Elevation Insights – November 2025

At Elevation Learning, we see influence as the engine of consulting excellence. Consultants who shape outcomes, mobilise people, and spark meaningful behaviour change turn insight into action and alignment into momentum. In doing so, they build relationships that generate long-term impact.

Influence in consulting has nothing to do with hierarchy — and everything to do with how you connect, communicate, and make your ideas matter. As client challenges become more complex and fluid, the ability to influence without authority is becoming one of the most critical skills a consultant can develop.

Research by the University of Manchester shows that power and influence dynamics between client and consultant teams significantly shape project outcomes, and that imbalances in these relationships can weaken the implementation of even well-designed recommendations. Influence, therefore, must be applied thoughtfully — to strengthen client capability, not to create dependency or suppress client voices.

How influence works

Influence goes far beyond persuasion. According to Roffey Park Institute, the real levers of influence include how we frame requests, reduce effort for others, build trust, align with stakeholders’ identities and motivations, and navigate informal networks within organisations. Influence often comes from making action easier, connecting to what matters to people, and clearly articulating the “what’s in it for them”.

Practitioner guidance from Centre for Management Consulting Excellence (CMCE) emphasises two core principles: credible expertise and shared identity or rapport. Consultants who combine technical credibility with a genuine connection to stakeholders tend to gain stronger buy-in and deeper commitment.

Influence must also be grounded in integrity and the courage to challenge when decisions or behaviours are not right. As highlighted by CIPD, professional influence includes the capacity to speak up — even in the face of opposition — to ensure outcomes are ethical and sustainable, not just expedient.

Finally — and importantly — recent research by the University of Manchester suggests influence in consulting is rarely a one-off act but a dynamic, co-created process. Consultants and clients shape one another’s thinking continuously through dialogue, trust-building, and shared learning. Successful consulting depends not only on what’s proposed, but on how influence is maintained over the life of the project.

How effective consultants influence

Influence in modern consulting is not about “making people do things our way.” It’s about building shared ownership of the journey. That means blending multiple techniques over time:

• Pull-in techniques: inviting input, co-creating solutions, and using compelling narratives to engage stakeholders.
• Push-in techniques: applying structured logic, evidence, and clear sequential plans to guide decision-making.
• Mobilising multiple voices: working through internal influencers, leveraging peer testimony, and building visible momentum across stakeholder groups.

Influence also requires presence and subtle relational skills: listening deeply, reading the room, adapting to context, and responding to what is said and unsaid.

In short: even the strongest solution loses value unless consultants influence the right stakeholders, at the right time, in the right way. Every consultant needs a deliberate influence strategy — mapping formal and informal networks, understanding who truly shapes decisions, strengthening client capability, and adapting communication and engagement accordingly.

At Elevation Learning, we help consultants turn capability into impact. Effective influence doesn’t happen by luck — it’s built through intention, skill, and consistent behaviour. When consultants understand how decisions are made, what stakeholders value, and how to shape conversations constructively, they unlock the ability to drive change in even the most complex environments.

Influence isn’t about persuasion or positional power; it’s about creating clarity, shaping momentum, and helping others see a path they want to be part of. The most influential consultants operate with purpose, balancing conviction with curiosity, advocacy with empathy, and challenge with support.

Outstanding influencers know how to:

• Build credibility quickly – demonstrating expertise, preparation, and trustworthiness.
• Frame ideas compellingly – connecting recommendations to what stakeholders value most.
• Reduce effort for others – making next steps easy, clear, and low-friction.
• Create mutual understanding – listening deeply to motivations, concerns, and identity drivers.
• Mobilise informal networks – engaging the people behind the decisions, not just the org chart.
• Challenge constructively – using evidence and insight to shift thinking without creating defensiveness.
• Invite shared ownership – co-creating solutions so stakeholders feel invested, not instructed.

We believe influence is at the heart of consulting excellence. It transforms insight into action, recommendations into results, and relationships into long-term impact. Consultants who influence effectively don’t push clients towards change – they bring clients with them, fostering alignment, confidence, and commitment.

Our programmes equip consultants to cultivate this level of influence deliberately – developing the skills, habits, and mindsets that enable them to shape outcomes with integrity and impact. Because when consultants influence well, they don’t just deliver great work – they create lasting change.