Leading Without Authority

Ann Ritterspach
2 days ago
3 min read

As an executive leadership coach, I have the privilege of working with leaders across a variety of industries and roles. Regardless of where they work or what level they are, I consistently hear two common questions from emerging leaders:

How can I demonstrate readiness for people leadership – when I haven’t led people before?

How can I influence others to act – when they don’t report to me?

The answers to both questions are actually very complimentary. Demonstrating your ability to influence others successfully (a.k.a. leading without authority), is a great indicator of people leadership readiness.

My most recent client, Jennifer, is the Director of Strategy within her nonprofit organization. She is a team of one with the responsibility of ensuring execution of the organizations multi-year strategic plan. She sits on the executive leadership team and works across with executives over key functions like Development, Programs, Finance, Marketing and HR. She wanted their strategy to be successfully executed across all teams and knew “influence without authority” could be a challenge.

As I worked with Jennifer, I asked her a few questions to get her creativity flowing.

How does she build trust with others?
How has she successfully managed resistance in the past?
How confident is she about the plan? Is her expertise aligned?
What role does communication play?
What else gets in the way of stakeholder commitment in her org?

After talking through these questions, she started identifying actions that would impact her ability to succeed with the strategy execution. And that she did!

I’ve thought a lot about her actions and coupled them with some experiences I’ve had in my career. Before sharing those, I think it’s important to call-out common pitfalls that can get in the way of your ability to influence effectively, especially without the authority to drive the strategy forward.

Common pitfalls:

Assuming everyone is bought in to the strategic plan
Thinking this plan is everyone’s priority
Assuming everyone is task-oriented (like you) vs people-oriented
Communicating poorly, infrequently, only up vs across, etc
Failing to give recognition and credit to others

Leading without authority dictates influencing skills vs dictation — Photo by Elijah Macleod on Unsplash

When thinking about “influencing without authority”, some best practices may help.

Build a thorough communication plan with compelling stories. This should include “why” messaging for consistency with each communication. Strategic communications typically include the why, who, what and the how – along with a timeline. Determine your communication touch points, frequency, and delivery mechanism. This way your stakeholders know what, when, and how they will receive updates. Stick to the plan!
Identify key stakeholders and build these relationships. Of course, it’s ideal if that starts before execution of a plan but sometimes that doesn’t always happen. When building relationships focus on trust building, identifying mutual goals, understanding their pain points and priorities, etc. Be genuine when you seek to understand their perspective and concerns. This way you can demonstrate you’ve heard them and address any tension along the way.
Leverage your expertise and credibility. You will want to become the go-to person with quick and accurate responses/considerations. Leading by example, through integrity, initiative, and rolling up your sleeves to problem-solve can often be more powerful than words.
Lean into courageous conversations when execution gets off-track. Look for signs of resistance (deadlines not met, not showing up to project meetings, passive aggressive actions/conversations, etc) so that you can quickly and respectfully address them. These productive conversations can be handled one to one and at times may need leadership support to align on priorities. You will gain valuable experiences in leading others by successfully navigating resistance like this.
Celebrate and provide recognition to everyone involved in creating success along the way. Make others look good! People remember who lifts them up.
Lastly, leadership mindset matters. Plans always run into challenges. Always. Be intentional about showing up opportunistically (vs threatened) and how and what you want to be known for among those you are working alongside.

All of these actions will lead to greater influencing skills - and will demonstrate your readiness for people leadership.

Ann Ritterspach, The Growth Coach is a catalyst for YOUR growth. As an Executive Leadership Coach, Ann leverages her extensive business leadership experience to connect deeply with you, understand your unique challenges without judgment, and support you in taking control of your career and your life. Ann's mission is to ignite your energy, challenge your perspective, and provide unwavering support as you pursue your career goals and dreams.

Learn how to take control of your own life. Book a free strategy session with Ann today!