Leading without authority

Leadership without AuthorityUTS MBITM - 5 April 2012

What is Leadership?

• Leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". The leader may or may not have any formal authority.

Scenarios of leadership without authority in today’s corporate environment

Suppliers, vendors, outsourced partners

Collaborative cross-functional teams

Leading upwards

Leading business partners

Thought leadership

Change management

Self-leadership

Motivation

Identify what motivates people

Extrinsic motivators • Intrinsic motivators

The Candle problem!

The solution

New Candle problem

Exercise #1:

• Discussion: Think of people in your organisation who:

a) Are motivated extrinsically

b) Are motivated intrinsically• If you were to get ‘something done’ by each of these

people, how will you phrase your approach?

Power

Sources of power: What’s your own?

• Expert Power: When a leader has significant domain knowledge/skills. E.g. an expert accountant influences how junior accountants go about their tasks

• Positional Power: Comes when a leader has a legitimately held position of authority. E.g. typically, the CEO of an organisation has the highest positional power

• Reward Power: Is evident when a leader can give, or take away, a reward. E.g. a leader can influence a follower’s behaviour by awarding a bonus, or taking away perks

• Coercive Power: This is felt when a leader creates the perception of a threat. E.g. a leader has coercive power if her followers believe that she will initiate disciplinary action

• Personal Power: Influence gained by persuasion. E.g. a manager may have to rely on nothing more than a friendly please and thank you for an employee to perform a task

Networking

Networking: Essential skill for all leaders

Networking is a lifeskill, not something you do when you need something from others

Give, before you take!

Be authentic - heart to heart conversations

Befriend the gatekeepers

Walk your talk

Information is currency!

Social networks: Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Google+

Exercise #2: Master Networkers

• Talk to someone in this class who you don’t know.

Collaboration

Cross functional leadership: Collaboration

- Multiple managers- Multiple managers- Functional diversity- Functional diversity

- Time allocation- Time allocationInterdependenceInterdependence

Team processesTeam processes- communication- communication

- coordination- coordination- cooperation- cooperation

Content

Process Relationship

Cultural Sensitivity

Leadership across organisations: Cultural sensitivity

• Leading across modern multi-nationals is complex• Articulating anything in one’s own culture is usually

detrimental to the others• Discussion: Think of a scenario where what someone

said to you was ‘weird’ in your cultural context

Manage Change

Leadership during Change: Kotter’s recipe

Create a Sense of UrgencyBuild a strong guiding coalitionDevelop a clear and compelling visionCommunicate your visionWork the action planDemonstrate Early WinsPersistMake the Change stick

Summary

Understand what motivates people: Extrinsic and intrinsic motivators

Understand your own source of power Network, network, network! Establish processes for communication Understand multiple cultures - make an attempt to

learn about co-workers’ cultures Identify people in networks who can build a positive

coalition