How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority

by Clay Scroggins

everybody is accountable to somebody.

Leaders who wrap themselves in the security blanket of “If I were in charge” or “When I’m in charge” as an excuse for poor performance and lack of initiative will most likely never be in charge.

They were prepared for the day they finally became they.

Great leaders leverage influence and relationships over title and position.

We come to see positional authority as a prerequisite for effective leadership.

Leaders don’t sit back and point fingers. Leaders lead with the authority of leadership . . . or without it. The authority is largely irrelevant—if you are a leader, you will lead when you are needed.

Instead, I needed to accept the authority I had and then use it wisely to cultivate influence and make things better.

we all know that positional authority alone does not equate to effective leadership.

Influence has always been, and will always be, the currency of leadership.

Once you become aware of something, you start seeing it everywhere.

But King wasn’t bound by his position.

They cultivate influence with a title or without a title.

But what you can do is focus on your own area of responsibility and make it great.

When someone has to pull out the gun of authority, something is broken. You only pull out the gun of authority when nothing else is working.

Jesus argues that the best leaders, the ones who align with his vision for leadership, will lead as servants who are aware of their responsibility and who answer to a higher calling.

the good news is that influence can (and should) be cultivated wherever you are.

if you fail to cultivate influence when you’re not in charge, you will have no influence to leverage when you are.

Influence always outpaces authority.

leaders who consistently leverage their authority to lead are far less effective in the long term than leaders who leverage their influence.

Authority is derivative of Position, but influence is a result of relationships.

Practice leading through influence when you’re not in charge. It’s the key to leading well when you are.

Believing the lie that authority was a prerequisite for leadership deeply affected my attitude.

Each of us has a unique opportunity to create something right where we are.

leading without authority is more difficult than leading with authority.

Near the core of what makes a person a leader is their sense of identity.

Though much of your identity is formed at an early age, your identity is always evolving.

Leading well without formal authority has less to do with your behavior and far more to do with your identity.

I have found that amid swirling emotions, my ability to calmly process my thoughts with awareness and emotional intelligence is largely dependent on the security of my identity.

every distortion between the authority you have and the leadership you exercise can be traced to a crisis of identity.

until you know who you are, you cannot do what God has called you to do.

before God pushes men and women into the call of duty, he shapes and molds their character by speaking into their identities.

identities precede our actions; our behaviors flow from our identities. So before we spend any energy on what we do as leaders, we really need to spend some time on who we are as leaders, especially when we are not the ones in charge.

if your identity is unstable, you’ll subconsciously flip through identities to find the one you think others need you to be.

we find clues in the nuances of how we tell a story, what details we share and don’t share with others, and who we blame when something goes wrong.

your identity is the conception you have of yourself.

identity can be made up of the core beliefs one holds about themselves, however ultimately as we are created (designed) beings, our identity (purpose) is established by God, our creator.

five basic components of identity,

The more I’ve processed my own identity, the more I’ve been able to identify some of these important voices from my past.

If you fail to believe what God says about your identity, you will fail to reach the potential he’s put in you as a leader.

They are able to challenge well, to lead by making a way even when there isn’t a way.

Every time we respond in fear, we miss an opportunity to lead, and this failure of leadership is an issue of identity.

when the ambition inside us is distorted, it affects every aspect of our leadership.

it’s a key part of the drive that moves you to cultivate influence.

Ambition is what drives us to want more opportunities, to have more influence, and to contribute to the overall mission of life with greater impact.

Ambition doesn’t magically begin when you are placed in charge.

Everyone is in charge of something—even if it’s just you.

When you make a judgment about someone, specifically your manager, you will persistently look for behaviors to justify the judgment you’ve made.

It’s the law of personal responsibility, because everyone is responsible for leading something, even if that something is just you.

This attitude is not evidence of a lack of leadership; it’s a sign of bad leadership.

When you’re not in charge, you can still take charge.

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways.”

right. If you want to see change, begin with the person in the mirror.