Strategic influence is the skill every director of communications needs (not AI...)

Here’s a question I come back to often in coaching sessions:

What actually keeps you valuable as a comms leader when everything else is shifting. Your team, your boss, the strategy, the structure… even the role itself?

In my experience (both on the inside as a Director of Comms, and now as a coach to senior comms leaders) it’s this.

Strategic Influence

Not internal communications. Or employee engagement. Not crisis handling. Not being the “safe pair of hands.” Not learning AI. 

Strategic influence is what helps you stay relevant, respected and at the table.

Why Strategic Influence is the Skill That Keeps You in the Room

1. It marks you out as strategic, not just senior. You can be a senior Comms leader on paper and still get looped in late or second-guessed. Strategic influence is how you change that. It’s your ability to read the room, land a point with clarity even when the discussion is all shades of grey, and guide decisions, especially when you don’t have formal authority. (And even as Comms leaders, we so often don't.)

And that matters, because so many communications leaders still struggle to be seen as business advisors.

2. It’s what AI can’t replace. We already know the landscape is shifting, think generative AI, digital transformation, budget pressure. Writing and channel delivery will increasingly be automated. But influencing execs, shaping a board conversation, or coaching your CEO through reputational risk? That’s leadership. That’s not going anywhere.

3. It helps you survive and stand out in times of change. Let’s be honest: a lot of experienced comms leaders are tired right now. You might have been through yet another restructure, redundancy, or round of cost-cutting. Maybe your role has shrunk. Or you’ve inherited a team with low morale. Or you’re on the job market, again.

In this kind of environment, being “good at your job” isn’t enough and this is a hill I am prepared to die on. Strategic influence is what makes you stand out, whether that's internally for promotion or retention, or externally in interviews. It’s how hiring panels decide you’re not just a Comms lead… you’re a leader.

4. It’s how you lead without direct authority. Here’s the reality: Comms leaders are often senior in the organisation, but rarely have formal authority over the wider teams they need to influence. You don’t manage HR, you don’t run Legal, and yet you’re expected to align messaging, drive culture change, and protect the brand. That’s why strategic influence matters. It’s how you lead across the organisation, even when you don’t sit at the top of the org chart.

What Strategic Influence Looks Like

• Framing Comms work in business language: risks, trade-offs, outcomes

• Making your point with clarity and calm, especially under pressure

• Offering perspective and judgment, not just updates (that sound like your to do list, sorry!)

• Shifting hearts and minds through story and strategy, not volume

• Being the voice of the external lens, while guiding the internal one

If You're a Comms Director Right Now…

Ask yourself:

Where in your role are you being strategic, but not yet influential?

Where do you have the seat, but not yet the voice?

Because when change hits (and it will, or may be happening already), what will matter most isn’t how busy you are, how many decks you wrote, or how calm you stayed under pressure. 

What matters is how much influence you had. How visible you were for the right reasons. 

And how you helped shape not just a narrative, but an organisation's future.

Louise Thompson is a former Director of Communications with the National Health Service (NHS) in England and now works with communications leaders globally to transform their confidence and impact as organisational leaders, helping them find career clarity and elevate their leadership brand. For a free coaching information call with Louise, please book here.