How to develop as an informal leader and influencer
“Lateral” or “informal” leadership is fundamental to career success and applies to people at all levels in the organisational set-up.
There’s no time like the present to start building your stature and influence in the workplace. The business landscape is undergoing a steady breakdown of traditional hierarchies and functional silos, and the near ubiquitous emergence of matrixed structures, flat hierarchies, and outsourcing.
That means you don’t have to be a senior executive to have influence.
As hierarchies and silos give way, the ability to influence others over whom we do not have formal authority is becoming highly valued and one of the keys to career success. This is what is also referred to as “lateral” or “informal” leadership. Much of the influencing needs to happen remotely and across time zones in today’s global work environment.
To start building influence, look for opportunities to step up to informal leadership, which could arise out of any of the following situations:
• Being an early adopter of an emerging trend or new field of knowledge.
• Having a track record of connecting people across the business and building purposeful internal networks.
• Noticing a vacuum or void due to senior people not stepping up or some other contingency. For example, where a set of people are reluctant to take responsibility for making a decision (even though time is running out) and are waiting for superiors to give instructions.
• Where roles like that of a product manager or project manager are configured so that they “own” the product or project but they do not manage any of the people directly responsible for executing on the product.
• Being sponsored/supported by formal team leaders, who sometimes provide informal leadership opportunities in special projects to team members, based on their unique knowledge, abilities, and interests.
• Getting promoted to a new role — for example, becoming regional CFO from country CFO with the country CFOs now being your dotted line reports over whom you have no direct authority and yet you are accountable for their development and the results they produce.
Leadership opportunities abound every day both in the workplace and society in general. The question is whether you are willing to step into the role (see the chart, “How Often Do You Take on the Role of Being an Informal Leader?”).
How often do you take on the role of being an informal leader?
Consider the extent to which you lead informally without direct authority.
Strategies to lead informally
What sets informal leaders apart is that they do not wait for a formal position to start leading. They know that if they start to lead first and gain trust and influence, the formal position will come in due course, and, when it does, people will already be willing to follow them.
Rapport building and friendly body language play a big part in gaining influence, but remote and hybrid working takes away the subtle communication cues and emotional connection that come from face-to-face conversations.
Further, as Nick Morgan, author of Power Cues, describes, it has never been harder to influence others because of the shorter attention spans brought on by the information overload of the digital age. And yet, now more than ever, it’s important to be able to command influence because of the increased pressure to get results.
So how do we do that? Here are some strategies from my own experience as a corporate team member and leader and then as a leadership coach, to become successful in informal leadership situations, whether in a physical office or a remote setting.
Understand the informal setup
Young executives are often focused on work excellence and impressing their superiors. While that is important, take time to find out “how things happen” in your organisation. Whom do people go to for advice and support? And who usually tends to be the wet blanket bringing up roadblocks to new ideas? You will get a sense of these from casual water-cooler conversations, not from the organisational charts. But what about when you can’t bump into people in the hallway? In remote settings, be willing to be inquisitive (in a nonintrusive way) to understand what other teams are doing and who key stakeholders are and what they need.
Build connections and relationships
As you begin to understand the informal ways an organisation works, reach out to and build rapport with the stakeholders and influencers for the issue at hand. Think, what can you do to make those relationships stronger? For that current project on hand consider these tactics:
• Nurture a rapport with people whose support you will need to carry out tasks critical for the end result. One of the reasons people do things for you — support your idea or request or approve your budget — is that they like you and trust you.
• Suggest a one-on-one get-together, and have casual yet productive workplace conversations to overcome resistance from sceptics and naysayers.
• Take special care to listen to, understand, and address the concerns of those who are going to be affected by changes that your project will bring. For example, when you make changes, take time to explain the reasons, advantages, and the helpful solutions to colleagues who will be impacted by the changes. That will increase the acceptance rate for the proposed changes.
• In a hybrid or remote setting, take the lead to celebrate “group wins” via virtual socials.
• Resist the temptation to multitask during virtual meetings. Rapport building requires attention.
Build authentic coalitions
This is closely linked to relationship-building. Follow Stephen Covey’s advice of “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” You can’t influence without a solid network of allies. Seek out key team members and their influencers, meet with them ahead of formal team meetings, seek their views, and discuss your views with them. Getting most of them in alignment with your proposals or having already taken their concerns on board will make it harder for sceptics to oppose you in the meeting.
Develop reciprocity
You are more likely to get others’ cooperation for your goals if you have a track record of being responsive to their requests and helping them with their agenda. As US author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar put it, “You can have anything you want if you help enough other people get what they want.”
Be a team player. In a virtual setting, it is easy to bury your head in your own priorities, but we need to be more intentional in seeking opportunities to be responsive and helpful to others and be the person who can be relied upon to help.
People are usually motivated by self-interest. When asking for something, always tell them how they can also benefit by giving you what you seek. Instead of asking: “Could you complete your time sheets and expense statements by tomorrow, please?” say: “Please submit your time sheets and expense statements by tomorrow so that I can ensure you are paid on time.”
On a cautionary note, be mindful to prioritise and set realistic expectations so you don’t over-commit. Informal leaders must, at all times, stay on top of their own wellbeing and manage their energy levels proactively to avoid burning out.
Use a light touch
Rather than rushing to roll out your proposals, ask people for ideas and seek their opinions on your ideas. Employ persuasion and negotiation, taking care to assuage hurt egos. Asking open-ended questions, which encourages dialogue, also helps. Another tactic is taking care not to overwhelm others with too many details — judge how much information the other person needs to veer around to your point of view and offer no more than that. The trick, really, is to think in terms of “inviting people aboard” rather than “getting them on board”.
Lead by example: Listen, empathise, motivate, and inspire
Do more, talk less. Build your reputation for being a doer, for making things happen. Do your research, learn the facts, and be prepared to patiently address questions or challenges.
A much-overlooked skill for influencing others is the ability to truly listen, which is even more critical in the virtual setting. Video calls with cameras on are helpful to pick up nonverbal cues and make your own messaging more effective.
Good informal leaders gain trust and influence amongst their teammates not by showing off but by helping them out when things go wrong. You must balance pushing people to stretch beyond their comfort zone with listening to their fears and feedback. A high degree of empathy is important for success in influencing others.
Subjugate self-interest. Be willing to take a risk for a greater cause. Avoid behaviours that are perceived as coming out of self-interest, or else your credibility will get eroded. And sort critical needs versus preferences.
Be politically savvy
Last but not least, it helps to be organisationally savvy. Embrace and understand organisational/group dynamics to move teams and key initiatives forward. In addition, do not hesitate to authentically and credibly communicate your good work and that of your team, and stay alert to safeguard yourself from outliers and saboteurs.
Leading those outside your direct authority can be challenging and involves a journey of exploration and experimentation. However, executives and team members who adopt these strategies will be better prepared to lead informally when the opportunity comes along, giving their own career a boost. While people will dutifully obey a person in authority, they’ll passionately follow a leader of influence.
So, bring to mind a person you are currently trying to influence at work. Which of the above methods do you believe will be most appropriate for that person in the given situation?
And for the formal leaders who are reading this: Find your informal leaders and mentor and nurture them, because they have the passion and confidence necessary for success and they are most likely going to be the formal leaders of the future.
Raju Venkataraman, FCMA, CGMA, is a credentialed leadership and career coach (PCC) and corporate trainer based in Singapore, serving clients worldwide. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Oliver Rowe at Oliver.Rowe@aicpa-cima.com.
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