps you valuable as a research leader when everything else is shifting? (your boss, your team, your role, the strategy, the tools, the structure…)

In my experience, both as Head of Insight and now as a coach, it’s this.

Strategic influence.

Not preparing the perfect deck. Not being the ‘safe pair of hands’. Not learning AI.

Strategic influence is what helps you stay relevant, respected and indispensable.

The Value of Strategic Influence

1. It marks you out as strategic, not just senior.

   You can have the word Senior / Director / Head Of in your title, but still feel at arms length from the decision-making process. Strategic influence is how you change that. It’s your ability to cut through complexity, move a conversation forwards, and guide decisions, especially when you don’t have formal authority.

   And this matters because researchers still struggle to be seen as business advisors.

2. It’s what AI can’t replace.

   We already know the landscape is shifting. Budgets are squeezed, generative AI is becoming ever sophisticated, gathering insight and writing reports will increasingly be automated. But shaping briefs, influencing brand / product / marketing strategy and helping businesses cut through the noise and make smart decisions… that’s leadership. And that’s needed more than ever.

3. It’s how you lead without direct authority.

   As researchers, we spend time frustrated that we’re not always invited to the table. Brought in late, not consulted, reports gathering dust… these are the things we want to change. We are senior, we have vast caverns of knowledge, but rarely have formal authority over the decisions we want to influence. Strategic influence changes this. It’s about how you show up and add value, even when the power and final decisions sit elsewhere.

What does strategic influence look like?

• Framing research in business language: Risks, TradeOffs, Outcomes.

• Coming with a point of view (not just findings).

• Shifting hearts and minds through story & strategy.

• Face-time with clients & stakeholders to build that trust.

• Being the voice of the external consumer, while guiding the internal agenda.

3 questions senior researchers can ask themselves to start building more influence:

1. Where in your role are you being strategic, but not yet influential?

2. What are you assuming that’s stopping you have more of a voice?

3. How can you start to measure / track your influence?

Because what will matter most in these turbulent times, is not how busy you are, how many projects you juggled or how many decks you wrote. What will matter most is how much influence you had on the key decisions a business took.

Want to become a Trusted Advisor?

I run 121, group programmes and workshops for emerging leaders across the research industry who want to have more influence & impact. If this is you or people in your organisation, then book a free discovery call. [email protected]

Thank you for reading

If you’ve enjoyed it, let me know. And please share it with a friend or colleague who wants to have more impact.