The Satellite Problem: How to Build Influence When You're Not in the Room

Hey there. I'm Jill Griffin, the host of The Career Refresh. And today we are talking about the satellite office problem and how to build influence when you're not in the room. This can also be looked upon if you are a remote worker or you have a hybrid schedule and the epicenter or the pulse, the heartbeat of your company is elsewhere.

And there's a version of this problem that I don't know that many people are talking about at a senior level. And because it feels like it's admitting weakness, like how do you create influence when you're actually not there? You know you're good at your job. You your job knows that you're good at your job, your direct team knows it.

But do the people who decide your future, your raise, your bonus, we're gonna re-org who's staying, who's going, do they know it? So if they don't know it, if they don't see you and they don't know the work that you're actually doing, that's the problem. Let's dig in. So I want to distinguish proximity from performance.

The satellite problem often is the gap between your output and others' perception of your output. So informal in uh visibility, right? When you're able to have the hallway conversation, you're in the elevator, you're maybe grabbing lunch at the same time, there's that spontaneous FaceTime. And that often can be seen as working or contributing.

And that tends to compound over time to perceived credibility, right? That you're here and you're working. Who actually decides what happens, promotions, bonuses, stretch assignments, new pieces of business, new opportunities is often getting it decided with the people who are interacting with each other. And since you're not necessarily in those, the proximity conversation because you're not physically there, it's going to feel unfair.

And it is, but as we've said, there's no fair in business, right? But you need to think about this, that this is a structural issue. And it could be a trap for high performance, right? If you are leading a team and you're leading them remotely, or your entire team is remote or at a different office from, again, the headquarters of where most of the business is happening.

It assumes that, you know, that they're going to be aware of the work you're doing. And I don't want you to fall into that trap because assuming that is really putting yourself at a risk. At a senior level, if they don't know about it, they're going to question it or wonder, or it might just be like an out of sight, out of mind. So they don't know what you're doing unless there's an audience for you to tell, right?

So, what you want to do is you want to be really careful in how you approach this. You want to be super strategic in how you approach this. So, first I would say is this idea of like, well, I'll just schedule catch-ups. That vague relationship building puts the invisible labor on the person that you're catching up with.

And without a clear reason to show up, they might show up, they may deprioritize it or cancel it. Or if they do come, they may feel like, is this gonna be a waste of my time? So that's the first problem I see. The second problem is people then think, well, I'll just speak up more on, you know, the Microsoft Teams meeting, the Zoom meetings, that I'm gonna make sure that I'm being useful, but useful in itself is insufficient because being visible in the group setting doesn't necessarily replace the one-on-one relationship capital that happens with the decision maker.

And then the idea of, well, I'll just wait then to the next time I'm in the office at the QBR, the quarterly business meeting, uh, the annual sales meeting, the next time we have a client-facing meeting, great, but momentum doesn't pause and wait for those moments. So if you're not there, you're not there. So I don't want you to freak out about this because this is happening all the time, but visibility alone does not build presence. What you need to do is build relevance and you need to resonate.

So here are three things that senior literals are doing that can actually pull apart and really stretch yourself so that you're shrinking the distance and it doesn't feel as strong. First is you wanna lead with usefulness and utility, not just relationship building, right? So every outreach should be what does this person need to know? What will be useful to them?

And, you know, how do I get them to think about giving me 20 or 30 minutes right now? This is gonna come with a specific insight, a question that serves their agenda, a piece of work that might be cross-shared across departments, um a customer meeting that you might be having that you can share with them to help them get ahead on something, right? You wanna share work that is going to benefit them. This is not about you.

I know it feels like it should be about you, but it's not. This is about them across various business units and how do you deconstruct silos, right? Identifying those issues that affect more than one team or more than one person in leadership. That's what you want to be doing.

So spearheading something, um, a learning session across team functional meeting, a knowledge share, ways that you can build influence organically. And it's much more powerful than an individual catch-up. Let's have coffee, let's grab 15 or 20 minutes on a Zoom meeting, right? It's much more powerful to come with a way that there's a reason for people to be getting together and you're the one who's spearheading it.

The third area is yeah, you want to think about can you engineer your physical uh presence strategically? So you may want to ask for time in the main office, but propose it as a business case with a clear agenda, right? Give a cost minute uh estimate. Is there a defined outcome?

You know what, we're having that sales meeting next week. Would it be within the budget for me to come the week prior to do some work or the week after to do some work, right? See if you want to tie it into existing team gatherings where possible so that you can actually build those relationships and show them that you're adding to the resourcefulness and being relevant and resonating with their asks. All this is gonna come down to a mindset.

The problem at times when you feel like a satellite person is that you may feel like geography is the problem, but geography at times is just surfacing the deeper issue that something has to shift or change so that you can figure out how to navigate. And senior leaders who think about solving this are not waiting to be seen. They're creating the conditions for them to be seen. They're creating intentionality and they're doing it repeatedly.

And understanding the nature of the beast is that, yes, the epicenter is away from me. So, how do I continue to be relevant, to be useful, and to resonate, making sure that what you're saying is really landing with people. You want to be thinking with a question to yourself, like, who in your organization may not know what you're actually doing? And do they have influence that you want to start generating a relationship with?

But generating that relationship, again, is through their lens, what would benefit them, not necessarily what benefits you. You know, often in corporate, you get people reaching out and saying, like, oh, can, you know, can we just grab coffee or can I just pick your brain? And if we had all the time in the world, that would be a great thing to do. But very often we're super busy and you don't want the person that you're reaching out to that's in that main office to feel like it's a burden because then you're going to start to feel like people are avoiding you.

So those are the things that I would think through. Really be thinking through how are you being useful? How are you resonating? How are you being relevant?

And how are you thinking about the budget to get you to that office with some regularity? Maybe again, it's tied to a vendor meeting or a client meeting or an annual sales meeting or something that can help you create those continued connections to show how relevant you are. All right, friends, that's what we got for today. If you have questions, email me at hello at JillGriffincoaching.

com. I always appreciate you being here. And listen, refresh your thinking on this networking. Be intentional and always, always, always be kind.

I'll see you soon.