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Key Takeaways
- Real influence comes from self-awareness, like knowing when to defer to someone with more expertise instead of clinging to decision rights just because you’re the most senior person in the room.
- The fastest way to build credibility on a new project isn’t to prove yourself right away — it’s to spend the first 30 days genuinely understanding stakeholders’ priorities and where decision rights actually sit.
Across two decades, I’ve held twelve corporate roles of increasing responsibility and scope. Some came with positional power and authority. Some did not. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter when it came to my ability to make an impact and advance my career.
The reality is you’re not always going to be the boss with decision rights, but you can always be a leader. In fact, the higher I climbed, the more often I found myself leading cross-functional initiatives that required buy-in from other teams and approval from senior stakeholders.
What I learned along the way is that influence, not authority, is what drives real progress. You don’t need permission to become an excellent leader, just the right mindset and relationships.
Leadership is about relationships, not rank
No matter your title, cultivating influence in an organization starts by building strong relationships in order to solve problems. This way, you will naturally gain allies who are willing to follow your lead. Not because they have to. But because they want to.
I’ve found that the most powerful influence you can earn stems from self-awareness. For example, knowing when to give up short-term decision rights to build a better long-term relationship. Trust me, your willingness to be flexible will be remembered in future interactions.
On the topic of decision-making, the biggest mistake I see people make when “acting like a leader” is to attempt to hold on to all decision rights simply because they are the most senior person on a project, not because they have the most knowledge. Don’t fall into this trap.
A self-aware leader knows who in the room is the most knowledgeable on a topic, and then will allow them to own related decisions. This not only results in better project outcomes but builds trust.
Here are a few more tips for becoming more self-aware as a leader to drive influence:
- Admit if you are not prepared to make an informed decision and ask for clarification.
- Invite others into the decision-making process if you lack experience or knowledge.
- Seek out context and potential cross-functional impact before making a decision.
The best way to build credibility with peers and senior leaders
Instead of trying to prove yourself at the start of a large project, commit to learning. The first 30 days should be spent understanding the landscape. Meet with stakeholders. Ask questions to understand their priorities, concerns and how this project will impact their team.
Most importantly, determine who has final decision rights to avoid confusion and setbacks. By the end of these conversations, I try to have clarity in three areas:
- How the project impacts each department.
- Who has decision rights.
- Where alignment and misalignment exist.
What to do when roles are unclear on a cross-functional project
Cross-functional projects are rarely neat and organized at the beginning. Often, responsibilities overlap, and ownership over decisions rights isn’t yet defined.
In these situations, leadership is about creating clarity. Here’s how to gain momentum:
- Schedule a cross-functional workshop to build a shared timeline for completion with key milestones. There should be at least one representative from each team present.
- Require workshop participants to share back information with respective teams to get feedback and bring it back to your workshop group if anything was missed initially.
- Present the project’s finalized roadmap highlighting all key milestones to leadership to determine decision rights for each one, alignment of resources, and finalize a timeline.
Influencing outcomes through collaboration: a case study
I was once responsible for launching an entirely new brand, tasked first with developing a product description and instructions on how to use it. All this information had to come together on the packaging, a process that required close collaboration with highly specialized teams focused on medical, legal and regulatory requirements — none of which reported to me.
Even in the earliest stage of the project, I knew every packaging decision would ultimately shape how I could market, educate and talk to consumers about the brand later down the road. Yet, I had no formal authority over the teams making the calls, so here’s what I did:
First, I tackled an often overlooked (yet simple to solve) hurdle that can stunt collaboration: proximity. These specialized teams physically worked on the other side of the building, so I made the decision that, for half of the week, I would physically go and sit with them. Even if I was working on something unrelated to our project, I was intentional about being present and available.
As the weeks progressed, this choice led to team members casually calling me into hallway conversations about our packaging simply based on proximity. It also allowed me to listen and learn from those teams on how they work and what was driving their decisions.
By inserting myself in their world, I also had the opportunity to chime in to explain our marketing strategies and give broader context regarding consumers. Ultimately, this allowed us to jointly build a packaging recommendation that met all medical, legal and regulatory requirements while still giving the marketing team plenty of room to promote the brand effectively.
The bottom line on influence vs. authority
No, your title does not dictate how much influence you can have within an organization. But it should impact how you go about earning it. Cultivating influence always comes back to self-awareness, whether that means deferring to someone with less authority but more expertise to build trust or leading with curiosity, not control, as a newcomer to a project.
When people see you taking time to understand their perspective and create alignment, trust begins to form naturally and they will be more willing to support your recommendations.
Key Takeaways
- Real influence comes from self-awareness, like knowing when to defer to someone with more expertise instead of clinging to decision rights just because you’re the most senior person in the room.
- The fastest way to build credibility on a new project isn’t to prove yourself right away — it’s to spend the first 30 days genuinely understanding stakeholders’ priorities and where decision rights actually sit.
Across two decades, I’ve held twelve corporate roles of increasing responsibility and scope. Some came with positional power and authority. Some did not. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter when it came to my ability to make an impact and advance my career.
The reality is you’re not always going to be the boss with decision rights, but you can always be a leader. In fact, the higher I climbed, the more often I found myself leading cross-functional initiatives that required buy-in from other teams and approval from senior stakeholders.
What I learned along the way is that influence, not authority, is what drives real progress. You don’t need permission to become an excellent leader, just the right mindset and relationships.