Leading With Influence When You Lack Authority
My friend, Peter, is amazing. He is one of those people that can get you into any event or arrange a call with almost anyone. And he’s not rich and famous. He’s just incredibly good at influencing the behavior of other people.
When we worked together, Peter had no authority. He didn’t manage anyone else in the organization. And yet he had an enormous amount of responsibility, which was to bring in business. He was our evangelist.
Peter would go out into the world, somehow get himself invited to all the hottest tech events, spend the whole day having conversations with people, and come back to the office the next day with a stack of leads. It was really pretty magical.
Once, I asked Peter what his secret was. It was so simple I didn’t really fully believe it for a long time. He just cares about people. He’s genuinely curious and interested in literally everyone he meets. He’s never bored, and the people he talks to can feel it. They are warmed by his enthusiasm and then work hard to find a way that they can work with him.
Peter’s approach works particularly well within an organization, where there are lots of competing agendas, and resources are a constant source of struggle. Let’s look at why that might be.
Why is it so hard to change organizations?
The structure of organizations tends to reflect past decisions. Departments are created by leaders who have a specific mandate. They then hire support staff who align with their model of the world. The culture of that department then emerges as a function of the personal interactions between members of that group. Finally, the group begins to codify its work into rules and procedures which ultimately calcify into bureaucracy. Even a new leader taking over that department cannot instantly change that bureaucracy overnight.
Changing the structure of the organization makes people nervous. It violates their sense of safety and security. A person’s job is a very personal aspect of their identity. Typically, they fought hard to get it, and they depend on it to provide their basic needs for survival. Anything that appears to threaten that job will be met with resistance. And when you propose changes to the organization, you are nearly always talking about changing people’s jobs.
People also tend to cluster into tribes. Going against the will of the tribe is dangerous and scary, and frankly it goes against our evolution as social animals. To change an organization, it is often necessary to help members of a particular tribe in the organization shift their association to another (usually new) tribe that has a different style and set of values. This will also be hard and scary for most people. Keep in mind that these tribes are not official or even visible by most members of the organization.
When you approach a member of a tribe to invite them to join the change effort, keep in mind that people won’t tell you directly that they don’t like your idea. They might tell you outright sometimes. But it’s just as likely they will smile, and nod, and even ask questions, behaviors that make it seem that they are supportive. When they go back to their desk, however, the old ways will drag them back into line. Don’t rely on the appearance of support alone. You will need to find ways to get them to commit to enacting some small change themselves in order to be sure that they are truly on your side.
How to lead by influence
Understand how power and influence flows through your organization. By power, I don’t mean the exact reporting structure of the organization because that is not how power works. Managers can’t actually just make their reports comply with their orders, even in rigid command and control cultures. They may think they can, but people don’t work that way. Instead, people tend to follow the lead of those whom they admire.
There will be people in your organization to whom many others look to for guidance. Discover who these people are, and make a map of whom you believe is likely to follow their lead. These influencers are going to be important to your change efforts because winning them over will have a multiplicative effect on the rest of the population.
When you approach people about your change initiative, ask questions to discover what aspects of the current situation in the organization people are hurting from or afraid of. It is well documented that people will risk more to avoid a loss or bad outcome than they will to get something good. Leverage fear of loss to move people out of a state of complacency.
Don’t try to win people over to your idea directly. Instead ask questions about their situation and their feelings and opinions. Seek to be heard before attempting to convince them of your view. People are more likely to fight for an idea that they see as their own. So it is more effective to engage them in conversation about what is wrong in the organization but let them brainstorm solutions. Co-create rather than convince.
Finally, create positive feedback loops. The inertia of the old structure of the organization will be exerting force on everyone, including those trying to change it. To counteract the effects, it is necessary to be vigilant in reinforcing the benefits of the new way. To “automate” this reinforcement, you can create artifacts, content, and regular gatherings that help the new group support each other in their efforts toward change. Artifacts might include a bit of wall space, or an email list, or a Trello board that captures everything being done to move the initiative forward. Content could be some kind of internal newsletter or other media where news and updates about the changes are shared among the group. Meeting regularly, either during work hours or perhaps at a happy hour after work, will help create the sense of camaraderie you need to keep up the momentum.
