Influencing without authority is a critical skill needed to be a successful Project Manager. In previous posts, we discussed the project manager’s role and the core skills required to succeed in that role. Now, let’s go over some essential skills you’ll need to develop relationships with your teammates and stakeholders.
Building relationships with the people involved in your project requires you to use your interpersonal skills. You’ll learn about the team’s needs and concerns as you build these relationships. This will assist you in determining project priorities and motivating your team throughout the process.
Strong interpersonal skills are required for effective leadership. Even if you’ve never held a formal leadership position, having these skills will help you lead a team. This is known as influencing without authority, and it refers to a project manager’s ability to guide teammates to complete assigned tasks without acting as their direct managers.
You can use a few essential interpersonal skills to accomplish this and guide project outcomes even if you don’t have the authority of being your teammates’ boss. These abilities include:
- Communication
- Negotiation
- Conflict mediation
- Understanding motivations.
Communication
Communication is a critical skill that we’ve mentioned several times. Checking in with teammates to see how they’re doing on a task and providing clear feedback on the quality of a teammate’s work are examples of communication in team leadership.
Negotiation
When a teammate tells you that they won’t be able to complete their work on time, you can negotiate a new deadline with them. This can be frustrating, but you’ll need to regularly use your negotiation skills with your teammates and stakeholders to balance their needs with what’s best for the project.
Conflict Mediation
Conflict resolution is another essential skill. As previously stated, project plans are subject to change, and issues may arise. Sudden changes in the plans can occasionally cause tension and conflict within the team. Conflict resolution is an important skill to practise and develop to keep the project on track, which might involve setting up a meeting with two struggling teammates to agree upon the best way to handle a shared task.
Understanding Motivations
This entails getting to know your teammates and determining what motivates them to do their best work. Understanding motivations may also entail learning how your teammates prefer to receive feedback and recognition for a job well done. You can better motivate and encourage your team members if you know them personally.
During a job interview for project management roles, an interviewer may ask you to discuss a time when you influenced someone without authority. You may have already noticed how you’ve used these skills in your personal life without even realising it.
For example, suppose you have a coworker who is always late for meetings. While you can’t force them to be on time, you’ve likely considered ways to motivate them to want to be on time. You may have also wondered how you could change how you communicate with your coworkers to influence them to be on time. Perhaps you’ve tried asking them to arrive 15 minutes earlier than the rest of the group, or you’ve explained how their actions affect the rest of the team.
Both of these strategies are examples of influencing without authority and are intended to encourage certain behaviours. One of the most critical and challenging aspects of project management is influencing without authority. You’ll need to use your interpersonal skills to do it effectively, as you’ve just learned.
Key takeaway
To summarise, communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and motivational understanding are all interpersonal skills that will help you influence without authority.
