How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority

Chapter 1 – The Oddity of Leadership
Every road of leadership forks at the intersection of authority and influence. Too often, leaders resort to one of two poor options: 1) They lead by leaning on their authority to manipulate others or 2) They fail to lead, paralyzed by the authority they lack. Contrarily, great leaders choose to cultivate influence in order to move forward. We live in an authority-based culture but influence has always been the currency of leadership. Great leaders lead with the authority of leadership or without it. Leadership has far more to do with influence than authority. This book is about how to cultivate the influence needed to lead when you aren’t in charge.

Chapter 2 – Identity Crisis
How do we become leaders that choose to cultivate and leverage influence instead of waiting on authority? First, we must start with our identity. Anytime I have sensed a distortion between authority and influence – it has always been rooted in an identity crisis. Understanding who I have been made to be leads me to leverage influence as opposed to exerting authority. To lead with influence not authority, we need to know who we’ve been made to be. Cultivating influence has far more to do with being someone versus doing something. Influence begins with identity.

Chapter 3 – Designation or Ordination
The most common question I get about my future is “When are you going to get out and lead something on your own?” That question really bothers me because it assumes I’m not leading anything right now. One of the most powerful choices I’ve tried to make is to believe that I am a leader and can influence anyone from anywhere. It is not self-talk but it is self-leadership. That is my ordination. My designation is the assignment on my business card. An ordination is far more powerful. The calling of ordination far outpaces the title of designation. Who have you been ordained to be? When you find this you can be dropped into any role, any where and cultivate influence.

Chapter 4 – Kabash – Living Out What’s Been Placed In You
God’s commandment for the first humans to subdue the earth is wildly important to leadership. Too often, this word, subdue or kabash, has been used as a figure of speech for bad leadership. “Put the kabash on that.” God’s design is not for us to wield our authority, or lack their of, to gain control. Instead, it is in you as a leader to make order, bring structure, and create better what already is. Jesus himself commands his followers to not be like those who “lord their authority over others.” Rather, great leaders live out their identity to kabash life through influence.

Chapter 5 – Understanding Autonomy (leading yourself)
It is in you to be autonomous. Leaders mistake this to mean - “I’ve been made to be on my own.” You don’t need to quit your job. You might not be an entrepreneur but you were meant to lead yourself. If you feel like you wish you could be self-determined, it’s because you were made that way. You were made to be self-led. To lead without authority, I must begin by leading myself because I was made to lead me. No one can lead me well if I’m not leading myself. Self-leadership is a manifestation of the autonomy placed in you. What are you doing to lead yourself?

Chapter 6 – Seeing the Panoptic View (choosing the larger view)
You were made to see a picture larger than what you’re currently seeing. It is in you to be a part of something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When you see that there is something larger going on, you can begin to own decisions that you did not make like they are your own. When I’m not part of the decision making process, my default is to abdicate leadership. Influence-based leaders who know their identity can own a decision and make it right. They lead with an energy that choose “we” over “me,” knowing the best gift they bring to their team is their positivity.

Chapter 7 – Thinking Industriously (thinking critically)
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