🤔 How To Lead Without Being The Boss?

Good leadership is even challenging when you officially are the boss.

After all, even your "position power" doesn't do you much good if people are reluctant to follow you. At best, you can force results in the short term. In the medium and long term, that never works.

And you certainly can't form a winning team with this approach. You need other levers for that (➔ get in touch with me if you want to know what these levers are).

On the other hand, how much more difficult is it when you have to lead others but you have no formal authority to direct them?

From my observation, such positions are becoming more common:

Whether it's the product portfolio manager across multiple divisions, the global sales head who relies on local subsidiaries, or the project manager with twenty project team members from a wide variety of divisions.

In these cases, how can you achieve maximum results with your virtual team?

Well, the answer lies in the fact that top leadership has always meant top influence - whether with or without a formal position.

So, when leading without a position, your influence matters even more.

Therefore, the question is: How do you influence people in your favor, even if they have a different boss?

Here are three important questions to answer to make that happen:

  1. "What do I want?"
    This question may sound very simple, but it presents most people with great difficulties in answering it (at least that's what I experience time and again in my ➔ coaching). It is very important that you can name clear results for clear time periods: What exactly do you want to have achieved by the end of the year? Together with whom? And why?
    Because if you are not one hundred percent clear about what exactly you want, how are others supposed to follow you? How are you going to convince others?
  2. "How does it benefit the others?"
    In sales, this is called the "value proposition." What do the others you want to influence gain from your role? What value do you bring to the table in their view? Many people find this thought difficult, but you also need to sell yourself in such a position. You must be able to clearly demonstrate why others should spend their valuable time on your topics. By the way, a good way (as in sales) is to ask the others directly.
  3. "How can we benefit from each other together?"
    This is a good question to ask those with whom you want to achieve things together. Such an open and positive question challenges their thinking. Additional tip: You can also ask the question in relation to specific subjects you want to advance. By doing so, you steer the others in the direction you want them to go. This is then called "exerting influence" and will make you a better leader.

Now, if you're in a challenging leadership situation, I recommend answering these three questions. You will expand your influence a good deal by doing so.

Next steps:

When you're ready, check out my ➔ coaching programs and set up ➔ a 15min appointment here to get to know each other.

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