Latest / The Internal Move Podcast with Fexingo: Lateral Roles, Internal Transfers, and Staying at Your Company / How an Internal Transfer Can Help You Build Influence Without Authority
Transcript
- Lucas: So we talk a lot on this show about using an internal transfer to get a raise, or to escape a bad situation, or to learn a new skill. But there's one reason I don't think we've covered yet, and it might be the most strategic of all. Luna: I'm curious. What's the angle? Lucas: Building influence without authority. I mean real, durable influence — the kind where people come to you for advice, where you can shape decisions, even though you don't have a single direct report. And an internal transfer, done right, can be the fastest way to get that. Luna: Okay, that sounds almost too good. But isn't that just office politics dressed up in a nicer name? Lucas: It can be, if you do it cynically. But there's a legitimate version that's about becoming the person who knows how things work, who connects the dots. And the key is that when you transfer to a new department or a new function, you get to rebuild your platform from scratch. Luna: Right, because you're not carrying the baggage of your old role. But you also don't have any track record in the new team. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the challenge. So let me give you a concrete example. I was talking to a product manager at a mid-sized fintech company — we'll call her Priya. She was on a centralized product team, working on a feature that served multiple business lines. She was good at her job, but she felt like she was always executing someone else's priorities. Luna: Classic product role — all responsibility, no authority. Lucas: Right. So she applied for an internal transfer to become the product lead for one of the business units — same title, same pay band. But the difference was that now she was embedded in the team that actually used her product. And within six months, she became the go-to person for product strategy for that unit. No direct reports, but she had more influence than her old boss. Luna: So what changed? Was it just proximity? Lucas: Proximity helped, but it was more about three specific levers that she could pull in the new role. First, expertise. In her old job, she was one of many product managers. In the new unit, she was the only person who understood both the product's technical capabilities and the business's needs. That gave her informational power. Luna: So she became the subject-matter expert. That's the classic play. Lucas: Exactly. The second lever is network. When you transfer, you bring your relationships from your old team — engineering, compliance, whatever — and you combine them with new relationships in the business unit. So you become a bridge. People start coming to you because you know who to talk to in legal, or you know how to get a feature prioritized. Luna: That's a huge advantage over someone who's always been in that unit and only knows their own silo. Lucas: Huge. And the third lever is reciprocity. When you're new in a role, people tend to help you — they show you the ropes, they give you context. And if you're smart, you build a bank of goodwill. Later, when you need buy-in for a project or a process change, you can call in those favors. Luna: So it's like the transfer resets the social ledger. You go from being a net debtor to having some currency. Lucas: Exactly. And the beauty is, you don't need a title to do any of that. But it requires intentionality. Most people transfer and just try to do the job. They don't think about building influence as a separate goal. Luna: So what's the first step? If someone is in a role with no authority and they're considering a transfer, how do they even identify which move will give them that platform? Lucas: I'd say look for roles where you'll be the only person with a certain skill set or knowledge base in that team. Priya was the only product person in her business unit — everyone else was sales, operations, finance. That's a structural advantage. You want to be a bottleneck of expertise, in the positive sense. Luna: So avoid teams that already have a lot of people with your background. Go where you're unique. Lucas: Right. And the second thing is to look for a role that has a lot of touchpoints. If you're in a centralized function, you might only interact with a few stakeholders. But if you transfer to a front-line team, you'll interact with clients, with support, with sales — and every one of those interactions is a chance to build credibility. Luna: But there's a risk here, right? If you're the only expert, you can also become a bottleneck in the bad way — everyone comes to you, and you get overwhelmed. Lucas: That's a real risk. And that's where the network lever comes in. You can't be the only bridge. You need to document and share knowledge so that your influence scales. Priya did that — she created a simple one-pager on how product decisions got made, and she shared it with the team. That actually increased her influence because she was seen as someone who empowers others. Luna: So it's not about hoarding information. It's about being the source of clarity. Lucas: Exactly. And this is where I think the concept of 'lateral leadership' really shines. There's a great book called 'Influence Without Authority' by Cohen and Bradford — it's from the 90s but still relevant. They talk about the currency of exchange: you do something for someone, they owe you. But in a corporate setting, the currency isn't just favors — it's information, access, support. Luna: So when you transfer, you're essentially changing the currency you can offer. In your old role, maybe you only had technical expertise. In the new role, you have that plus business context plus a broader network. Lucas: That's it. And let me give you another example from a different industry. I know a marketing manager at a consumer goods company — let's call him David. He was in brand marketing for one specific product line. He transferred to a corporate strategy role. Same level, no direct reports. But suddenly he was working on projects that involved supply chain, finance, R&D. Luna: So he went from a functional silo to a cross-functional hub. Lucas: Exactly. And within a year, when the company needed someone to lead a new initiative on sustainability — which required coordination across five departments — David was the natural choice. Not because he had the title, but because he already had relationships in every department and knew how to translate between them. Luna: So the transfer itself was the investment. The influence came later as the return. Lucas: Right. And I think that's the frame that's missing from most career advice. People think about transfers as a way to get a better title or more money. But the real value might be the platform it gives you to shape things. And if you're early in your career, that platform can compound. Luna: Let me push back a little. Some listeners might say, 'This sounds like a way to do more work without getting paid for it.' You're basically describing a path to influence that doesn't come with a promotion. Is that really a good trade? Lucas: Fair question. I'd say it depends on your timeline. If you need a paycheck bump right now, this isn't the right move. But if you're thinking about your career trajectory over two to three years, influence without authority often leads to authority with a title. Priya was promoted to director within eighteen months of her transfer. David was tapped for a vp level role a year after that sustainability project. Luna: So the influence was a leading indicator. The promotion followed. Lucas: Exactly. And that's consistent with research on career mobility. A study from LinkedIn a few years ago showed that internal transfers that involve a functional change — moving from marketing to strategy, for example — lead to faster promotions than staying in the same function. The reason is that you develop a broader perspective that makes you more valuable at the senior level. Luna: But that requires the transfer to be strategic. Not every lateral move gives you that platform. If you just move to a similar role in a similar team, you're not building new influence levers. Lucas: That's the key distinction. A lateral move that's just a change of scenery won't do it. You need to move to a role that changes the structure of your relationships and your expertise. And that's something you can evaluate before you apply. Luna: How would you evaluate it? What questions should someone ask during the interview? Lucas: I'd ask: 'Who are the main stakeholders I'd be working with?' If it's a diverse set — different functions, different levels — that's good. I'd also ask: 'What's the biggest knowledge gap the team has right now?' If your background fills that gap, you're set. And I'd ask: 'How do decisions get made here?' If the answer is 'informally through relationships,' then your influence-building skills will matter more than your title. Luna: Those are great questions. And I think they also help you avoid a move that looks good on paper but leaves you in the same influence vacuum. Lucas: Exactly. And speaking of making good moves — you know, we've been doing this podcast for over eighty episodes now, and it's completely ad-free. That's intentional. But it also means the only thing keeping it going is listeners who find it valuable and want to support it. Luna: Yeah, it's a small thing but it makes a real difference. If you've gotten something out of an episode — maybe you used one of these insights to navigate your own transfer — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. Lucas: It's at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure at all, but if you've found the show useful, that's the place. And now back to the topic — because I think there's one more practical step we should cover. Luna: What's that? Lucas: Once you're in the new role, how do you actually start building that influence? I've seen people make the mistake of trying too hard too fast — offering opinions, suggesting changes. That can backfire because you haven't built trust yet. Luna: So you have to earn the right to influence. Lucas: Exactly. Priya's approach was to spend the first thirty days just listening and learning. She scheduled one-on-ones with everyone in the unit, asked about their biggest challenges, and only then started offering ideas. By the time she proposed a change in the product roadmap, she had already shown that she understood their context. Luna: So the sequence is: listen, connect, then propose. Not the other way around. Lucas: Right. And the other tactic is to find a quick win — something that helps someone else without much effort from you. For example, Priya noticed that the sales team didn't have a simple way to explain a new feature to customers. She created a one-page cheat sheet. That small act built goodwill across the whole sales team. Luna: And that's the reciprocity lever you mentioned earlier. You gave them something first. Lucas: Exactly. And once you have that, you can start shaping bigger decisions. The beauty is that none of this requires a title. It's all about how you position yourself and your expertise. Luna: So the takeaway for our listeners might be: if you're feeling stuck in a role where you have responsibility but no authority, don't wait for a promotion. Consider a lateral transfer that changes the structure of your influence. Because the authority might follow. Lucas: That's the bet. And from what I've seen, it's a good one.