You, your coworkers, and your direct reports are all dealing with "the authority problem," as I like to call it. The purpose is to encourage collaboration at all levels of the business, as far down as practicable. When there's an issue and you're left to figure it out on your own, though, no one has the power of rank to handle it quickly and efficiently. Even when you're a manager, the issue arises. Although one individual may have a higher status, no one has direct power, thus complicating the relationship.
What options do you have?
Alignment is the key to finding a solution. The first essential mechanism of becoming indispensable at work is how you position yourself in terms of decision-making and support—and with whom.
Always keep in mind that someone is in control. At a higher level, decisions are taken. If you want to be able to function without authority and solve problems on your own terms—what I call operating sideways (and diagonally)—you must first align yourself with the decision-makers: you must move vertically.
Before you move sideways, go vertical (or Diagonal)
You engage with so many people at work from all over the organization chart—up, down, sideways, and diagonally—that you need to align yourself vertically along the way to keep your priorities straight and set yourself up for success. You must be able to distinguish between where you have discretion and where you do not. Only from above can you obtain that clarity.
Make it a practice to communicate with your supervisor a little too much. Expectations, priorities, and boundaries should all be made clear. Request feedback on drafts or work in progress. Frequently, make sure you're engaging in some type of highly organized, one-on-one conversation.
Your direct reports are in the same boat. You must work with them to ensure that they understand what is expected of them and that they have the authority to make decisions and "sort things out on their own terms."
What does it take to get vertical alignment like this? Let's look at managing up (managing your superiors) and down (just plain managing your direct subordinates) because the principles of alignment are the same in both ways. It is a great responsibility to be someone's employer. It is not something to be taken lightly. And if your boss isn't managing you, it's time for you to manage your boss.
To manage competing priorities, align with your boss.
Assume you're working on a unique project that necessitates regular collaboration with others. However, as time goes on, this cross-functional task will demand an increasing amount of your everyday effort. This is frequently due to "scope creep," which occurs as the project's boundaries expand. What occurs to you, though, is a phenomenon known as "role creep." Your involvement in this unique undertaking takes on a life of its own and begins to take over your responsibilities.
You've probably tried to cope with it. But you can't get out of this overcommitment on your own: everyone and everything is behind schedule, and the project appears to be going on much longer.
You have three choices at this point:
Attempt to be a superhero and complete all tasks. However, you will most likely find yourself getting more overcommitted. Maybe you let your employer down or your project team down. You'll almost certainly disappoint both of them.
Increase your dedication to this endeavor while decreasing your commitment to your regular employment.
Reduce your dedication to this endeavor while increasing your commitment to your main work.
Whatever choice you select, the most essential thing is to move vertical or go up first. You should be in constant contact with your manager about the situation, checking in at each stage.
Aisha is a marketing professional who became overworked after being lured into an apparently never-ending project on a cross-functional team. She wisely met with her supervisor to explain the situation. It turned out that neither of them had much of a choice; the project, like her normal work, had to be completed. Aisha was the only credible contender for both positions. But having her boss's approval made her feel a lot better about her decision to play the superhero. They were now both responsible for Aisha's overburdening task over a prolonged length of time.
Aisha continued the organized communication with her supervisor, and at some time, he saw that she was doing an excellent job of balancing the overload, and he suggested her for promotion. Even if Aisha had begun to drown in overcommitment and not managed it effectively, she and her supervisor were both more likely to have recognized it coming since they kept in communication. Her supervisor may have supplied her with additional support personnel or someone to backfill a portion of Aisha's work in her principal job, on the side project, or both.
The important is that, regardless of which choice Aisha picked, being in sync with her supervisor meant that she would receive the support and resources she needed to complete the task and be duly rewarded and acknowledged for her efforts.
Align Yourself with Direct Reports
Your direct reports must be aligned with you, just as you must be aligned with your boss, and you must take responsibility for ensuring that alignment.
Regular, organized communication with each and every individual who reports to you is the best way to ensure that they have the authority they need to solve problems at their level—to make decisions and take action. Are there any issues that need to be addressed right now or that are on the horizon? Are there any more materials you should get, as well as any unclear directions or goals? Has anything significant transpired since the last time you spoke with the individual you should be aware of?
So, first and foremost, keep a careful eye on your direct reports' workloads and monitor each person's available productive capacity (also known as "bandwidth"—in other words, "How much more work can you handle?").
Second, double-check that you aren't the one who is overworking your direct reports.
Third, if your direct reports begin to take on too much work, utilize your regular structured discussions with them to assist them to balance all of their conflicting priorities by offering the type of continuing support that Aisha's supervisor provided her.
Aligning Yourself Diagonally and Sideways
You'll be in a much stronger position to maintain alignment in your sideways and diagonal working connections if you undertake the effort I just detailed to align vertically, up and down, at every step. The majority of your contact is most likely done via email and remotely in scheduled project sessions. Take this as a sign of wonderful things to come! Structured meetings may help you avoid a lot of miscommunications and misunderstandings.
The bad news is that these gatherings may quickly become self-contained. Maintain a strict virtual meeting procedure. Take copious notes. When you have the opportunity, continue talks one-on-one and in small groups outside of the team meeting. Make a list of who needs to know what information and plan your meetings with other team members around that list.
The more rhyme and reason—substance and structure—you put into your communication in any working relationship, the better things will go: fewer unnecessary problems occur, and those that do are solved more quickly; resources are better planned and less frequently squandered; people are more likely to agree on what they've agreed on, and fewer conflicts occur within the ranks.
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