Influence Is Underrated
The first step into a Leadership position is a skill worth mastering
Hey, fellow Leader 🚀,
I am Artur and welcome to my weekly newsletter. I am focusing on topics like Project Management, Innovation, Leadership, and a bit of Entrepreneurship. I am always open to suggestions for new topics. Feel free to reach me on Substack and share my newsletter if it helps you in any way.
I was researching the internet and came across a text on how influence was a vital skill for leadership roles. While coaching colleagues making their first steps into leadership positions, I often tell those who got coordination-only roles, despite the role being voided in practical decision-making, those positions are often exposed to people with considerable executive power inside the organization. The free access to that managerial layer and the ability to influence them can be the position’s greatest strength. The power of influence and persuasion can be a power skill when developed properly and can overcome multiple project challenges. Unfortunately, this skill is too diluted on the “Communication Skill” umbrella and doesn’t receive the deserved spotlight.
In the post above
describes how she got a promotion to Tech Lead but did not have factual power to decide how and who the tasks could be executed. Please give it a read because it is a very interesting first-hand perspective. One of the best ways to train Leadership skills is to give a position of relevance to someone, without holding any executive power.Why is that you may ask?
Giving orders and deciding what and how to do is a small part of the burden of Leadership. It is immensely important to empower the future leader to listen at the same time it’s trained to get the spotlight when something on the project goes well or south. But most importantly, fosters the development of an underrated skill of Influence.
There are multiple levels of authority in a company and ways to exert it. Try to make this exercise: Who is the person in your company with the biggest decision power?
Some might even reply the CEO is the entity inside the company with the biggest decision power or authority. If the CEO is also the founder and investor of the company, you will be probably right. Otherwise, you would be surprised to acknowledge some of the decisions of a CEO are much conditioned by the impact on the company of its stockholders’ or founders’ perception. This means that even at a very high level, there is always someone with higher authority who may require some persuasion regarding a path to follow.
This realization is especially critical for someone with a Project and Product management position when needed to fortify a strategy or a set of actions. Influencing the team to achieve a goal or a milestone is as important as convincing a sponsor to finance aspects of the project. Ideally, a Project Manager should manage a project without the need to resort to authority, by communicating what is intended and pointing out why a certain strategy is better than another. If the team or sponsor proposes a different solution this should be analyzed with facts, and select what is the best for the project.
The Illusion of Authority
In past projects, countless times, I was called by developers to help unblock multiple bottlenecks. The illusion is since I was the Manager, one email from my golden mailbox will open the doors of heaven with a dedicated performance from Guns and Roses, and immediately exert the pressure or the power to make something happen. The problem is that sometimes those emails work, which feeds a perception of what I call the “Illusion of Authority”.
The only difference between my mailbox and other colleagues’ mailboxes is the clear access to specific individuals inside the company. This power needs to be used responsibly. If I spam everyone, those people won’t pay attention to my emails anymore despite my position in the organization. So I need to do what everybody should do beforehand: Get all the details right, cross out any solution, and if the solution fails, bring the reason why with a proposed alternative or action. This can be done by everyone and it covers a lot of ground regarding problem-solving. I am saving my authority when it is indeed needed.
Types of Authority
The authority for any leadership position has two sources: Delegated or Earned.
Do you have any Senior colleague who has more authority than their organizational leader?
I see this all the time. The reason is that they become true experts in their area. If some Manager makes a poor decision, those Seniors holding immense practical or political knowledge, have the power to influence or debunk a decision, only by sharing their opinion with a higher hierarchy. This is an example of Earned Authority. That colleague may not appear on the organizational charts but holds a lot of respect from several decision-makers higher on the ladder.
A Project Manager should pay close attention to these Expert feedbacks and manage their expectations as well. In some occasions, the Expert feedback is not aligned with an overall strategy, and yet they should be shown why. Even if they don’t agree with the strategy, their opinion and its impacts should be accommodated to avoid surprises.
The Delegated portion of Authority is self-explanatory. A person was promoted or assigned to a position and now has the decision-making related to the role. For example, on a project, the level of decision-making is delegated by a Sponsor. In this case, several levels of delegation may occur: The project manager being the God Supreme for deciding everything because the Sponsor has more things to do; To a Project Dispatcher, acting as a mail courier between the Team and the Sponsor with any actual decision power. The level of authority for a Project Manager can be easily found on a document with the guidelines of a Project Charter.
However, even with delegated authority, if the Project Manager makes several poor decisions, it might result in a loss of respect and confidence from the Team. Decreasing with time the ability to navigate the project efficiently, simply because Authority in practice is an illusion. The Authority is merely the perceived power of the Leader. If a stakeholder doesn’t perceive or accept the Project Manager’s authority, their autonomy and action radius are greatly degraded. This might come from a sequence of poor decisions or the unfortunate way the Manager is managing the people around the project. Overall it can deteriorate the ability of a Manager to overcome some challenges, promote instability, or create the need for someone with higher authority to constantly reinforce the Manager’s position inside the project.
Influence can be your biggest tool
The reason why I advocate that the first steps in a leadership position should be voided on decision-making capabilities is to promote influence as a second-nature skill. During a Leader’s career, the level of authority will vary depending on the stakeholders, or any project characteristics related to its context. However, the ability to influence the Team, Sponsor, or any stakeholder, is always required.
Most importantly, is a skill that you develop and will be with you if you change companies or industries, if you become the CEO or Sponsor, or if you buy Twitter. It is a transversal skill that you can benefit from no matter your objective and the characteristics of your job.
That’s it. If you find this post useful please share it with your friends or colleagues who might be interested in this topic. If you would like to see a different angle, suggest in the comments or send me a message on Substack.
Cheers,
Artur