Using Positional Authority While Maintaining Healthy Relationships with Your Staff
Positional Authority refers to the power and influence one holds due to their position within an organization. This type of authority is inherent in roles such as managers, supervisors, and team leaders. While positional authority can be a powerful tool for driving performance and achieving organizational goals, it must be wielded thoughtfully to maintain healthy and productive relationships with your team. Your team needs to feel a connection with you as their leader. This comes by investing time into each individual to better support their growth.
Understanding Positional Authority
Positional authority is derived from the formal hierarchy of an organization. It permits leaders to make decisions, allocate resources, set initiatives, and set the direction of their team members. However, relying solely on positional authority can create perceptions of rigidity, control, and being overly authoritative in nature, which may decrease creativity, reduce morale, and ultimately lead to turnover.
Positional authority is important and so is connecting with your team. How do you balance the two? We have some answers. The first place to start is by recognizing how to use your positional authority in a way that creates the most influential and positive experience for your team. Effective use of this leadership authority can inspire, motivate, and empower your team, all while maintaining positive and respectful relationships.
Key Behaviors to Focus On
Decision Making Behaviors:
As a leader, the final decision is typically yours to make; however, how you get to your decision can be the difference in gaining buy-in or finding resistance.
To make effective decisions:
Gather Input: Involve your team in the decision-making process. This not only brings diverse perspectives, but it also shows you value your team’s experience, thoughts, and perspective. Leaders need to be cautious of leading with their ideas, thoughts, and opinions before first considering those of others. Therefore, you can unintentionally send the message that you are not interested in theirs. As often as possible, gain other’s perspectives before sharing yours.
Be Transparent: Clearly communicate the reasons behind your decisions. Transparency builds trust and reduces uncertainty and any misinterpretation.
Stay Decisive: While it’s important to consider input, your authority means you may have to make the final decision, even when it’s unpopular. Your team will respect your decision if you confidently make it based on data, facts, and opinions of your team.
Communication Behaviors:
Communication is a cornerstone leadership behavior that could impact the relationships and morale of your team.
We suggest you use your authority to:
Set Clear Expectations: Clearly articulate goals, responsibilities, and expectations. This helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures everyone is aligned.
Provide Constructive Feedback: Offer feedback that is specific, actionable, and focused on improvement.
Positive Reinforcement: Praise efforts and achievements to motivate and encourage more of the behaviors you want to see.
Listen Actively: Nonverbal communication is just as important. Use active listening to show genuine interest in your team members' ideas, concerns, and feedback.
Delegation Behaviors:
The stereotypical abuse of authority is that the leader delegates all their tasks to their team while perceivably putting their feet up on the desk and do nothing all day. While we are huge fans of delegation, let’s look at the behaviors that promote the best leader/team member relationships:
Delegate to Empower: Use delegation to give your team ownership and decision-making responsibilities. People will more likely stay with companies when they feel they can influence the business’ future.
Delegate to Develop Talent: Use your positional authority to coach, train, and invest in the future talent in your department or organization. Build up talent for succession planning and business advancement whenever possible.
Delegate with Trust: Delegate and don’t micromanage. Give your team members the room to accomplish task and projects. The best way to maintain mutual trust is to delegate with detailed and specific expectations with incremental follow-ups.
Leadership and Managerial Behaviors:
Lastly, when your organization gave you the title with the authority to be a leader, you accepted the responsibility to uphold the core values, culture, and organizational policies. Essentially, people and processes are one of the most important parts of your job.
Use your leadership authority to guide your organization by:
Establishing Clear Processes: Define workflows and procedures to streamline operations. Set focus, structure, and direction, which will lead to less confusion and chaos.
Leading by Example: Model desired behaviors and demonstrate the behaviors and work ethic you expect from your team. This sets a standard and inspires others to follow suit.
Maintaining Order: Help your team understand the priorities and direction. A focused environment and team typically are less stressed, more productive, and have better morale.
Encouraging Teamwork: Promote collaboration and teamwork by creating opportunities for team members to work together on projects and initiatives.
Providing Support: Offer guidance and resources as needed. Check in regularly to provide support and address any challenges. This includes work-life balance.
Being Reflective: Make sure you are stepping back and removing yourself from the day-to-day action to reflect on your interactions, your team’s interactions, and decisions made. You have the authority to influence how the team works together and services your customers. Watch this from a bird’s-eye perspective to see if it’s really the way you want your organization to run.
Positively using your positional authority involves a balance of decision making, setting clear expectations, providing feedback, coaching, fostering collaboration, leading by example, and effective delegation. By doing so, you not only influence your team positively but also build strong, lasting relationships that drive success and ultimately will increase business growth.
All the above behaviors and suggestions will mean nothing if you don’t “walk the walk” in balancing your authority and connecting with the people on your team. Remember, leadership is about consistency day in, and day out, so embrace the authority in your position and apply it respectfully in the context of supporting the success of your team!
By: Matt Francoeur