Strategic Leadership
Leading Without Authority
Move work forward when formal authority is absent or insufficient. Map stakeholders, understand interests and incentives, and choose an ethical influence approach. Practice alignment and difficult conversations, then build a plan for earning workable commitments across boundaries.
Build practical capability
Create movement through trust, clarity, and influence.
Participants learn how to understand stakeholder interests, build credibility, navigate resistance, and make collaboration easier across organizational boundaries.
Build the influence needed to align stakeholders, navigate competing priorities, and move work forward without relying on formal authority. Participants strengthen communication, relationship-building, and collaborative decision-making skills.
What you will learn
Course learning objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Map the influence challenge
Identify where formal control is limited and what movement or commitment the work needs.
Evaluate stakeholder perspectives
Examine interests, incentives, concerns, power, trust, and relationship capital.
Choose an influence strategy
Compare reciprocity, credibility, coalition building, framing, inquiry, and choice for the situation.
Build alignment across interests
Use a conversation to uncover interests, name tradeoffs, and create workable commitments.
Handle difficult conversations
Prepare, open, listen, reframe, and agree next steps while recognizing appropriate boundaries and escalation.
Create an actionable influence plan
Define a stakeholder approach, conversation sequence, and next actions; improve the plan through peer coaching.
What you will do
Apply the methods to practical work
Map a stakeholder situation, compare perspectives, and identify the movement needed. Select an influence strategy, prepare an alignment or difficult conversation, and practice listening, reframing, and agreeing next steps. Refine an influence plan with peer coaching.
Techniques you will practice
Stakeholder and relationship mapping: Describe interests, incentives, concerns, influence, trust, and the movement needed.
Perspective-taking and inquiry: Test your assumptions about another person through questions and listening.
Ethical influence strategies: Use credibility, reciprocity, coalitions, framing, and meaningful choices to build support.
Interests and tradeoff conversations: Identify what matters to each party and work toward commitments they can support.
Conversation preparation and reframing: Plan an opening, listen for the underlying issue, reframe the discussion, and agree the next step.
How the course is structured
Demonstration, guided practice, testing, and improvement
Instructor demonstrations and guided activities lead into participant application, critique, and a practical next-use plan.
- Identify the influence challenge
Examine a situation where authority is absent or insufficient.
- Map the stakeholders
Explore interests, incentives, concerns, power, trust, and needed movement.
- Select an approach
Compare influence strategies and explain why one fits the case.
- Practice alignment
Uncover interests, name tradeoffs, and seek workable commitments.
- Prepare a difficult conversation
Practice an opening, listening, reframing, and agreeing next steps.
- Build and coach the plan
Use peer feedback to refine a stakeholder approach, conversation sequence, and next action.
Choose an approach that fits your experience
Work with a supplied stakeholder case or an anonymized situation. Use a written response where appropriate for conversation practice. Experienced participants can examine conflicting incentives or limited authority. Every route produces its own influence plan; coding is not required.
Use a supplied case or an anonymized work situation. Keep confidential information out of shared exercises and tools, distinguish evidence from assumptions, and retain human judgment over consequential decisions.
2027 schedule
Plan the experience into your learning year.
Choose a scheduled offering below. Course registration opens December 10, 2026. You can reserve your interest now and request an opening reminder; no payment is collected by the reservation form. A completed paid registration is required to secure a seat.
Live virtual · 4-hour course
9:30 AM–1:30 PM ET
Eastern Time (America/New_York)
Course investment: $349
Map stakeholder interests and trust, choose influence strategies, practice alignment conversations, and plan next actions.
You will leave with: A stakeholder map, prepared conversation approach, and actionable influence plan.
Reserve this offeringLive virtual · 4-hour course
9:30 AM–1:30 PM ET
Eastern Time (America/New_York)
Course investment: $349
Map stakeholder interests and trust, choose influence strategies, practice alignment conversations, and plan next actions.
You will leave with: A stakeholder map, prepared conversation approach, and actionable influence plan.
Reserve this offeringLive virtual · 4-hour course
9:30 AM–1:30 PM ET
Eastern Time (America/New_York)
Course investment: $349
Map stakeholder interests and trust, choose influence strategies, practice alignment conversations, and plan next actions.
You will leave with: A stakeholder map, prepared conversation approach, and actionable influence plan.
Reserve this offeringThe listed dates, times, and prices match the governed 2027 calendar. This reservation expresses interest; it is not a paid enrollment or a guarantee that an offering will run.
Find your pathway
Choose the next step that fits your goals.
Explore the full 2027 calendar and see how Leading Without Authority connects to your Strategic Leadership pathway.
Explore the 2027 calendar