by Lucy Philip
•
29 March 2023
To achieve desired outcomes in today's VUCA , matrixed world, formal authority is no longer enough. Even those with formal authority may struggle to drive the required performance through their teams. This is where the skill of influencing without authority comes in. It's a skill that lies at the heart of true leadership –and it can be learnt. Learning and Development professionals, in particular, often lack formal authority and find it hard to communicate their value to their organizations, leading to transactional relationships with stakeholders and learners and to, often, ineffective training programmes. But those with formal authority, such as sales managers, may find that their authority doesn't readily translate into influence. Rather than settling for delivering poor outcomes, both learning and development professionals and first-line sales managers can learn how to use influence to generate the right outcomes for their organization – regardless of any formal authority. We define influence as the capacity to have an effect on the development or behaviour of the individual; but it is also about maximising the effect of stakeholders towards the achievement of the greater good. Its usefulness is inarguable, and everyday situations such as the following illustrate this: