Archive for March, 2009

Working Effectively With People Over Whom You Have No Authority

The secret to working effectively with people over whom you have no authority is based on working effectively with people in general.  There is a high level of correlation between organizations that have high levels of leadership effectiveness and the business results those organizations achieve.

If we have authority over someone, we have what’s called position power.  With position power we are able to influence the behavior of those we have authority over.  If the extent of our influence relies solely on our position power, we might, in fact, be successful.

For instance, if we use our position power to exercise our authority over someone and they comply, we have been successful.  The task was accomplished.  However, it is likely that this person will comply only because we have authority over them.  If we didn’t have authority over them, it would be likely that they would not comply.  Why does this happen?

The reason we are not likely to comply with what someone else tells us to do is because we live in an age where our first question to any instruction is often “Why?”  When someone asks us to write a report, we ask “Why?”  If we’re asked to attend a meeting, we ask “Why?”  When we’re asked to join or lead a team, we ask “Why?”

There are many reasons we ask why.  Here are three important reasons.  First, we use the answer to the “why” question to prioritize our efforts.  We have to balance the request with the other tasks we have to accomplish.  Second, we also want to know why because we want to believe that the task makes sense to us.  It helps us generate “buy in” for the plan.  Finally, we also know that we might have a better idea based on what we know about the situation.  So we “need” to know why.

How do we work effectively with people over whom we have no authority?  We must become not only successful, but also effective.

Effectiveness requires that we demonstrate to others that achieving the goal or completing the task is something in their interest regardless of whether or not we are wielding our authority.

For example, will your team members use the prescribed safety practices even when you’re not looking?  Will your employee double check the accuracy of his/her analysis even if you don’t double check it?  Will your employees accomplish the goal or achieve the standard because they believe the goal or the standard is now their goal and their standard.

The real key to working effectively with people is to influence their behavior toward the organizational objective whether or not we have authority over them.  Nowadays, most of us are in positions every day where we need to work with others to complete a task without any position power over them.  Without position power, all we have is influence.

Granted, influencing others toward a goal is harder to do than to simply rely on our position power.  “Do this or you’re fired” is quicker than “Can you see the benefit of doing the task in this way?”  However, influencing others toward an organizational goal is far more effective.  When those we lead take responsibility for completing tasks at a specified level of performance, they are more engaged and more committed to the task.

The goal is to drive improvements in performance, which directly lead to improved committee, team, division and organizational results.