Authority at Work

“Because I said so…” Did this work on you as a kid? Tell the truth. Then why do we expect it to work at work?

Authority or “power” at work often self-deludes. In theory, we tie it to titles. Vice President, President, CEO, Director, Senior Director, and on and on and on. If the CEO announces a change in policy, everyone immediately falls in line with the change. Isn’t that how it works at your company?

At this point you’ve shaken your head. Any experience at all will have taught you that is not how it works. Compliance, buying-in, engagement, however you want to describe it…. it’s way more complicated than “because I said so…”. Experienced people are experienced. They’ve seen lots of ideas come and go. They’ve seen lots of changes implemented successfully. They’ve seen just as many implemented and failed.

So how does it work? Where does authority/power come from? Clearly it’s difficult to compel people… but what is compelling?

At one company, a three-year pattern sort of explains this. The three-year pattern is this… a big change is announced. New software implementation. Change of procedure. Reporting requirements altered. The first year about 30% comply. About 10% to 20% demonstrate an intention or small effort to comply. The rest ignore it. If the “new” thing survives to the second year, compliance reaches 60% to 68%. If it survives through the third year, you reach the magical 80% to 90%. At the company in question, turnover was about 19% to 25%. So, 80% is 100%. Compliance has occurred.

But why not the first year? The CEO announced it. What more authority or power do you need?

Here’s the complication. You have two separate issues going on. One is the psychology of experience and expertise. The other is social power versus positional power.

On the psychology side, experience and expertise can cause the delay. Managers and teams that have been burned by flavor of the month executives don’t buy-in easily. They want to know if you mean it. Is it actually going to stick? They often have more expertise than the corporate teams making the change as well. This expertise can make them skeptical of decisions that are not well thought out or don’t have front line operators involved in the design. This skepticism can result in a wait and see attitude as well.

But doesn’t the CEO’s positional power frighten them into compliance? Of course not. These people pay the bills. Not the CEO. It is infinitely easier for any company to meet the monthly sales quota without a CEO than without a front line manager. Sales and customer satisfaction have much less to do with executives and marketing and hr and purchasing and all that… it has much more to do with a front line manager and the team supporting them. So frightened by the positional power around a decision? Not hardly.

But is there a power that can influence this? A hidden authority? There is and it is much more powerful than the CEO. Social power matters more in US companies than positional power. Relationships built on respect. That manager, salesperson, operations expert, the one we all call for help… the one who really knows how to get that order met… the one who actually knows what the customer really wants… that person. That’s where the real authority resides. A phone call from this person influences more people than a corporate announcement from internal communications signed by the CEO.

We listen to people who know. Find those people. Ask them what they think. Get them in the design. Get them talking to people. And it may not even be a member of management.

You changing some process for your drivers? Who is the driver everyone respects? At every location/building/shift/whatever… there is always one person that everybody looks to… and this person is NOT a manager. They are more influential than the manager. They are the expert that everyone respects. Find them. Talk to them. Learn from them. Get them to champion your change.

Official titles don’t influence. Outside consultants recognized as national experts don’t influence. Jimmy, that’s been driving here 15 years and is awesome, he influences.