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

by Clay Scroggins

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.

real leaders in an organization will find a way to lead the charge until they are in charge.

Great leaders leverage influence and relationships over title and position.

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.

positional authority alone does not equate to effective leadership.

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

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

“Take responsibility to make great what you can make great. And let others do it in the areas that they can make great. And if the whole company doesn’t do it, you can’t change that. But you can take responsibility for your area.”

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 lie we believe is that we must wait until we’re in the leader’s seat before we can have this kind of influence. But the good news is that influence can (and should) be cultivated wherever you are.

Influence always outpaces authority. And leaders who consistently leverage their authority to lead are far less effective in the long term than leaders who leverage their influence. Practice leading through influence when you’re not in charge. It’s the key to leading well when you are.

The more I sat back and watched things pass without taking initiative, the softer my voice became.

leading without authority is more difficult than leading with authority. It requires a level of self-awareness that few of us are ready to develop. Because leading without authority means you need to have a clear understanding of your identity—who you are as a leader, apart from any titles.

Near the core of what makes a person a leader is their sense of identity. The way you see yourself is determinative for your life and for the decisions you make as a leader.

If I’ve spent too much time dwelling on my failures and inadequacies, it will show in my response. If I’ve spent too much time re-watching my own highlights, it will also show. If identity is anything, it’s everything.

our 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.

Too many young leaders use phrases like “That’s just who I am” or “They just need to know that’s how I’ve always been” to excuse areas of potential growth.

The most important ongoing conversation you have in your life is the one you have with yourself every day.

There are five basic components of identity, and to help you remember them, I’ve made sure they all start with the letter “P.” They are your past, your people, your personality, your purpose, and your priorities.

Your identity is the right identity when you let it be defined by what God says about you.

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. Your ability to be a fearless leader is squarely rooted in your identity.

If you believe God actually controls your career, what place does fear have in your life?

If you sense fear in yourself, the best way to face those fears is with a healthier sense of self. You turn up the volume of what is true about you, and you listen to what God says about you. As you do, your identity will adjust. And as you adjust your identity, you will also adjust your response to fear. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

Fear thrives in the absence of love. Fear will dominate your identity until you begin to stand under the unending, never-failing, ever-gracious waterfall of love that your Creator has for you. He holds your future. He loves you perfectly. He accepts you unconditionally. Lead like you believe this to be true.

A distortion in motivation will limit your leadership and cause a host of issues that will follow you wherever your professional life takes you.

You think, God wants me to lead. I have a mandate to do this. So I need to get the corner office, the reserved parking spot, and the title of senior leader to make that happen. This kind of ambition just reaffirms the lie that we can’t really lead until we’re in charge.

There isn’t a healthy church or organization that exists for leaders who think they don’t need an authority over them. The dream of an unrestricted frontier where you can lead exactly how you want, when you want, and in the direction you want is a pipe dream. It doesn’t exist.

Understanding your past will always bring more clarity for your future.

“fire outside the fireplace is dangerous.”

Just as there are inalienable rights, there is such a thing as inalienable responsibility. What this means is that everyone leads something. 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. Then, with your settled judgment in place, you look for every possible reason no one else would or could succeed in your role. It’s a self-defeating prophecy where you give yourself a pass for your own lack of leadership.

Here’s the truth you need to know: Your boss is not in charge of you. You are in charge of you.

You are in charge of you. You are in charge of your emotions, your thoughts, your reactions, and your decisions. It’s the law of personal responsibility, because everyone is responsible for leading something, even if that something is just you.

and if you find yourself abdicating responsibility because you’re not in charge, step one is to recognize it. Step two is to fix it. And that leads us to the second truth you need to know as a leader: When you’re not in charge, you can still take charge.

You should take charge of you.

The point is that your greatest responsibility as a leader is to lead yourself.

You need to own your desires and ambitions; no one can lead you any further than you’re leading yourself.

“Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does on a day-to-day basis to lead himself.”

As others see how you respond to a bad boss, a terrible decision, or how you handle the stress of being overloaded, they will begin to see you as a leader, even if you lack the formal authority to lead. Your self-leadership in these situations will develop influence and prepare you for future situations you may face.

Sometimes, when you feel you’re not being led well, it might be because your boss doesn’t feel that you’re committed.

if you were to leave, would anyone be surprised?

When I desire what God wants to teach me more than I desire getting done what I want to get done, I am in the best place.

Do not miss what God has for you by failing to lead yourself well.

There is someone, somewhere facing a similar situation and is seeing life with a lens that allows them to have more influence, excitement, and contentment. You can either let that frustrate you or you can learn from this.

You don’t have to wait until someone makes them clear for you to make them clear for yourself.

Those leaders who feel a strong sense of ownership and have made the crucial connection between what their job is and how it drives results for the organization are more deeply engaged.

His chains said that he was useless, facing a dead end. But he did not allow the chains to determine his vision.

The way you see is more important than the tragedy. The way you see is stronger than any calamity. The way you see is bigger than the details of the catastrophe.

Don’t let the frustration you feel over what you don’t have keep you from doing what you can do.