Somehow got influence, bending the knee (12)
I believe the answer is:
genuflection
'bending the knee' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'somehow got influence' is the wordplay.
'somehow' is an anagram indicator.
'got'+'influence'='gotinfluence'
'gotinfluence' with letters rearranged gives 'GENUFLECTION'.
(Other definitions for genuflection that I've seen before include "Knee-bending" , "Reverential bending of knee" .)