Influence is Leadership - Whether You're the Boss or Not

Ok, so you've set out an ambitious goal of becoming a leader - the good kind - an influential person at an organization that's doing well by doing good. But you're running into that classic conundrum - how do I build leadership experience when I'm not in a leadership role?

Start by realizing that effective, influential leaders aren't defined exclusively by their position or formal authority - research and experience shows that the very best are defined by their perspective and behavior.

Said another way, it's not where you sit and what is says on your business card. It's how you see the world and your ability to make a difference in it.

To be clear, I'm not advocating an idealistic "let's all be friends and feel good about each other" approach. I'm recommending a focused, no-nonsense strategy to figure out what's important to you and the people around you, putting the plan in place to make it real, and holding yourself to that plan. And while the plan itself has merit, the MOST IMPORTANT THING is that you'll be expanding your perspective and honing your influence so that when you're asked to speak about your leadership experience, you'll have something to say!

Here's the approach that I have seen work.

Start by thoughtfully considering who you would have participate in a 360 evaluation of you. At a minimum, include your Boss’ Boss, Boss, Peers, and Direct Reports if you have them. For each of those individuals or groups, answer these questions:

1. What do you need from this individual to successfully execute your plan? Do you need this person to actively support your work, to embrace and complete specific tasks, or simply to refrain from open disapproval or silent subterfuge?
2. How can you help this person and their organization successfully execute their plan? In the grand strategy of giving something to get something, is there anything that you can do to show good faith in the relationship, or to build an actual partnership by lending a helping hand?
3. What kind of relationship do you need in order to make this happen? How frequently do you need to communicate? Is this in person or via e-mail? One on one, or in a group setting? Ad hoc and informal, or requiring more formal preparation? How can you ensure that you are listening enough? How will you make your intentions clear?
4. What do you need to do to create and/or maintain that kind of relationship? This puts it all together in a plan that might include weekly staff meetings, bi-weekly one on ones with a predetermined set of reports and metrics, a monthly operational review with key stakeholders, a monthly briefing for your boss and perhaps your boss’ boss. You’ll need to give careful consideration to each of these key relationships. This is not a “one size fits all” scenario - each of these action plans should be customized based on your answers to all four questions above.

The bottom line is that no two situations are the same (although patterns do emerge), and it’s your responsibility to do the work to evaluate these potential relationships, deliberately plan your investments of time and energy, to set expectations and then to follow through.  When you’re done, you will have created an operational tempo – a framework for regular communications with your key stakeholders - that will become the basis for your success going forward. And one final reminder – as you are working through this, write it down. It dramatically increases your odds of success.

Dennis Brouwer is the author of The Return on Leadership: A Three Step Plan to Navigate Change and Unlock Hidden Growth, now available on Amazon.