How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge | Book Review

Clay Scroggins is a pastor whose unique life story offers timely leadership lessons for all of us, especially those of us who might think leadership is the exclusive domain of supervisors, or those with titles or in formal positions of authority. 

“Leaders who wrap themselves in the security blanket of
‘If I were in charge’ or ‘When I’m in charge’ as an excuse
for poor performance and lack of initiative
will most likely never be in charge.” (p. 11)

Let’s think of Scroggins book, subtitled Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority, as an antidote for passive behavior. As we discover during Academy Leadership Leader’s Compass workshops, influence always outpaces authority (p. 33).

In three parts, Understanding Our Challenge, The Four Behaviors, and Challenging Authority, we can challenge our own mindset, and highlight recommended actions consistent with those forming an Action Plan after a Leadership Excellence Course or similar experience.

I | Understanding Our Challenge

In Crucial Conversations, we share and learn about mastering our stories. Scroggins offers a similar term, our identity. Leading well without formal authority has less to do with your behavior and far more to do with your identity (p. 39). Imagine identity as our own definition of ourselves, which we are free to choose. Scroggins identifies three common identity traps (pp. 41-46):

• Choosing from multiple passports
• Using a fake ID
• Misrepresenting height and weight on a driver’s license

These traps appear related to authenticity, or a combination or self and external honesty. Perhaps the two are driven by fear, or more specifically, fear of receiving feedback. A common fear in many workplaces is Fear of Speaking Up (FOSU).

Every time we respond to fear, we miss an opportunity to lead,
and this failure of leadership is an issue of identity. (p. 59)

A great practice in meetings is sharing relevant observations (not evaluations) and asking good questions, both of which strengthen our influence and our identity.

II | Four Behaviors

Scroggins shares a great Jim Collins quote “Truly great [leaders], no matter how successful they become, maintain a learning curve as steep as when they first began their careers.” (p.100) It’s an ideal example of leading one’s self. Does your leadership philosophy include expressions of curiosity or welcome knowledge sharing?

Researchers … found that the satisfaction employees have in their job is directly correlated to their ability to see how what they do fits into the big picture (p. 116). How well do we align with or provide a positive, inspirational future vision?

Trust-fueled, hope-filled, forward-thinking people can always push
through anything that gets in the way because their eyes are fixed
on more than what’s directly in front of them. (p. 122)

An effective, or engaging leader taps into all four energy dimensions: Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual (The Power of Full Engagement).

Scroggins concluded the same: The greatest benefit I bring my team is not my talents, gifts, experience, or education. It’s my energy (p. 124).

In our Feedback workshops, we usually find that evaluation and coaching are frequently confused in the workplace. We confuse the two at the individual level also. Scroggins recommends four subtle influencing shifts (pp. 138-145):

• Stop thinking as an employee, Start thinking as an owner.
• Stop stacking your meetings. Start scheduling thinking meetings.
• Stop being critical. Start thinking critically.
• Stop giving others a grade. Start lending them a hand.

The last two are terrific ideas for shifting from an evaluative mindset to a coaching mindset.

One of the most dangerous temptations we face when we’re working for someone else is passivity (p. 151). Language matters. Try counting the number of times leadership is used as a noun rather than describing an action (a verb) in your workplace. You’ll probably notice a high correlation with victim or helpless identities:

“I’d run that past leadership, but they always say no.”

Scroggins quotes his friend Tim Cooper “You will never passively find what you do not actively pursue.” (p. 165)

III | Challenging Authority

A high percentage of Leadership Excellence Course attendees wish to “coach up,” or influence their supervisors. There are three significant reasons why it’s difficult to challenge others well (pp. 174-179):

• Challenge brings change, and change is inherently challenging.
• The more personally your boss relates to his job, the more personally your boss will take your challenge.
• Any change to the present system will be perceived as a criticism of past leadership.

Think about the second reason. How much of your boss’ identity is tied up in their position. Maybe they’ve only worked at one place their whole life and don’t have a college degree. That’s a recipe for a challenge to any (threatening) idea.

Think of the term relational capacity. …Scroggins’ equivalent definition: Challenging up requires a bridge of relationship that is strong enough to handle the weight of the challenge (p. 183). Make sure it’s real, not an identity trap!

The most powerful reason to challenge the status quo is to make it better (p. 203). We can think of mutual purpose (from Crucial Conversations) or deliberate practice (from Peak).

Summary

Junior leaders, ask yourselves: What do you want people to say about you when you are finally in charge? (p. 213).

Influence has always been, and will always be,
the currency of leadership. (p. 27)