If you don’t have direct authority as a manager or leader in your organization, you can gain authority in other ways. Your personal influence as a change agent relies on your ability to build up and utilize your expert power. To influence change, establish authority.
Having authority allows you to do many things to help implement change, such as:
- Take action without permission
- Make decisions that affect other people
- Model behavior
- Change minds
- Provide feedback
In the short term, you can establish authority by speaking up and demonstrating the skills and knowledge you already have. Share your observations, and be assertive when you see something that will throw the change off track. In the long run, support your role as change agent by continually increasing your knowledge – in your choice of professions as well as in organizational change.
How might you establish authority?
Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.