Harnessing the Value of Informal Leaders

At StrategyBlocks we work with a large number of organizations who want to improve their strategic success. These conversations often take place with company leadership who understand firsthand how crucial visibility into strategic programs can be to achieving goals. What we’ve found after many strategic engagements is that while the organization’s leadership is vital to success, informal leaders – those who may not hold an official leadership title but who have great influence over their colleagues and peers – have a powerful role to play. 

Informal leaders are a compelling part of any organization. They may lack the traditional accolades of leadership – a formal title, ownership of a team or management requirements. However, they possess certain qualities and attributes that inspire leadership. Research has shown that these individuals demonstrate in-depth knowledge, superior capabilities, strong communication skills and empathy for their fellow employees. 

So how can an organization better recognize and empower these informal leaders? How can informal leaders help contribute to a company’s strategic goals?

Lead by example

Capturing the essence of what makes an informal leader so influential is a bit like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Informal leaders cannot be made or groomed – they exist because of their own natural tendencies and because of a larger ecosystem they’ve created of trust and support. That said, they too need examples of leadership to look up to and emulate.

Many individuals within an organization will wait to lead until a leadership position is formally given to them. Informal leaders, however, see the value of leadership in the roles where they currently work. By watching how their own leaders encourage, support and teach a team, they pick up those traits and start to adopt them in their own work.

To create an environment that encourages informal leadership at every level, think carefully about the example of your formal leaders. Find ways to increase the leadership traits you want team members to emulate, and work to be transparent in how you motivate and guide the organization. Then keep an eye out for those individuals who pick up the baton and run with it – these are your informal leaders.

Communicate well

Researchers recently shared the toll that can come from informal leadership (Harvard Business Review). It’s the old ‘group project’ adage – inevitably one or two people shine in group work while often the rest of the team sits back and lets them take the lead and the ownership of results, good or bad. This can be exciting and appropriately challenging for informal leaders, but it can also be stressful and fraught with feelings of frustration and resentment.

Formal leaders can help mitigate these concerns by working to communicate clearly with informal leaders and by demonstrating to the entire team that informal leaders have the confidence of the senior staff. Sharing “insider” information is also incredibly helpful to the informal leader, because it allows them to work from a bigger picture perspective and help lead their teammates toward achieving broader business goals.

StrategyBlocks makes it easy for organizations to expand insights to informal leaders by sharing parts of the strategic vision and helping these individuals recognize how various tasks are related to bigger goals, and to see, firsthand, the progression toward those goals. 

Show appreciation 

Because informal leadership is unofficial, it is easy to overlook. Informal leaders often have a natural rapport with their teammates and much of the trust and camaraderie they’ve built can go unnoticed by senior leaders. But as the researchers pointed out in their HBR article, a lack of recognition can be incredibly exhausting for informal leaders who often feel they are taking on leadership tasks in addition to their own roles and responsibilities, and that both are being undervalued.

To combat this burnout, formal leaders must recognize the ‘soft skills’ that often accompany informal leadership. Skills such as team support, encouragement and empathy. In addition, formal leaders can reward ingenuity, superior capabilities and results that are achieved throughout the life of a project, not just the end result. Formal leaders should resist the urge to always reward hard work with more responsibility – while it is first seen as a positive step for informal leaders, it can often lead to feelings of frustration, discouragement and being overwhelmed.

Recognizing and acknowledging the valuable role that informal leaders play in your organization is an important stepping stone in achieving your company’s strategic vision. It is also a critical stepping stone to fostering new leadership within the company. Taking the time to nurture and support informal leaders can yield big dividends for creating a cohesive, successful organization.