In complex environments, strategy is rarely the issue. More often, progress slows as alignment across the senior team begins to drift. This piece explores how strategic influence becomes the capability that sustains momentum - helping leaders create the conditions for clarity, pace, and consistent progress across the system.
In complex environments, leadership challenges rarely show up as a lack of strategy. More often, they show up as a loss of alignment in the senior team.
And in that space, something shifts.
“The power of strategic influence becomes most visible when alignment is harder to sustain.”
In our recent webinar with the Learning & Development Institute, Tom Darby CPO of enfinium shared how this plays out in practice. What emerged was a clear shift in how we think about influence. “Strategic influence is not an individual leadership skill. It’s an essential system capability in times of uncertainty and complexity.” It shapes:
This is where many organisations feel the strain. Not because people are not capable. But because the system is not always coherent.
“Senior teams don’t just set direction - they set the conditions for progress.”
Where those conditions are unclear or inconsistent, teams compensate locally and alignment begins to drift.
“It’s less about driving outcomes, more about creating the conditions for movement.”
Strategic influence is not about pushing harder. It is about enabling people to move together with clarity, pace, and consistency. And this is where the real question sits for many leadership teams:
“Where clarity drops, influence has to increase.”
“Influence is what drives momentum when complexity rises.”
If this reflects what you’re seeing, we’d welcome the conversation.
Aoife Keane 
Aoife Keane 
Aoife Keane