Influence and Impact summary

It’s all-too common. Promising professionals struggle to gain influence with colleagues, despite their talent and capabilities. They work hard yet fail to receive the recognition and respect they deserve. Highly skilled and motivated, they still stall out, unable to affect meaningful change or progress in their roles. Promotions and praise consistently elude them. They suspect something vital is missing – and they’re right.

This disconnect between talent and career progression frequently stems from misalignment — a misalignment between one’s professional activities and the organization’s unspoken, yet critical, expectations and priorities. 

Without a deep understanding of what the organization needs, professionals fail to grasp these implicit requirements for success. And as a result, they’re less impactful at work because they adopt a style that’s not suited to the culture, or they neglect responsibilities which are unstated, yet essential. 

To progress and truly influence stakeholders, professionals must orient themselves around their company’s core priorities and cultural norms. They must contribute to strategic goals and maximize their potential, by grasping the organization’s unwritten rules.

Unfortunately, many organizations fail to explicitly communicate these crucial elements. Employees are left to divine the most important parts of their roles from vague job descriptions, and to understand the organization’s cultural mores gradually through observation. 

But if you take the initiative to identify these implicit expectations, a world of influence and impact opens up for you. 

Consider this simple example: Ian was a promising executive in a buttoned-up banking environment where business suits were the norm. While Ian did excellent work, he insisted on dressing casually. Unbeknownst to him, his maverick style was undermining his credibility with his more traditional-minded colleagues. Fortunately, a mentor intervened, directing Ian to align his wardrobe with the bank’s cultural norms. This small but crucial adaptation helped Ian’s influence catch up with his abilities.

We all want to contribute meaningful value to our workplaces. But despite our best intentions, many of us inadvertently act in ways – small or large – that reduce our influence and undermine our goals, just like Ian’s wardrobe did. 

Let’s look at some of these pitfalls in the next section.