Leading on the Forward Edge – At Work · Weekend Reflections for Leaders · Reflection: “The Title Is Not the Job”

Most organizations, large and small, mark a promotion with an announcement. An email goes out, the org chart gets updated, and a person who was a peer on Friday is sitting at the head of the table on Monday.

What the announcement transfers is authority. What it cannot transfer, what no announcement has ever transferred is influence. We confuse the two constantly, and the confusion is expensive.

Authority is granted. It is positional, loaned to us by the organization, and withdrawn by that same organization whenever it chooses. Influence is earned. It is granted by the people who decide, individually and quietly, whether to follow us. No one can assign it, including whoever signed the promotion letter.

Watching enough newly promoted leaders find their footing, I have experienced that the first year in a new title is spent almost entirely servicing a debt. The title borrowed credibility on the leader's behalf at the moment of the announcement. The team extends the benefit of the doubt for a period, and that period is considerably shorter than most new leaders assume. Some spend that year paying the loan down with delivered commitments. Others run the balance up, and by month fourteen the title is all they have left.

The practical distinction is this. Authority produces compliance in the room. Influence produces action when we are not in the room, not on the call, and not reachable. Only the second one scales. A leader operating on authority alone can run a team of eight by being present for every decision. No one runs a business of four hundred that way, because no one can be in every room.

In the early-stage world this shows up in a particular and predictable form. When cash is tight, a title is the cheapest currency on the table, so founders reach for it; VP of this, Head of that to close a candidate or hold on to an early loyalist. The problem surfaces about eighteen months later, when the business has grown into the title and the person has not. The company needs an actual VP of Sales and the seat is occupied by someone who was handed the words as part of a compensation package. The founder now faces a choice they manufactured themselves: demote someone loyal, hire over them, or accept a permanent ceiling on the business. The third is chosen most often, because it is the only one that avoids a hard conversation this quarter.

Below are three ways to build the influence a title cannot supply:

1. Start with a listening practice, not a direction-setting one. Install a standing practice I have called Protect and Fix. In the first ninety days, sit down individually with every person one and two levels down and ask exactly two questions: what should we protect about how this team works, and what would you fix if you had my authority for a week. Write the answers down verbatim. Do nothing else in that meeting. The first question tells us what the team values and what we would break by moving too fast. The second tells us where the real friction sits, rarely where the org chart suggests. The practice costs a few hours a week and buys the one thing a title cannot: evidence that we listen before we act.
2. Be predictable before trying to be impressive. New leaders reach for a signature initiative because initiatives are visible and reliability is not. The team is measuring something else entirely. They are watching whether the small commitments hold: the promised answer on Thursday, the decision we said we would make by month end, the follow-up we said we would handle. People follow leaders whose behavior they can forecast, because that is what lets them act without checking first. Every kept commitment adds to the balance. Every dropped one withdraws more than it appears to.
3. Give away the visible wins and absorb the visible losses. This is the oldest exchange rate in leadership and the one a new title most often gets wrong. When the quarter goes well, the names in front of the senior team should be the people who did the work. When it goes badly, the name in front of the senior team should be ours. Authority tempts us in the other direction, because the title makes both credit and blame assignable to us. Trading short-term visibility for long-term credibility is how influence compounds, and influence is what we will need on the day the authority is not enough.

The title puts us at the head of the table. It does not put us at the center of the team. That part we build ourselves, over the long haul.

If I were to ask you, "What is the most difficult leadership challenge you are facing today?" what would you say?

Please reach out if I can help you today. My mobile is 269-370-9275 and my email is david@harvesttimepartners.com

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This reflection builds on two earlier Weekend Reflections for Leaders posts: Job Titles and Leadership & Empowerment.

Questions this reflection answers

What is the difference between authority and influence?

Authority is granted by the organization with a title and can be withdrawn at any time. Influence is earned from the people who decide whether to follow you. Authority produces compliance in the room. Influence produces action when you are not in the room, which is the only kind that scales.

What should a newly promoted leader do first?

Start by listening. In the first ninety days, meet individually with everyone one and two levels down and ask two questions: what should we protect about how this team works, and what would you fix if you had my authority for a week. Write the answers down and do nothing else in that meeting.