Navigating Power in the Workplace: Aneesa Valentine on the Influence You Already Have
One of the most perspective-shifting workshops from the 2026 AdaMarie Career Navigation Summit is now available inside the AdaMarie Professional Network. Here’s the idea at its center and how to watch the full session.
You don’t need a senior title to have influence at work. You need to understand how power works and how to build it.
In her Career Navigation Summit workshop, Aneesa Valentine challenges the assumption that workplace power belongs only to people with leadership titles. Drawing on her experience across startups, enterprise biopharma, and entrepreneurship, she breaks down six types of power, including three you can start building today: expert power, referent power, and informational power.
These forms of personal power come from what you know, the trust you build, and the knowledge you share. And unlike positional power, they don’t require a promotion.
Aneesa also explores what it means to exercise power responsibly, build influence through relationships, and manage up without becoming a yes-person. She shares five practical ways to work more effectively with your manager, from understanding their priorities to bringing solutions instead of simply raising problems.
The takeaway? You don’t have to wait for someone to give you authority to start building influence.
Watch the full workshop inside the APN
Aneesa’s complete session, including all six types of power and her five practical ways to start managing up, is available now in the AdaMarie Professional Network, alongside every other session from this year’s summit.
Inside, you’ll find:
The full summit replay library, including the sessions you couldn’t catch live
Live workshops and expert conversations year-round
Our spring Career Accelerator
A growing library of career resources
A Slack community full of people navigating their next steps right alongside you
