Strategic Influence
In business, strategic influence is the art of planning and establishing influence among the public, customers, potential customers or employees. The key to building strategic influence is to know what type of presence and influence you want to have and then build and maintain a diverse network of relationships to grow that influence. Diverse networks are business and social networks made up of many different kinds of people, including valued vendors and contract personnel. The variety of relationships builds a broader circle of influence.[1]
Strategic influence was originally a concept from military and geopolitical strategy, referring to a nation's ability to affect the policy decisions of other nations and organizations through control of information. Strategic influence in business is the ability to convince other people in your department to implement your ideas. It is also the ability to convince other departments in your company to adopt the suggestions of your department, or to influence other companies to take actions favorable to your company. Strategic influence is built on relationships between people, but just as in military strategy there is both a positive and a negative side to strategic influence. Influence strategies can appeal to the other party's self-interest or altruism or fear of negative consequences or all of the above.[2]
References
Further Reading
- Five Strategies To Influence The Influencers forbes
- Crafting Successful Influence Strategies: The Big Four ssir.org
- Using Influence to Get Things Done strategy-business