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How Do You Lead without Authority?

dev.to staff on April 10, 2024

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you had to lead a project or team without formal authority? How did you approach this challenge, a...
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Ranjan Dailata • Edited

Here are the fundamental principles of a great leader.

  1. Empathy
  2. Collaboration
  3. Focus on others growth and development.
  4. Willingness to help others

I would certainly challenge you with the "Servant leadership", as it's the key path of a successful leader.

Servant leadership, on the other hand, is a leadership philosophy where the primary goal of the leader is to serve others, focusing on their needs, development, and well-being. Servant leaders prioritize empowering their team members and helping them grow.

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Thaísa Vieira

Thanks for sharing. Those principles will be a great help!

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Schalk Neethling

For me, it has always been to lead by example. If you set a good example that others want to follow, authority is not that important.

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Cesar Aguirre

I was about to comment something like this one. And to expand, be the leader you always wanted to have.

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Schalk Neethling

That is a great addition.

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Alex Gonzalez

I think there are two columns to be lead without authority, the first one is the trust your team have in you, and the second one is transparency of the decisions. Why? Because if you have this, means that you are communicative with your team, you are empathic with them, you trust in your team, and they in you, so I think is the best combination.

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Matt Eland

You just lead. Be authentic, be honest, be tactful, talk about the work that needs to be done, talk about your concern areas, and do whatever you can to help the team succeed. Leadership is honest, simple, an active team-centered posture and informal.

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Nikola Mitic • Edited

I don't understand what's so wrong with having an authoritative leadership?

Oops, sorry didn't read the whole thing.

I been there many times.

Only and only if you are type of person who takes zero credit even for their own work you will be fulfilled in a role such as the one you are in.

People will doubt you and try to crash you and regardless of how great you actually are.

You won't get paid what you should either.

But you will learn a lot.

I will never do it again.

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Amjad Abujamous

Adding to the insightful comments below, I would say that a leader must always be willing to become tough when needed. Whether it is with their team or with different departments. Also, the team needs to know that so as to ensure that no one will suddenly rebel and play "tough guy" in the team.

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Scott Reno

I try to lead by example and teach other programmers how to write better code through PRs.

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Calin Baenen

I don't.    /j

Eric Cartman saying "Respect My Authority"

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Iannetta

So, I believe that is to do, guidance and knowlege.