What is Leading Beyond Authority?
Common Purpose Chair of Trustees David Bell on Leading Beyond Authority
Common Purpose aims to inspire, develop and connect leaders who can lead beyond their direct area of authority – at work, in their communities and in their cities.
Participants gain in many ways from attending a Common Purpose course and one is that they learn to "lead beyond their authority". This expression was coined by Common Purpose alumni as they described the impact of being encouraged to lead in situations in which they were not in a position of authority.
They observed that most of their prior leadership development had been devoted to developing their leadership in situations where they were the nominated or accepted leader - when they had a job title, budget and task to deliver on. And that Common Purpose gave them a different take on leadership, when they were beyond the limits of their authority and dealing with issues, problems and opportunities that required them to work with peers, stakeholders and partners over whom they of course had no authority. This meant that they had to learn to lead in new ways and change their thinking about collaboration. In the past many have associated collaboration with dumbing down to cobble together a vanilla consensus solution. Participants had now acquired the skills to build and sustain collaborations that make two and two deliver ten.
As a result Common Purpose founder Julia Middleton wrote a book on the subject in 2007. In the book she interviews leaders who have either been successful beyond their authority within their organisation - which she describes as the first outer circle - or who have succeeded beyond their organisation - the second outer circle.
The challenges of getting leaders to go into the first outer circle are well known to organisations that wrestle with the 'silo' problem, when leaders build walls on the boundaries of their authority and the organisation struggles to connect the parts up. They aspire to develop leaders who will operate for the benefit of the organisation as a whole, dealing with issues that cross boundaries, problems that leaders could claim were not their own, leaders who will run the risk of appearing to interfere in other's business and deal with the complex and messy challenges that will never fit nicely inside the walls of the organisation.
The second outer circle, that takes leaders right out of their organisations, presents an even greater challenge. Yet leaders in the modern world are increasingly called on to work with customers, stakeholders and partner organisations. Their organisations are no longer islands entirely of themselves and they need leaders who can thrive and succeed beyond their organisations boundaries.
Cities badly need the leaders of its organisations and institutions to be capable of working together, in collaboration, for the very same reasons. Otherwise opportunities are missed, resources wasted and problems built up.
The Common Purpose courses help leaders develop the ability to lead in the outer circles, the book "Beyond Authority: Leadership in a Changing World" looks at how experienced leaders have avoided the dangers of consensus and succeeded through collaboration.
Dr Musharraf Hussain is well versed in leading beyond authority because, as he says, Imams have no authority outside their own community:
"We made a bid for our school to be supported by the Local Education Authority in Nottingham- and we failed. I think I became blinded by the strength of the arguments we were making in our bid. There was such an overwhelming and strong case and the need was clear. Maybe I relied too much on the intellectual argument. With hindsight, the piece we did not put enough effort into was the building of the relationships."
Dr Musharraf Hussain, Director General of Bobbersmill Community Centre in Nottingham, and an Imam
"Leaders all look at things from their own core. You have to coax them to come out and look at the issue again from a new angle - and to do it together. It takes some time. But, when it works, it's wonderful."
Zenna Atkins, Chair of Places for People, the largest housing association in the UK
"As you keep going out of your core circle, and you get better at it, your circles expand too. As you progress within your organisation, your core circle gets bigger, often because you have got better at negotiating your way around the other circles."
James Ramsbotham is Chief Executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce and former vice-chair of the Esh group
"Leadership, in and out of authority, takes courage; a broad view; common sense; a small ego; the ability to focus and concentrate effort; a preparedness to change your mind publicly for the right reasons; and an ability to engage and influence people."
Sir John Rose, Chief Executive, Rolls Royce plc
"The lovely thing about the outer circles is that all that really matters there is influence. And influence travels. You can't transfer authority from one circle to another - but you can transfer influence. And influence is mainly about character. I believe influence increases if you behave properly and do what you say you will do".
Lord Puttnam (David), former filmmaker, President of UNICEF (UK) and advisor to the Department of Education
More resources on Leading Beyond Authority
Amelia Fawcett, Chair of Pensions First LLP, speaking at the Common Purpose Masterclash (Spring 2009). She talks about her experiences of and ideas for building coalitions and achieving consensus.
Listen to an interview about Leading Beyond Authority with
Sir Michael Bichard, Rector, University of the Arts London; former Permanent Secretary, Department of Education; Chair of the Soham Inquiry
Listen to an interview with Lord Simon (David), former Chair and Chief Executive of BP
Read more in "Beyond Authority: Leadership in a Changing World", a book on the subject by Julia Middleton, the founder of Common Purpose.
