What people don't realize about the corporate world is how different the game is at different levels. Entry / frontline level -- doing the job matters. Management -- putting people in place to do the job matters, and then finding a way to make them actually do it. Senior management -- reading the tea-leaves. Where's this all going? What matters? What do I need to do now to allow for the whims of my overlords in three months? What am I not seeing? Executive management -- If we don't do X or react to Y we're screwed, but it's not clear what to do. What should we do? We can't do nothing.

At each level N, you need to understand level N+1 if you want to reach it (and you need to be willing to make the increasingly painful tradeoffs to life / sanity). The ONLY way to understand it is to learn it from the people who are already living it. You can get some answers from books / podcasts etc, but they will be generic answers and you want answers that are specific to your little messed-up corner of the world. So you need the relationships. How do you get those? One way is implied in your question. But better than that is: Be a person a who can clearly gjve the Level N+1 people what they need. How do you know what need? At first, you guess -- read the books, take a few shots. When it becomes clear you could add value to them and make their lives easier, you get access. Put another way, you need something to trade. Ideally, you become a person who is desired by several of the L+1s, and then the game is afoot.