Influence doesn’t happen overnight, especially the ability to affect big decisions.

Instead, influence is iterative—each successful influence opportunity builds on the last. We want to make that cycle an upward spiral that lets us make bigger and better impacts on the decisions made in the organizations we work with.

I’m playing around with what that overall iterative cycle looks like, and have five areas that come to mind: Desired Outcomes, Access, Decisions, Value, and Impact.

1. Desired Outcomes
You need to know what you want to have happen before you can shift decisions to support those outcomes.

2. Access
You need to have access to people before you can influence them. That access can be direct, or through other people who have direct access.

3. Decision
When you have access, you need to recognize what decisions are in play, and the overall process of making decisions so you can choose where to apply your influence. I wrote about this decision cycle a few days ago.

4. Value
You need to create and communicate value as you work with the people you influence. While you may already be confident in the value your suggestions carry, you need to be able to understand what is most valuable to others and how to communicate the value of your ideas in their own language.

5. Impact
Finally, influence isn’t a one-shot affair. What’s the impact of your efforts? Are your outcomes achieved? Do you have new goals to pursue? Are you recognized for the contributions you’ve made?

Deep influence is earned bit by bit, not all at once. And while that’s frustrating when you want to jump in and alter the course of a big decision, it lowers your personal risk since you’re not staking your reputation and credibility on an all-or-none proposition.

So, questions:

Are these really the pieces that go into iterative influence? Are there other parts that you think are more important? Is anything missing? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter.

Thanks!