Instant Influence Is Never Instant

Let me tell you about the most impressive 47 seconds I’ve ever seen in a meeting.

A colleague of mine, mid-level program manager, not the most senior person in the room, was sitting in a quarterly review when leadership dropped a surprise pivot.

New direction.
New priorities.
Effective immediately.

You could feel the room tighten. People started reaching for safe language. Careful reactions. Non-committal questions.

She didn’t scramble.

She paused. Took a breath. Then offered a response so clear, so structured, and so precisely tuned to what leadership actually cared about that the entire conversation reorganized around her point.

Forty-seven seconds.

Afterward, someone leaned over to me and said, “She’s a natural. That kind of influence, you either have it or you don’t.”

I laughed.

Because I knew what they were seeing.

And what they were missing.

I’d watched her spend the last three years building for exactly that kind of moment.

Here’s the paradox nobody names:

Instant influence takes time.

It appears in a moment. A sentence that shifts a room. A response under pressure that reframes a decision.

But that moment didn’t begin when you spoke.

It began long before.

When someone handles pressure cleanly, it looks effortless. Like they were born with composure and clarity.

They weren’t.

What you’re seeing is the visible surface of two long-running investments most people never treat deliberately.

Reputation.
What people already believe about your judgment before you speak.

Impromptu skill.
What you can do with that attention when the moment arrives.

Reputation decides whether people lean in.

Impromptu skill decides whether the lean-in was justified.

Most professionals build neither on purpose. They let reputation drift and hope articulation appears when stakes rise.

Then influence feels inconsistent. Not because they lack insight.

Because the infrastructure behind that insight was never built.

Here’s the infrastructure we have to build:

Let’s get it…

Here’s the quiet reality of professional life:

Your reputation enters the room first. It shapes how your ideas are interpreted, how objections are received, and whether your contributions register as signal or noise.

And reputation isn’t title or résumé.

It’s the answer to one internal question others carry about you:

When this person speaks, is it usually worth listening?

That answer forms slowly. Across ordinary moments.

How prepared you are in routine meetings.
Whether you follow through.
How you handle disagreement.
Whether your input sharpens things or muddies them.

None of this looks dramatic.
All of it compounds.

The people who seem influential on demand have spent years shaping that perception.
They prepare even when stakes are low, follow through reliably, speak selectively, and build trust broadly.

So when a high-stakes moment arrives, attention is already there.
No communication technique can substitute for that.

Reputation earns attention.
Impromptu skill determines what happens next.

And this is where many thoughtful professionals are underprepared.

A surprise question.
A public challenge.
An unexpected opening to shape direction.

You get 30 to 90 seconds.
What you say either increases your influence or erodes it.

Impromptu skill isn’t quick wit. It’s the ability to do three things at once under pressure:

See what actually matters.
Structure a coherent position.
Articulate it cleanly for this audience.

That’s one integrated capability built through repetition long before you need it.

The people who look effortless in these moments aren’t lucky.
They’re practiced.

Reputation builds in ordinary moments.

Treat each interaction as perception-shaping, not task-completing.

Choose a few qualities you want associated with you, and demonstrate them consistently, not occasionally.

Follow-through and clarity compound faster than brilliance.

Reputation isn’t built on peak performance.

It’s built on predictable reliability.

You need a mental structure that activates under pressure.

Not to sound polished.

To stay coherent.

For example:
Position → Reason → Risk

Practice this in low-stakes settings until it becomes reflex.

Respond in hallway conversations.
State your point first.
Support briefly.
Stop cleanly.

Record yourself occasionally.
Notice where clarity collapses.
Tighten.

Impromptu skill grows through small repetitions, not big moments.

Instant influence is never instant.

It’s the visible expression of two slow-built assets: a reputation people trust and the live skill to justify that trust.

When both are in place, a single sentence can shift a room.

And it looks like talent.

But it’s accumulation.

Thanks for reading. Be easy!
Girvin