Asad Husain’s 5 Disciplines of Matrix Influence

Most decisions aren’t made in the meeting room – people have most often made up their minds before they enter the room.

When you’re in a matrix structure it can be difficult to navigate how and when to influence your key stakeholders before they make their decisions. These are excellent tips from my colleague Asad Husain on how to approach this.

The Five Disciplines of Matrix Influence

from Asad Husain

In a matrix, your title may earn you a seat at the table. Whether people actually move with you is a different question.

That tends to come down to influence. And in my experience, influence in a matrix is rarely won in the meeting where the decision gets made – it’s built quietly, consistently, long before that meeting begins.

McKinsey’s research found highly matrixed employees were nearly twice as likely to say their organisation helped them collaborate, do their best work, and drive innovation. The opportunity seems real. So does the leadership demand it places on us.

Here are five disciplines I’ve noticed separate leaders who merely navigate the matrix from those who make it work:

1. Invest in relationships before you need them

The executive who only reaches out when they need something finds every conversation carries the faint smell of transaction. People sense it – and give the minimum.

2. Understand their agenda before presenting yours

Before making your case, it helps to get curious: What are they delivering this quarter? Where are they under pressure? That’s the shift from persuasion to alignment.

3. Build coalitions before the meeting, not during it

People rarely change position publicly. They tend to change it privately, in low-stakes conversations, before the politics of an audience.

In practice, that might sound like: “Before I bring this to the group, I wanted to hear your read on it first – where do you see the risks?” One sentence. Asked a week early. Often the difference between a stakeholder discovering your proposal and helping shape it.

4. Lead with purpose, not process

People comply with structure. They commit to purpose.

5. Make your currency visible – and keep it flowing

The leaders who build lasting influence tend to be the ones who share information, credit others publicly, and remove obstacles – not because it’s owed back, but because that’s how trust seems to accumulate in complex systems. Research on cross-silo collaboration in professional firms has found that shifting toward genuine cross-practice work can lift revenues by 5 to 12 percent.

Beneath all five may sit a deeper shift: from a positional identity to a relational identity. Perhaps the question isn’t “what authority do I have?” but “what conditions can I create for others to move with me?”

What’s the discipline you’ve found hardest?