Leading Laterally

Becoming a leader before the title change

Illustration by Dara Porter

The path to leadership can take many forms. While some people may hone their leadership skills as they rise through the traditional ranks of management, many of us need to exercise leadership in order to execute our current jobs. Even without managerial responsibilities, we find ourselves needing to be influencers, negotiators, or motivators — all roles that require us to act as leaders.

Leading laterally is the skill set that allows you to be a leader among your peers when you have no actual managerial authority over them. My experience in peer leadership comes from almost ten years in Product Management, a role that requires leading development teams to build products that are meaningful to customers and valuable for the business. I also manage stakeholders across the organization to engage them in the product delivery process, while simultaneously convincing executives to believe in our vision — and I do this all without having any actual managerial authority over anyone. Becoming a peer leader doesn’t always come naturally, it requires focus and intention. Here’s what I’ve learned about leading laterally.

Sharpen Your Skills

First things first, a prerequisite to being a peer leader is being a top performer in your current role. You won’t be seen as a leader if you miss deadlines, communicate ineffectively, or fail to bring your best work to the table. To assert yourself as a top performer, it’s helpful to identify your knowledge gaps. Is there a segment of your company’s technology you don’t understand or a department in your organization where you don’t know anyone? Leaders understand the broader organizational structure, needs, and impacts outside of their own day-to-day responsibilities. Work to be an expert in as much of the business as you can, and when you can’t, aim to know who is the expert. When you’re confronted with unknowns, being able to redirect and provide a knowledgeable source will boost your own visibility as a go-to resource.

Take Initiative

One of the fastest ways to improve your peer leadership skills is to take initiative. Leaders don’t wait around to be told what to do. Instead of waiting for a leadership opportunity to be handed to you, find opportunities yourself as you go about your day-to-day responsibilities. Every complaint or inefficient process is an opportunity to take ownership of finding a solution. When you find yourself sighing in frustration, reframe it as an opportunity to say “What would it take to make this better?” and then work toward that solution. That’s leadership.

As you think about solutions, consider other questions that would arise if you were to take on the problem. How many people would need to be involved? How would the business be impacted if it were better? As you answer those questions, collect all your thoughts into a cohesive, high level plan. You’ve seen a problem, you’ve heard people complain, and you’re probably annoyed yourself. What sets you apart from everyone else is that you will create a plan to fix it. Get your plan on paper. It doesn’t have to be formal, just get the problem and a potential solution out of your head. Once it’s on paper, the substantiveness of having it written out will push you to act. Now you’ve started to take initiative!

Sell a Vision

Good ideas and strong plans must be evangelized to others before they’re put in place. You are the best person to convince your colleagues or your boss that your idea is a good one, so evangelize it. Talk about it A LOT. The “Marketing Rule of 7” states that a prospect needs to “hear” the advertiser’s message at least seven times before they’ll take action to buy that product or service. This is the same number of times you will need to talk about your vision with others. As you evangelize your vision, your goal is to gain buy-in. Gaining buy-in is like circulating a petition. You want a list of people who are on your side and you want that list to be long and high profile. To gain buy-in, try to convince the people you are talking to that the problem you are solving is important and that your plan will actually make it better. The most critical component of buy-in is to help others see how what you are going to do is going to help them. You have to find a way to make it help them by understanding their problems. Will you help others reach their goals? Or does it make their lives easier? Find everyone whom your idea will help and let them know how much it will help them.

Use Data

Data will help you gain buy-in by providing context for the impact your plan will have on the business. You can leverage data as a tool to sell your vision. Using numbers to define an opportunity can objectively surface how much a problem might be impacting the business. At the end of the day, the people who can really help you move an idea forward care more about the bottom line than (almost) anything else, so you need to communicate specifically how your proposal will affect your company’s business.

Foster the Team

At this point, you’re already starting to look like a leader to your peers and your bosses, even though nothing about your role or title has changed. You’re a top performer, you’ve identified an opportunity, and you’ve taken the initiative to come up with a plan that you’ve begun to socialize. By doing all these things, you’ve already made strides in how people view you. But here’s what I consider to be the hardest part: while you’re leading others towards your vision, you must also foster a team environment.

After taking initiative, it’s important to be a catalyst for creating cohesiveness around you. Sometimes, we become so invested in something that we alienate others. Or, we get so concerned about how we look that we forget to think about how our team looks. A good leader fosters team environments up and down the chain of command by making their team a top priority. Fostering teamwork isn’t unique to peer leadership, but it is critical for peer leadership. Building trust and empathy is essential to strengthening your team and can be broken down into four key components: displaying authenticity, embracing relationships, utilizing unique skill sets, and making holistic decisions.

Be authentic: Leading with authenticity takes the whole person into account, instead of reducing someone to just the job they do. Being compassionate and transparent with your coworkers builds trust and motivation by allowing your team to interact empathetically. To be an authentic peer leader, be honest when you’re unsure of an answer or if something isn’t working.

Embrace relationships: Getting to know your coworkers as people and understanding their personality styles will help your team run more smoothly. A great place to start is taking some personality or work style quizzes. Assessments like the enneagram, 5 Foundational Voices, Myers-Briggs and many others offer a quick snapshot of who you are and how you relate to others. Understanding how others see you can surface opportunities for you to finesse your interpersonal skills. Taking time to understand yours and other’s personalities helps avoid misunderstandings and build trust.

Utilize different skillsets: Similar to different personalities, we each have different skills. You aren’t going to be an expert at everything so utilize your peers and their skill sets. Knowing your weaknesses and collaborating with your team to help fill the gaps doesn’t make you look weak — it makes you look like a team player. Think about who on your team can be an asset to your work and engage them. People are usually happy to help when it makes you both look good and strengthens the team.

Don’t make decisions in a vacuum: As you bring people in, don’t make decisions in a vacuum. Everyone has something to bring to the table and making decisions in a room by yourself only makes people feel excluded, which puts everyone in a “fend for yourself” mindset. People have an innate desire to be heard and your ideas truly are better with input from other people.

As you work to incorporate all of these practices into your workflow, remember that leadership isn’t just about action: it requires confidence. Actions without confidence go unseen. Ideas without confidence are not heard. You must believe in yourself and push yourself to become a leader. Remind yourself frequently that you are worth listening to. Have grace with yourself when you feel frustrated. If problems were easy to solve, someone would have already solved them! If you are thinking about opportunities and working to make things better, you are already one step ahead. Don’t limit yourself by holding back on your ideas! You are worth listening to.

Everything I’ve learned that is required to be a peer leader — identifying opportunity, selling your vision, fostering a team, et cetera — will solicit new ideas from other people. And that’s ok! By creating an environment where others can contribute ideas and feedback, you’re only making your ideas stronger and more compelling, showcasing yourself as the leader you are.