✴️ How to lead teams without authority?

 

As a product manager we often lead our teams. But do we lead only our teams, or do we only work with our teams? In an organization, there are so many teams working together. To deliver a small thing also, we work with other teams. Dependency upon other teams always exist. The challenge is how to work with other teams and leading them to a successful delivery.

 First thing, do you really think a leader always shows authority to other teams to get the work done. I don't think any employee will perform as per his/her best ability if the manager is authoritative. A dictator leader looses trust and support of his team mates very soon. The quality of the work degrades. A leader should show empathy towards the other employees/ team mates to make a good working relationship.

 What is the most faced problem by a product manager when working with different teams? In my experience alignment on timeline, agreement to get the things at the right time from other teams, negotiations with other teams to prioritizing the backlog items etc. are the most problematic situations. How many times you have worked with other teams who follows a different timeline for delivery. I remember, I was working on a project where I had dependency on two teams. The other teams followed completely different deployment cycle compare to my team. I had a very hard stop on my timeline for delivery and I was not sure how to get the work done. I had to raise a ticket to other teams so that they accommodate my request and prioritize in their sprint. So how do we handle these situations?

Based on my experience, below items I have identified which are very important to lead teams without authority.

1.  State the objective: All the teams should understand what is the objective behind making any changes. Though there are silos of teams working separately, but they are all working under a big umbrella. The umbrella organization always have its own objective. The small teams should understand the objective in details. So when you are asking something from a different team, state the objective and the impact of the changes. It will help the other product managers from other team to visualize the broad objective.
2. Involvement: Give time to internal and external teams. When people see that a leader is always approachable, they also feel very confident. Don't think others as your subordinate. Involve others, give motivation to achieve a big goal. Show empathy to others, let others feel that they are your partner to achieve something big.
3. Knowledge: Demonstrate your knowledge, it proves your credibility as a leader. You cant fake things when you are working on high level initiatives. People will catch you soon. If you don't know anything, accept that and consider that as a learning opportunity. Knowledge will get you respect from all.
4. Communication: I have seen people who have very good knowledge, great subject matter expert. But when it comes to explain small or complicated things, they stumble. So you need to know how to apply your knowledge. Your communication skill will help you to show your knowledge/ skill to others. Be always transparent to all, maintain information symmetry.
5. Leading with example: When you lead with examples, you become a role model to others. You will earn the respect of other teams. So during a high level meeting, you will be automatically assigned to lead the complete discussion. This is very important to increase your visibility.

 At last I will mention one specific case. I was working with another product manager as I had a dependency with their team. I have explained quite well what is expected from his team. At the end he said to me that he will accept the request in the current sprint, but he also needs a favor. He asked me to include one item in my next sprint (because he had a dependency on my team). What you will do in this case?

 Maintaining relationship with other people is very important. You don't know from where you will need help in future. But it is also important during negotiation with other product manager, you are not agreeing to something which you might regret in future. When you are accepting something, you also need to know the broad objective, impact of the accepted items. Don't accept anything blindly just to get your work done.

The above point would be help you to understand the broad meaning of leading without authority. Happy learning.