Influencing without authority
When we ask leaders attending our programmes to name the influencing situations they find hardest, one comes up consistently: influencing without authority. That’s getting things done when you don’t have the positional power to make them happen yourself.
It might be a cross-functional project where nobody reports to you, a stakeholder in another team whose support you need, or a peer who sees the problem differently. You can’t instruct anyone. You just have your credibility, your relationships and the way you make your case.
This is now part of almost every role. Flatter structures, matrix teams and AI-assisted work mean more of what you achieve depends on people you don’t manage. The good news is that it’s a skill, not a personality trait, and it can be learned.
When expertise isn’t enough
Many people first meet this challenge when they step up from a specialist role. You were promoted because you were the sharpest technical mind in the room. Now you need a sceptical stakeholder, a cross-functional group and people who don’t report to you to act on your recommendation.
The instinct is to go back for more data and build a more airtight case. But being right and being influential are two different skills, and the expertise that got you here can start working against you.
Find out more in What got you here won’t get you there.
For practical tips on making the shift, read When experts become leaders.
Want to discover where your biggest gap is? Our free two-minute self-assessment covers six common influencing situations and ends with two tips personalised to you.
Why influence matters more in the age of AI
AI has made expertise cheaper to replicate. A well-briefed model can produce a passable version of specialist knowledge in minutes. What it can’t do is walk into a room and shift what people think, do or decide.
AI can give you perfect reasoning, but it doesn’t know the history and politics of the situation you’re walking into. Influence happens in the gap between having the argument and getting the decision, and that gap still needs a person who can read the room, hold a position and adjust when things shift.
We set out the four reasons for this in Why influence skills matter more in the age of AI.
Start with trust
Without authority, trust is what makes people listen. And as more decisions are shaped by AI, people want to know who is accountable and why a choice was made.
The leaders and peers people trust take time to think, explain their reasoning out loud and invite challenge. They also own their decisions, even when AI has helped to make them.
We share six practical ways to build trust in decision-making in In the age of AI, trust is a superpower.
How to influence stakeholders
The most effective influencers don’t start when the meeting starts. They build relationships with the stakeholders they’ll need long before they need anything from them.
Benjamin Franklin is one of history’s best examples. Sent to Paris to win French support for American independence, he had no power to compel anyone. He hosted salons, wrote letters and listened more than he spoke, so when the moment came to make his case, he was ready.
Read the story, and what it means for influencing your own stakeholders, in How influence won the US its independence.
Build the skill
Influencing without authority is learnable. It isn’t charisma or a personality trait, but a specific, practised set of behaviours: knowing when to push and when to listen, framing your case around what others care about, and holding your position under pressure without digging in.
We run open programmes throughout the year, built around exactly these situations. Each has a 3-day workshop, in central London or virtual, plus short virtual sessions. If influencing without authority is where your own gap sits, we’d love to hear from you.
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