“Through this course I realised that influencing people requires understanding their perspective, acknowledging it, and building trust first.”

The last two decades, I built my career around compliance, governance and technical expertise. Today, I lead compliance at Barclays, working across teams that often have different priorities, reporting structures and perspectives. As I moved towards larger leadership responsibilities, I began to see that technical knowledge alone could not help me influence people who did not report to me.
One of my biggest challenges was my communication style. I tended to be direct and process-focused. If something needed to be implemented, I would explain what needed to be done and by when but when working with delivery teams that had never followed these governance processes before, this approach often created friction. I was explaining the process without explaining why it mattered, what the broader context was, or what would happen if it was not implemented.
That became particularly clear when I received feedback that I needed stronger leadership presence and that I struggled to convince stakeholders without involving senior leaders. I realised that I was relying heavily on logic and expertise, while overlooking the human side of influence.
Kapable helped me rethink that approach. The biggest shift happened in my thinking first. I began recognising that disagreement does not always mean someone believes the requirement is wrong. People can push back because of competing priorities, seniority, ownership or simply because they do not understand the context behind an ask.
This changed how I approach conversations. Instead of immediately moving into the process or the technical reasoning, I now think about the other person’s perspective, acknowledge their concerns and create the context before presenting my logic. I have also become more conscious of using empathy and credibility alongside the expertise I already bring to the conversation.
Another important change has been emotional regulation. Earlier, when things became difficult, I could move from being very aggressive to becoming completely silent. I am now becoming calmer and more consistent in how I communicate, regardless of the situation.
I also realised that I have a strong resource I was not using enough, my own experience. After working across multiple domains and interacting with different people over the years, I have countless situations I can relate to. I am now becoming more intentional about bringing those experiences and stories into conversations to make my communication more credible and relatable.
My next focus is simple, I want to make acknowledgement a natural part of my communication before adding the next layer. With regular team and stakeholder conversations every week, I have plenty of opportunities to practise.
The goal is to retain the logical reasoning and technical expertise that have always been my strengths, while adding greater empathy, acknowledgement and influence to how I lead.