Whenever I hear someone retell the saying, “find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” I am always reminded of the phrase, “you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometime you’ll find you get what you need.” Where many of us would love to prefix the word “dream” with any mention of our employment, the latter words of those famous British philosophers remind us we may not be in the most ideal situation, but rather the best for us at the time, whether it’s dull, chaotic or even just ok.

Sometimes when we face the day we can feel we are at a loss, that we are merely succumbing to a situation we have no say in. Why we feel like this may vary, often it is the case when we don’t have the title of a leader, but are staff working under a structure. Or at least that’s how it appears, and there may be an opportunity to make the best of the situation for yourself.

That very scenario is the crux of the book How To Lead When You’re Not in Charge by Clay Scroggins. A Christian minister, he shares his leadership experiences, official and unofficial, in his work in ministry, which from the sound of it is no less political than any traditional office.

As someone who has held leadership positions from low to as high as you can go (yes, I will claim being president of a one-person company as the high end of this), I have worked in a number of situations where I have been a boss, yet I can’t say that I was a leader to the same degree in all of those situations. This is what prompted me to pickup a copy of this book when I recently learned about it. Where there were a number of small takeaways from this book, I’ll share my larger ones.

You don’t need authority to be a leader, but most feel they do – This is the overarching theme of the book. I have seen this first-hand in many situations. Where we may not have formal sign-off powers, there’s likely plenty of other things we can do to lead the team and/or project we work on.

Lead yourself well – You can lead yourself even when others don’t lead you. I’ll be honest, in all of my years I never thought about it like that. Sure, I have heard it many times that we choose to be happy or angry, and we have control of ourselves more than we think. But saying that we are leading ourselves, well that was new to me. Maybe instead of a Pomodoro timer, I should have an alarm that goes off every 20 minutes asking, “are you leading yourself well?”

Influence has always been, and will always be, the currency of leadership – This is the answer to my first takeaway about not having authority, but if you have influence, that can make all of the difference. Think about it – who among your team (immediate or extended) has influence but is not in a leadership position? It also talks to how you can cash in on a potential leadership role.

Most NFL QBs come from smaller colleges – When I first read this, my first thought of course was of Tom Brady who graduated from the University of Michigan, a school that is far from small. After doing some searches on the Interwebs, I found both plenty of examples of quarterbacks who went to small schools and whole articles about it. As someone who went to a dinky school, this would have been of more comfort to me soon after I graduated; now over a score and a half later, nobody cares where I matriculated.

As How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge was written by a Christian pastor, there are many Bible and religions references, which increase in density as the book progresses. I personally was fine with this, being the good Catholic boy that I am. I only state it as some people may be turned off by this. Over and above, this book is a quick read that is both light-hearted and to the point, as Scroggins weaves his sense of humor throughout it. It stands as a good reminder of what you already bring to the table in your job that you may not be aware of. The book also has a “lead me” plan – it wouldn’t be a self-help business book without a plan! I did not work through it as I was not seeking yet another plan to work on in my life.

If you are in a position where you feel like you’re not making a difference or being ignored, I recommend picking up a copy of this book. As for what I am doing with mine, I am sending it to a colleague, someone who appreciates a good business book as well as the religions references.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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