The Little Black Book for Managers: How to Maximize Your Key Management Moments of Power

10

Your Authority

10.1 Use your authority wisely

Authority to manage is vested in the role, not in the person who occupies that role. I get irrationally irked when politicians use the words, “my party”. It's not their party, it's “the party”. The temporary leaders are ships in the night, here today, gone tomorrow.

So it may be helpful if you indulge me for a moment, to consider your authority, i.e. your power to get others to do your bidding, as money in the bank. The question is: Do you draw out the same amount every day, irrespective of your team's performance, or do you vary it according to the team's needs?

Let me offer you two examples at both ends of the authority/money spectrum:

Example 1 – you have been given a new task and been allocated ...