Articles
The Returning to Work Handbook: Reflections and Strategies for Managers
In the transition to “normal," managers will be responsible for maintaining performance and motivation while their teams grapple with another …
Traditionally, career progression followed a predictable formula: demonstrate competence, earn a promotion into management, gain authority and eventually lead a larger team. Organizational charts reflected this hierarchy, with each promotion bringing greater decision-making power and broader control.
That model is not only changing but also being rendered obsolete.
Across industries, organizations are continuing to become flatter, leaner and more networked. Layers of management are systematically disappearing in pursuit of speed, agility and lower operating costs.
Several forces are driving this trend:
With all of this (and more!) in play within the emerging workplace, influence is increasingly replacing hierarchy as the way we define and identify leadership. The result is an organization with fewer managers, wider spans of control and more fluid project-based teams.
Historically, the majority of a manager’s influence potential was imbedded in their title. Today, much of the work that creates organizational value happens across functions, departments, geographies and functional expertise. In these environments, formal authority is still a part of the leadership equation, but comparatively far less of a contributing factor.
And influence is often misunderstood as persuasion or “salesmanship.” In reality, sustainable influence potential is built on credibility, trust and relatability. And those present-day pillars of leadership are a function of consistently demonstrating:
Unlike formal authority, influence cannot be assigned.
It must be earned.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly assuming responsibility for information processing, analysis, scheduling, reporting and many routine management tasks. Ironically, this makes uniquely human leadership capabilities even more valuable:
As technology is applied to transactional work, leadership becomes increasingly relational. Organizations may automate any number of work-related tasks, but they cannot automate human influence. And human influence is the key to responding to challenges like innovation, digital transformation, cybersecurity, customer experience, sustainability and the implementation of new technology. All require collaboration across organizational boundaries.
And what form does that influence take? Successful leaders leverage influence to:
Leaders who can deliver those outcomes become “organizational connectors.” And in flatter organizations, “connectors” create more value than “commanders.”
One of the most overlooked characteristics of influence is that it compounds over time. Every trustworthy interaction strengthens credibility. Every successful collaboration expands professional networks. Every instance of helping others succeed builds social capital.
Unlike positional authority, which begins the day someone receives a title, the potential to influence accumulates gradually through consistent behavior. People with strong influence often find opportunities coming to them rather than needing to seek them. Their recommendations carry weight. Their ideas receive attention. Their teams willingly follow. Their reputation becomes an organizational asset.
Influence increases through repeated investment.
Many corporate leadership development initiatives still emphasize the “top-down” management of direct reports. While these skills remain important, they are no longer sufficient. Future leaders must also learn how to lead laterally and (even more importantly) up!
Moving forward, organizations need to place targeted emphasis on developing capabilities such as:
These are influence skills.
And they are rapidly becoming leadership essentials.
The organizations that will outperform competition in the coming decade are unlikely to be those with the most elaborate hierarchies.
They will be those with the strongest networks of influence.
They will reward collaboration as much as control, encourage knowledge sharing over information hoarding and recognize leaders for building alignment across functions rather than simply managing within silos.
In these organizations, influence will not be viewed as a soft skill. It will be recognized as a strategic capability that accelerates execution, strengthens culture and enables innovation.
