Though you might have walked into a meeting having identified the opportunity and armed with all the answers and analysis, you knew you were losing the room. But the objections weren’t really about your presentation, they were about you.
Though many leaders interpret moments like this as resistance to change or poor decision-making, Executive Advisor and Speaker David Edelman sees something different. More often, people aren't rejecting the idea, they just haven’t developed enough confidence in the person presenting it.
For leaders who work across functions, influence rarely begins with persuasion. It begins much earlier, with earning credibility.
As marketing, product, technology, finance, operations, sales, and customer experience become increasingly intertwined, few meaningful initiatives can succeed through authority alone. They require coalitions, trust, and understanding the people whose support will ultimately determine whether an idea moves forward.
"The work is the network," Edelman reminded leaders in a recent LEAP Essentials class. In other words, building that network is not a side activity. It is part of the work itself.
David’s model is built around a sequence that many leaders unintentionally reverse.
Instead of starting by selling or pitching the room, he recommends three deliberate stages: diagnose, build credibility, then influence.
When David became Aetna's first Chief Marketing Officer in its 116-year history, he entered an extremely complex organization. Seven previously separate business divisions were brought together under a single healthcare brand. Marketing had never existed as an executive-level function, and David himself had no healthcare experience despite decades of marketing leadership.
His instinct was not to explain what marketing could do for the business (pitch mode), but to ask questions. He met with peers across the organization to understand how they viewed their businesses, where they saw opportunities, what pressures they faced, how they thought about customers, and whether they believed in the CEO's broader transformation strategy. He wanted to understand both the formal priorities and the unspoken realities underneath them.
"You want to understand the context,” he said. “You want to understand each key person's situation, the challenges that they have, how they see their business, how they see their customers, how they think about the strategy overall."
That curiosity serves two purposes simultaneously: Leaders gather information that improves their decisions, and they begin earning credibility simply by demonstrating genuine interest in other people's perspectives. Much like a physician who asks questions before recommending treatment, leaders establish confidence by showing they understand the problem before proposing solutions.
Only after diagnosis comes the second stage: building credibility.
Many executives assume credibility comes from highlighting expertise or demonstrating past accomplishments. Those certainly matter, but Edelman argues that credibility grows just as much from how leaders position themselves in the relationship.
When introducing himself at Aetna, he wanted peers to understand why he had joined the company, how he saw marketing contributing to the business, and how he intended to work alongside them. Marketing, in his view, exists to help the business achieve its goals.
"I understand the business has targets to hit," David explained. "I'm building my credibility with you by empathetically sharing that I know we've got to hit those targets."
That perspective changes the conversation. Rather than arriving as the executive with new, top-down mandates, leaders become partners invested in helping colleagues succeed. Credibility grows because people recognize shared objectives rather than competing agendas.
Only after diagnosis and credibility does David recommend introducing ideas. At this stage, influence becomes much easier because people already understand your intentions and trust your perspective. Discussions focus less on defending recommendations and more on solving problems together.
"You can't sell,” he said. “You can't convince them that you're the greatest at the start.”
Influence, then, becomes the natural outcome of relationships that have already been established rather than a performance that must happen inside a single meeting.
Edelman encourages leaders to think beyond individual relationships and begin mapping the network surrounding every important initiative.
Every organization has an informal operating system that sits alongside the org chart. Understanding that network becomes increasingly valuable during moments of uncertainty, strategic planning, organizational change, or periods when performance falls short.
"When things go south, you really need your network," Edelman says.
The same applies to annual planning cycles, cross-functional initiatives, and talent development. Leaders with strong networks solve problems faster because they already know who to call, how each stakeholder thinks, and what motivates them.
Those relationships also benefit the broader team. Senior leaders create conditions that allow their people to collaborate more effectively across departments, opening opportunities for growth, visibility, and shared success.
Many leadership books focus on communication techniques or persuasion strategies. But David’s model begins somewhere more fundamental.
Influence depends on understanding people before trying to convince them. Leaders who diagnose thoughtfully gain insight. Leaders who build credibility earn trust. Leaders who invest in relationships create pathways that allow ideas to travel farther than they ever could on their own.
The quality of an idea certainly matters, but its ability to move through an organization depends just as much on the credibility of the person carrying it and the strength of the bridges they have already built.
David Edelman is a board member, advisor, and former Chief Marketing Officer of Aetna (CVS Health). Recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on digital transformation, he is known for strengthening teams by aligning them around customers, breaking down silos, and driving meaningful change.