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

by Clay Scroggins

Questions challenge assumptions.

Leaders know what to pay attention to and can find the variable that has changed or is out of place and is causing a certain result.

They are self-aware and have the innate skill of connecting the feelings people have to the contributing behaviors causing those feelings.

The brilliance of this kind of leadership is that when you learn to anticipate those feelings before they happen, you can align the team to create an environment that will elicit the feelings you desire for them.

But they also know how to listen, watch, connect the dots, and fix problems because they’re able to think critically.

leadership is the ability to motivate people to work harder, longer, and smarter, because the vision of the end goal has been painted so clearly.

Those who must overcome obstacles need to push themselves to think critically, and that helps them when they reach the next level.

I am, however, going to suggest that you schedule space to think critically, marking it down like a meeting, at points throughout the day.

The greatest enemy of thinking critically is an overcrowded schedule.

If thinking critically is a skill, being critical is a snare.

if you’re not careful, your critical thinking will make others feel like you’re giving them grades.

This is not about whether you should convey the thoughts that could better those around you. It’s about how you pass on those thoughts.

If you can’t talk about it without getting emotional, you’re not ready to talk about it.

Deliver potential challenges in the rhythm of positive-challenge-positive.

And as you learn to think critically, never forget that the towel is the way God leads us, and it is always more powerful than the clipboard.

Learn to recognize that a low risk tolerance may be resulting in passivity in your leadership.

Thomas Edison is credited for saying, “I didn’t fail. I just found 2,000 ways not to make a light bulb.”

If you truly want to be a leader who is leading when you’re not in charge and capable of being trusted with more, you have to be willing to add responsibilities to your current role.

Part of his job was to find ways within his area of responsibility to make better what we were trying to accomplish.

I decided to quit playing defense and start playing offense.

There are those who are deciding what kind of person they want to be and those who are simply responding to what life is handing them.

Reactivity perpetuates passivity.

Find something that no one else wants to do and just handle it.

But the truth is that the closer you are to the action, the more insight you have on what needs to change at that micro level.

You will likely have better insight than your boss does as to the changes needed for the day-to-day processes that make up your job and those of your coworkers.

Decide to be the one who isn’t afraid to pick it up and choose to own what others are looking to avoid.

The most well-planned idea usually wins the meeting.

never present your boss with just a problem.

Planning takes time, thought, and mental space to be able to think through solutions.

As you train yourself to choose what’s not getting done, plan time for future planning in the margins of your calendar, and then respond to what is most pressing for your boss, you’ll have a game plan that can work.

If you are in a season of waiting, what can you learn now that you can only learn from the seat you’re in?

What new skill can you learn that you could only learn while you’re in the position you’re in?

“You will never passively find what you do not actively pursue.”

Find a way to initiate by choosing, planning, and responding to reject passivity.

Leaders make a way when others can’t find a way.

Without challenge, we do not change.

we know that there is a chasm between seeing a change that needs to be made and having the emotional intelligence to do it in a way that does not limit your career.

“Leaders must challenge the process precisely because any system will unconsciously conspire to maintain the status quo and prevent change.”

We are all attracted to opinions that validate the way we see life and we resist opinions that disagree with the way we see things.

It’s natural that the more personally we take something, the more personal we’ll be with anyone who challenges it.

Knowing that “challenging up” and raising questions about the status quo is difficult does not change the fact that you should do it when necessary.

knowing is half the battle.”

Great leaders are keenly aware of what the boss is most interested in.

Great leaders know what’s core and what’s peripheral.

Great leaders challenge up quietly, but they are not silent.

Existing paradigms can change, but it takes wisdom, patience, and the right strategy. You don’t need authority, but you will need influence.

challenging up requires a bridge of relationship that is strong enough to handle the weight of the challenge.

constantly comparing your church to another church is like comparing your spouse to a former relationship.

There are better ways to build your case than to speak with absolute certainty about what is currently happening.

how well you challenge will determine how much you change.