Last year, a CEO I coach said something that stopped me mid-sip of coffee:

“My executive connections here are unparalleled.”

He wasn’t wrong. Over four years, he’d built an unrivaled C-suite network across Indonesia. He could open doors others didn’t even know existed.

So when we started talking about his readiness for a regional ASEAN role, it should have been an easy yes.

But something didn’t add up.

I asked:

“That’s impressive,” I said. “Now tell me – how might those relationship-building skills translate to managing upward in your own organization?”

Silence.

He’d mastered the external game but he’d left the internal one on the bench.

All that finesse with customers and government officials? He’d never applied it to his own leadership chain.

His regional bosses saw him as effective but narrow – great in one market, unproven beyond it.

The insight sparked a deeper exploration: Why invest so heavily externally while leaving internal stakeholders undernourished?

Here’s what I’ve observed across dozens of leaders:

We’ve been trapped in false choices.

• Customers OR colleagues
• External influence OR internal credibility
• Market mastery OR organizational fluency

The leaders who accelerate?

They reject this tyranny of OR.

They embrace the genius of AND.

They understand that every skill honed in the marketplace applies equally to internal navigation:

→ Your ability to read a customer’s unspoken needs? That works with your CFO too.

→ Your talent for building trust with partners? Your peers need that as well.

→ Your patience in cultivating long-term relationships externally? Try it with your boss.

Think about it.

When you’re preparing for a major client meeting, you do your homework:

• You research their KPIs
• You map stakeholders
• You look for ways to add value

But when was the last time you applied that same rigor to understanding your internal stakeholders?

Your boss has objectives you could be helping them achieve.

Your peers have challenges where you could add value.

Your skip-level leaders have strategic priorities you could align with.

Yet most leaders overlook investing the same intentionality internally that they bring to external relationships.

It’s not that they don’t care.

They simply haven’t connected the dots.

Here’s where you can start:

• Map your internal ecosystem the way you map customer organizations.
•  Run listening tours to understand what matters to your stakeholders.
• Apply your best customer skills internally: empathy, value creation, long-term thinking.

Your external success has taught you everything you need to know about internal success. Apply it and witness the unexpected results.

So, let me ask you:

What becomes possible when you invest in internal influence as intentionally as external?

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