Leading Without AuthorityIt can be done! It happens every day – individuals facilitate others to collaborate on an effort, without having any significant authority or power over them. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King did it – they demonstrated tremendous ability to enlist the collaboration of many people, without having any authority or power over them. Perhaps you too have seen this at work when one of your co-workers has led the office staff to keep the break room clean or come to the aid of a colleague with a serious personal problem.As organizations continue to flatten their structures, more and more employees find themselves in positions where they are leading teams or projects without direct authority over the other employees involved. Leading without official authority can be one of the most challenging leadership situations. It certainly is the opportunity when one must demonstrate great leadership skills to be effective. When you don’t have the advantage of “positional power” to help carry weight as does the official boss, you must depend on true leadership qualities to enlist others in working with you. Almost every situation in our lives benefits from good leadership. The opportunity could present itself in anything from a formal work setting to an unexpected crisis situation. Below we set out six steps for leading well. Leading without authority requires significant insight into what needs to be done, the ability to create and/or align people behind a compelling vision or goal, and the ability to organize and implement action as summarized above. Let’s look at each step.1. Seeing what specifically needs to be done. It is only possible to do this well with enough information and a broad perspective on the issue or problem. When not in an official management role, you may not have all the information you need to move forward. Therefore, it is important to seek out objective data and information to ensure you have a big picture perspective on the situation. This will help you have both greater understanding of the situation as well as greater insight into what needs to be done. Leaders don’t just see problems; they see opportunities and solutions based on their knowledge and experience.2. Create the vision and outline the plan. A leader helps bring others into alignment with the leader's vision. We believe the need for a shared, compelling vision, is vital to effective collaboration. To effectively work together, to collaborate, people first and foremost need a reason to do so. It is the compelling nature of their vision which can help provide the strength and courage to work through long and difficult projects. It is also the strength and excitement of that vision that can spur creativity and new solutions. The outline of the plan can be as simple as a few steps included in the vision itself or it can stand alone and include sufficient detail, information and understanding essential to its implementation. When everyone understands the rationale, reason or need behind a particular vision and the steps needed to accomplish it, they are much better equipped to find their own way to move ahead, as well as create solutions and solve problems to help reach the vision.3. Taking the initiative and stepping up. Leading without authority requires that you take the initiative and begin the process of accomplishing what you see needs to be done. Leaders don’t just sit back and wait for others to get things done or for someone to put them in charge or assign important tasks. They have the courage to step up and take appropriate action in an effort to bring positive outcomes.4. Model doing the right thing. Sometimes leading without authority requires going against the flow. Something needs to be handled and you see yourself as the one to do it. Since taking the initiative can create suspicion among colleagues, how you do it is critical to your success. Making sure you do the right thing and modeling this for others keeps your motives clear and honest. Additionally, you can’t necessarily dictate the way others behave even when you are the official “Boss-Supreme”, so being a good role model is especially important when you are leading with authority. Demonstrate a change in yourself and/or role-model the change or the action you are trying to affect. Gandhi and King didn’t just talk about doing something – they did it! Be the change you are seeking. 5. Enroll and organize others. Sharing your vision in a compelling way and helping others align their personal goals with the goals of the vision is the first step in enrollment. To build this alignment, leaders must accurately and vividly bring the big picture perspective to the group. They must also be fully equipped to listen for understanding so they can hear individual’s needs, as well as find where obstacles to alignment may lie. If a leader simply operates in the “telling mode” – meaning just telling people what has to happen, and not giving them a chance for real input – buy-in will be hard to come by. Secondly, organize the efforts of your group by mutually agreeing on how they can best contribute to the effort. This also helps solidify their enlistment. Make sure that everyone in the group knows and understands how the entire team will function and how each individual will contribute. Ultimately, it is mutual agreement of shared goals and clarity on how to achieve them that brings about enrollment and collaboration for a successful outcome. 6. Implement. This may actually be the easiest step, once all else is in place. Managers, and most of us, are often very effective “doers”. We are often eager to jump to this operational stage long before the other steps have been handled. Our caution is that to be most effective, you must complete steps 1 through 5 above first, then, implementation flows more readily and successfully.One of the greatest challenges in taking these steps is being able to shift your approach to them when you have formal direct reporting authority or when you lead a team or group of peers and others who have bosses elsewhere. We have included some of the differences and challenges in successful leadership with each step when leading with formal authority and without.Steps to successful leadership in situations with authority and potential challenges in leading without authority1. Seeing what specifically needs to be doneWITH AUTHORITY - Information is usually provided or more accessibleWITHOUT AUTHORITY - Limited access to information; broad view and clarity difficult to achieve.2. Creating the vision and outlining the planWITH AUTHORITY - Creating a vision is an expected function or it may be provided by the organizationWITHOUT AUTHORITY - Lack of the big picture perspective could cause difficulties in creating a vision as such steps and resources are less easily identifiable3. Taking the initiative and stepping upWITH AUTHORITY - These actions are supported by management expectations and job descriptionWITHOUT AUTHORITY - Courage is needed to take this step and a belief that the action is “worth it”4. Model doing “the right thing”WITH AUTHORITY - Role expectationWITHOUT AUTHORITY - This action could be suspect by peers, must be based on non-judgmental needs assessment.*KEY POINT: Steps 1-4 are crucial and if successfully accomplished, Steps 5 and 6 are much more likely to be achieved. This is especially true when leading without authority.5. Enrolling and organizing othersWITH AUTHORITY - Positional power supports this step; consequences of failure to participate by others ensures follow through.WITHOUT AUTHORITY - This step requires extra relationship building to gain commitment and participation otherwise could be viewed as subversive or over-stepping v. constructive or helpful. 6. ImplementingWITH AUTHORITY - Positional power and structure require compliance; personnel and system available to support follow upWITHOUT AUTHORITY - Requires more buy-in energy, need tight deadlines and task descriptions with special participant commitment to complete. In all leadership, and especially when leading without authority, the opportunity to have an extraordinary outcome will be greatly diminished without full enrollment. Great leaders know this, and put in the personal effort up front to get this enlistment, as they know it will save tremendous time throughout the process. When people are fully engaged by someone in an effort they are aligned with, and they understand the vision and plan and are in agreement with their part in it, they may readily accept that person’s leadership whether based on formal authority or not. We are called on countless times in our lives to step up to leading, often without authority, and by following the steps above we can more often achieve great outcomes and results when we do!
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