The Oddity of Leadership - How to Lead When You're Not in Charge
The Fulling team has begun a new video lesson! Each week in our staff meetings, we watch a culture & leadership video to aid in our professional and personal development. We are starting a series called How to Lead When You're Not in Charge by Clay Scroggins.
“Are you letting your lack of authority paralyze you?
One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don’t buy it. Great leaders lead with or without the authority and learn to unleash their influence wherever they are.
With practical wisdom and humor, author and pastor Clay Scroggins will help you nurture your vision and cultivate influence, even when you lack authority in your organization. And he will free you to become the great leader you want to be so you can make a difference right where you are. Even when you’re not in charge.”
In this video, Clay talks about something odd about leadership. We tend to all make a connection between who is in charge and who is leading. He explains how the idea that we need to have authority before we can lead is a myth.
If we don’t have the authority to lead, we need to guard against apathy. We can still lead by having an influence on others even if we don’t have a position or title with authority.
Some of us mentioned coaches who led by quieter encouragement and direction and feeling more desire to work hard for them over a coach that yelled and screamed all the time.
In our group we talked about the best leaders being those who are willing to collaborate and have relational skills to include the team in the decision-making process. One who can admit they don’t have all of the answers and will listen to the perspective of others to make the best decision.
Join us as we hear more from Clay about how we can become great leaders and make a difference, even if we aren’t in charge!
Food for Thought
Have you ever seen a situation that should be changed but felt you lacked authority to change it?
Have you struggled with apathy in a situation at work? How did that go?
Have you ever had an experience with a leader who had authority but not influence?
How can you begin to separate authority from leadership?