What’s external leadership? How can you lead your environment and superiors as an employee?
If you want to lead, you must take charge of external areas of control: how you can lead people and things outside of yourself. Clay Scroggins implies you have a measure of control over people and things you directly interact with, even without authority.
We’ve grouped Scroggins’s ideas into two main kinds of external leadership: leading your environment and leading your superiors.
1. Leading Your Environment
One kind of external leadership is leading your environment, which we’re defining as the elements of an organization that you interact with regularly. These elements can be intangible, like the processes you use in your role, or tangible, like the way an office is arranged.
Scroggins says you should constantly look for new ways to improve your environment. He presents a three-step method for taking this kind of initiative. (Shortform note: We’ve reordered these steps to boost clarity.)
1. Remain attentive to your boss’s priorities. Scroggins says this gives you a direction to take initiative in: Once you understand how your boss wants to direct the company, you can identify ways to change your environment that’ll support them in reaching their goals.
2. Select a persistent issue and take full responsibility for addressing it. Knowing that you’ll be held responsible for the result will encourage you to take initiative and work hard to solve the issue. Your ground-level position is an advantage here, Scroggins says, as you have firsthand insight into what works and what doesn’t since you interact with your team regularly.
3. Create a plan to resolve the issue before mentioning it to your boss. This shows that you’re thinking ahead and can be trusted with responsibility. As discussed previously, this makes you more trustworthy and increases the chances of your boss giving you a position of authority. Thus, Scroggins recommends adding regular planning time to your schedule. Make sure you allocate enough time to be thorough: The better planned your idea is, the more likely your boss is to accept it.
2. Leading Your Superiors
Another kind of external leadership is leading your superiors, Scroggins says. Sometimes, you’ll notice areas that need change but are outside of your control. In these cases, you must leverage your boss’s authority to make those changes. You do this by communicating with them about the issues you’ve noticed and encouraging them to change those areas for the better.
This is a delicate process, Scroggins emphasizes. Sharing your perspective with your boss thoughtfully and constructively can lead to improvement, but doing so ineffectively might harm your professional relationship and make it harder to create positive change. People tend to get defensive when confronted with ideas that upset the status quo. It provokes their fear of change, and they may perceive your request for change as an implied criticism of their past decisions that created the status quo.
Scroggins offers a few methods for overcoming this resistance to change:
1. Invest time in strengthening your relationship with your boss. As discussed previously, the more they trust you, the more likely they are to follow your suggestions. If your current relationship with your boss isn’t strong, prioritize strengthening it before suggesting change.
2. Be prepared to provide a compelling justification for why change is necessary. If your reasoning is uncertain or unclear, it may confuse others, and they might resist change even if your suggestions are valid. In contrast, a well-articulated argument increases the chances of your superior agreeing to your proposed changes.
3. Maintain a calm, non-judgmental tone. Even the best ideas can be rejected if they’re presented with an aggressive tone. Avoid placing blame or issuing ultimatums, Scroggins warns. This will make your boss feel under attack, increasing their defensiveness. Instead, stay non-judgmental and decide how to proceed with your boss. This creates a collaborative environment where you and your boss work together to create positive change.
