Influence, at its core, is about shaping understanding and decisions by sharing insight, building connection, and helping others see what’s possible. It’s how organizations make better-informed choices, and how everyday work can create broader impact.

Influencing: Helping Others See What Mobility Makes Possible

Mobility teams are well positioned to influence because of the work they do and the perspective they hold. They see how talent moves across the organization, where experience is built, what slows progress, and how decisions affect both the business and the people involved. They are close to data, patterns, and stories that others may not see in full.

Using that perspective intentionally allows mobility to influence conversations and decisions in ways that benefit the business, the employee, and the program itself.

What Influence Looks Like in Practice

Influence in mobility often takes shape through how information is brought together and shared.

Mobility teams have access to a wide range of data and experience, program activity, assignment patterns, timelines, outcomes, and costs. On its own, that information is useful. Influence emerges when it’s paired with narrative and context to help others understand what it means and why it matters.

Sometimes that starts with tracking and reporting the basics, creating visibility into program activity, trends, or outcomes. Dashboards, regular reporting, or even simple summaries can raise awareness and spark questions. Other times, influence comes from connecting those data points to a story the business cares about, development, retention, speed, readiness, or experience.

In practice, influence is less about producing more data and more about interpretation: identifying patterns, framing trade-offs, and communicating insight in a way that resonates with the audience in front of you.

Below are a few examples of how influence can show up in practice, across the organization, in partnership with talent, and within mobility itself.

Leadership Development and Career Acceleration

Many mobility teams have a strong sense that global experience contributes to leadership growth. That insight often comes from observation, seeing how employees stretch, adapt, and take on broader responsibility through assignments.

Influence emerges when that observation is supported with evidence and shared as a story leaders can recognize.

By looking at leadership profiles or career paths, mobility may notice a pattern: a meaningful number of senior leaders have had some form of mobility experience earlier in their careers.

Bringing that information forward can help reframe how mobility is understood:

“When we reviewed the backgrounds of our senior leaders, we noticed that many had early mobility experience. That exposure appears to have played a role in building the skills we now associate with effective leadership.”

This kind of insight raises awareness and adds perspective, helping leaders see mobility not just as a delivery mechanism, but as a contributor to leadership capability over time.

Post-Assignment Outcomes and Retention

Influence can also come from connecting what happens after an assignment to outcomes the organization cares deeply about.

Mobility teams are often close enough to the assignment lifecycle to recognize which post-assignment outcomes matter, even if they don’t own that data directly. They know which questions are worth asking: who stays after returning, who leaves within a year or two, who is promoted, and whether assignment goals were met.

By working with talent, HR, or analytics partners to bring that information together, mobility can begin to look across outcomes and identify patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.

For example, mobility may observe that employees who return without a clearly defined next role are more likely to leave, while those with planned reintegration tend to stay and progress.

Framed thoughtfully, that insight can influence broader conversations:

“When we look at post-assignment outcomes, we see stronger retention and progression when there’s clarity around the next role before the assignment ends. Where that planning is missing, attrition tends to be higher.”

Shared in the right context, this perspective can shape how assignments are designed, when reintegration planning begins, and how responsibility is shared across mobility, talent, and the business, without mobility needing to own succession planning outright.

Improving How Mobility Operates

Influence isn’t limited to enterprise or business discussions. It can also be applied within mobility to improve how the program operates.

Through process reviews, surveys, or time-and-effort analysis, mobility teams may notice that certain stages of a move, particularly initiation and coordination, consistently take longer than intended. Looking across cases can reveal where time is being spent, how many handoffs occur, and which steps create delays.

With that information, mobility can move beyond anecdote and into informed recommendation:

“When we reviewed our end-to-end process, we found that a significant portion of time during initiation is spent on manual coordination and data gathering. That limits capacity for higher-value support and affects overall timelines.”

Used intentionally, this kind of insight can support decisions about workflow changes, technology investment, or how work is structured, improving outcomes for the business, the employee, and the mobility team itself.

Why These Examples Matter

Influence shows up when mobility connects insight to action — when patterns are surfaced, context is shared, and decisions are informed by what mobility sees across the organization. That doesn’t require perfect data or formal ownership. It starts with understanding what matters and helping others see the connections.

Used intentionally, influence allows mobility to extend its impact beyond individual moves and into how the organization develops talent, plans for the future, and evolves its programs.

For mobility teams focused on thriving, influence is one of the most powerful tools they have.