A specific section of the Future Leaders Fellows Development Network’s Influencing Toolkit explores how influence operates within higher education and provides practical advice on influencing upwards, building credibility, understanding institutional priorities and communicating effectively with decision-makers.
Many researchers assume that good ideas, strong evidence or valuable contributions will naturally be recognised. However, universities are complex organisations with multiple stakeholders, competing priorities and formal and informal decision-making processes. As a result, influence often depends not only on the quality of an idea, but also on how it is communicated, who is involved, and how well it aligns with institutional goals and priorities.
The toolkit introduces practical approaches to understanding influence within academic environments, including stakeholder analysis, influencing strategies, communication approaches and common challenges associated with influencing without formal authority.
For researchers who identify with the Independent Scholar Persona, this resource may be particularly useful when seeking promotion, raising the profile of their work, securing support for new ideas, or ensuring that valuable but less visible contributions are recognised and understood.
For those who identify with the Boundary Spanner persona, it offers practical approaches to influencing across organisational and disciplinary boundaries, engaging stakeholders effectively, building partnerships and creating the conditions for research to achieve wider impact.
The central message is that influence is not simply a personal characteristic. It is a skill that can be developed through greater understanding of people, relationships, systems and organisational context.
Related resources:
- Use mentoring and sponsorship
- Map your contributions
- Get to grips with promotions criteria, process and people
- Mapping contributions against institutional strategies
- Design stakeholder engagement that is credible, inclusive and effective
- Use practical tools to engage with policy audiences and processes effectively
What will you take forward?
One thing to consider: Think about a change, idea or opportunity that matters to you. Who are the key stakeholders, what matters to them, and what might increase your influence in that situation?
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