Would they miss you? How to prove your CX leadership impact

Let me ask you a spicy question.

If you and your CX team stopped tomorrow, what would actually go wrong?

For a moment, forget who would miss your smile, your enthusiasm, the workshops, the sticky notes, the customer quotes or even the excellent coffee. Look beyond the personal appreciation and ask yourself what would genuinely change within the organisation.

Would customer pain gradually disappear from leadership conversations? Would teams return to making decisions from the inside out? Would customer feedback receive less attention, causing the business to become less sharp, less human and ultimately less effective?

Ouch. I know. That question can land.

Yet it may also be one of the most valuable questions you can ask yourself as a CX leader, because your real impact becomes visible through the decisions, behaviour and results that change as a consequence of your work.

That question takes me back to the moment I left my CX leadership role at KPN.

The moment I realised I had underestimated my own value

I had decided to quit my job and become a professional speaker. It was exciting, possibly brave and, if I am completely honest, absolutely terrifying.

Then that sneaky little voice appeared. My imposter syndrome arrived in full glitter outfit and whispered:

“Nienke, will anybody really care when you leave?”

In my head, people would wave politely, eat a piece of goodbye cake and continue their meetings five minutes later.

The reality turned out to be very different.

Messages started arriving from colleagues, leaders and people I had worked with throughout the organisation. They told me what my energy, my work and my way of leading CX had meant to them, and those messages came from every level of the company, including the CEO.

I still remember that moment, partly because my ego sat up a little straighter that day, although the experience gave me something far more valuable than personal recognition.

It made me realise that I had valued my own contribution too little.

The company saw more value in my work than I had allowed myself to recognise, and perhaps that is an important lesson for you as a CX leader too.

When you are busy doing the work every day, it becomes surprisingly easy to overlook the value you bring. You share dashboards, bring customer stories into leadership conversations, facilitate journey sessions and create energy around customer centricity. You help people notice things they had previously overlooked, ask questions that may feel uncomfortable and remind the organisation that every process, policy and decision eventually reaches a customer.

Your value reaches far beyond the moments you create or the enthusiasm people experience when you are in the room. It becomes visible through what changes because you were there.

Do leaders make different decisions because you brought the customer perspective into the conversation? Do teams understand their customers better, and are customer needs considered earlier when new products, processes or policies are developed? Does customer thinking continue when you are absent from the meeting?

Creating energy for one afternoon is relatively easy. Building something that continues to influence behaviour and decision-making long afterwards is where CX leadership truly begins.

When CX activity fails to create lasting change

A workshop without proper follow-up can quickly turn into corporate entertainment.

The room looks beautiful, people are engaged, sticky notes cover the walls and a cheerful photo may even appear on LinkedIn. Everyone leaves with fresh energy and good intentions.

Then six weeks pass, and very little has changed.

The process is still painful, customers still have to repeat their story three times and the dashboard continues to play only a limited role in decision-making. Meanwhile, the leadership team keeps discussing costs without considering the wider customer impact.

The workshop created activity and enthusiasm, while the organisation itself remained largely unchanged.

CX leadership requires a longer perspective. It involves creating the conditions that allow people to make better customer-driven decisions, even when you are elsewhere. Customer thinking needs to become part of processes, leadership conversations, strategic priorities and everyday behaviour.

CX leadership is about building CX capability.

Your contribution becomes more valuable when the organisation grows stronger because of your work and customer thinking becomes part of how the business operates. People should not remember to consider the customer only when the CX team enters the room.

That is a very different game.

Five questions to assess your CX leadership impact

Take some time to reflect on the following five questions and answer them as honestly and specifically as possible.

1. If my CX team stopped tomorrow, what would actually break?

Look beyond the visible activities your team delivers and consider which conversations would stop, which customer insights would disappear and which decisions might become less informed.

A long list of workshops, dashboards and journey maps shows what your team produces. The answer to this question reveals the deeper role your team plays within the business.

Which customer risks would remain unnoticed? Which strategic discussions would lose an important perspective? Where would the organisation become less customer focused without your contribution?

Those answers say far more about your relevance than the number of CX activities you complete.

2. Which business decisions changed because of my CX work during the past three months?

Try to identify real and recent examples.

Perhaps customer research changed the priorities on a product roadmap, customer feedback prevented a harmful cost-saving decision or your insights led to improvements in onboarding. Your work may also have influenced an investment, helped leaders reconsider a policy or changed the direction of an important project.

Specific examples make your impact tangible because they show how CX contributes to decisions that matter across the organisation.

When it is difficult to identify a recent example, treat that insight as useful information. It may be a signal to become involved earlier in decision-making and connect CX more closely to the strategic priorities of the business.

3. Am I doing customer thinking for the business, or am I building customer thinking into the business?

There is an important difference between solving every customer-related question yourself and helping the organisation develop the capability to include the customer perspective independently.

When every customer question automatically ends up with the CX team, you may be helping the organisation while also creating a form of dependency. Your influence remains limited by the time and capacity available within your own team.

Building customer capability requires a broader approach. You give leaders and teams the insights, tools, skills and confidence they need to consider the customer perspective themselves, allowing customer thinking to become part of everyday work.

As that capability grows, your influence reaches far beyond the boundaries of the CX team.

4. Do I follow up strongly enough after the workshop?

The energy at the end of a workshop can easily feel like progress. People are inspired, ideas have been generated and actions are written down.

The real test begins once everyone returns to their daily work.

Who owns the next step, when will progress be reviewed and which decisions still need to be made? How will new behaviour be encouraged, and how will you know whether the intended change is actually taking place?

Follow-up turns enthusiasm into accountability and ensures that ideas become part of the organisation rather than disappearing beneath the pressure of daily priorities.

Even the most inspiring workshop risks becoming a pleasant memory when ownership, decision-making and follow-up remain unclear.

5. Can I explain our relevance in business language?

“We created awareness” sounds positive, although it leaves plenty of room for questions.

What changed because awareness increased? Which decision improved, which behaviour shifted and how did customers experience the result?

Strong CX leaders connect their work to outcomes that matter across the organisation. They can explain how CX reduced friction in the customer journey, improved onboarding, prevented avoidable churn or helped leaders make a stronger strategic decision.

They may also show how recurring customer contacts were reduced, an important cause of complaints was removed or teams became better at prioritising improvements with significant customer and business value.

Every CX result does not need to fit neatly into a financial spreadsheet. You do, however, need to understand how your work contributes to the organisation’s goals and be able to explain that contribution in language other leaders recognise.

That is CX leadership impact.

From CX activity to CX capability

Many CX professionals are incredibly busy. They run workshops, analyse feedback, develop journey maps, build dashboards, tell customer stories and support teams throughout the organisation.

All of those activities can create value, especially when they contribute to a broader transformation.

Leadership asks you to look beyond the activity itself and consider what people should understand differently, which behaviour needs to change and which decisions should improve. It also asks you to think about what needs to become embedded within the organisation and how customers will eventually notice the difference.

Your success becomes visible through the capability you leave behind.

Perhaps leaders ask better customer questions because you challenged them to think differently. Teams may start using customer insights before making important decisions because you created a clear process, while customer impact gradually becomes a standard part of strategic conversations because you consistently brought it into the room.

That is lasting influence.

The ANI model: Authority, Narrative and Impact

This leadership shift connects directly to my ANI model for CX leadership, which brings together Authority, Narrative and Impact.

Authority

Authority begins with understanding the value you bring as a CX leader and allowing that understanding to influence the way you show up.

You know what you stand for, trust your expertise and have the confidence to speak when the customer perspective is missing. Your authority also helps others understand why your voice matters and why customer centricity deserves a place in strategic conversations.

Narrative

Narrative helps people understand why CX matters now and where the organisation needs to go.

A clear and memorable story connects customer needs, business priorities and the transformation ahead. It provides direction and helps people recognise the role they can play in creating a stronger customer-focused organisation.

Impact

Impact ensures that your work changes decisions, behaviour and results.

Ideas move into action, customer insights influence priorities and leaders take ownership. Progress becomes visible because CX is connected to real organisational change.

Together, Authority, Narrative and Impact help CX professionals make the shift from managing activities to leading customer-centred transformation.

So, would they miss you?

Return to the question at the beginning.

If you and your CX team disappeared tomorrow, what would actually change?

Perhaps leaders would lose an important voice in strategic conversations, customer needs would gradually become less visible or teams would return to more inside-out decision-making.

There is another possibility as well.

Your organisation may have developed such strong customer capability because of your leadership that people continue asking the right questions, using customer insights and considering customer impact, even when you are absent.

That may be one of the strongest forms of CX leadership impact.

I hope people would miss your energy, your perspective and the courage you bring into the room. More importantly, I hope the organisation has become braver, sharper and more customer mature because you were there, and that your influence continues long after you have left the room.

Are you ready to strengthen your Authority, sharpen your Narrative and create more visible Impact?

The CX Leadership Masterminds Bootcamp is built around the ANI model and designed for experienced CX professionals who want to operate more strategically, increase their influence and create lasting customer and business impact.

Until next time, keep spicing up your Customer Experience leadership.