March
08
The 3 A’s: Get the right level of Autonomy, Authority, and Access to successfully lead your next project
You’ve just been assigned your next project. What do you do next? Identify stakeholders, define scope, and begin chartering the project. Yes. Absolutely. Start with that. I would like to propose that you also assess the level of Autonomy, Authority, and Access that you have so that you are equipped with the right tools for the greatest impact and a successful project delivery.
1.) Do you have the right level of autonomy? 
Are you able to make decisions independently or are all decisions made by a single authority (like the executive sponsor)?
The most autonomy I’ve had was in consulting engagements, both in waterfall and agile implementations. I have partnered with technical leads who own the technical decisions and recommendations, and I managed the overall project timeline and change management activities (business analysis, process flows, training, communications, etc.). I have also worked with technical leads who saw their leadership role as overarching for the project and wanted to make decisions about every aspect of the project, thereby limiting my autonomy and ability to make decisions to move the project forward.
If you are in a scenario with limited autonomy, you can lobby for additional independence. The success of this strategy depends on a lot of factors, some that you have no control over. The best recommendation is to identify a decision framework. Use a tool like a RACI model and traditional deliverables and activities included in SDLC to delineate lines of authority. This can be done if all of the decision-making is centralized with a single person or distributed across functional teams. For informal cultures – or if your organization does not use tools like a RACI – start this off in a series of conversations. This will be successful if you can get an understanding about what is important to the individuals who want to be a part of the decision-making process. You will likely find that there is room for everyone to lead, and you can define areas that you have the level of autonomy you need to lead the project.
2.) Do you have the right level of authority?
Authority is related to autonomy, but different because it describes the amount of sanctioned leadership you have over the project team. Autonomy describes your relationship with the project leadership, whereas authority speaks to the relationship you have with the project team.
Have the executive sponsors anointed you? Does the team take direction from you? Do you have authority over resources? SN: those of us in matrixed organizations likely have no direct authority over project team members.
If you are new to project management, you will quickly learn that your ability to lead and influence a group of team members that you have limited or no authority over is critical to your success.
As you begin to charter the project and gain a better understanding of the project goals, timeline, and stakeholders, you must identify what type of project management style is required. This will directly correlate to the amount of authority that you need. The project may call for a power leadership style, in which you hold all of the authority and direct every activity of the project. This style can be effective if you are an expert in the domain and the project has a short timeline. For more complex projects that bring together cross-functional teams, I have found that the servant leadership approach distributes both power and accountability for a more engaged project team and a better outcome (translation – project success!).
Once you realize how much authority you need and you have assessed how much authority you have, you can work to earn the difference (yes, you just performed a Gap Analysis on yourself). Establish credibility with the team by gaining direct access to the project sponsors and understanding the goals and requirements (see point #3 for more information about this). You must have ownership and accountability for the project goals. You can then work to socialize and gain consensus about the project goals with the project team. Allow them to shape and provide input into those goals so that they, too, have a shared sense of ownership and accountability in the outcome.
If you are still faced with limited authority, appeal to the project sponsors to help them understand the level of authority you need to carry out their goals for the project. Having the project sponsors declare and socialize your leadership to carry out the initiative will go a long way in providing you with the authority required to successfully lead the project. You must be very careful in this approach so that it doesn’t backfire on you. Rather than have the project sponsors issue a declaration via email, encourage them to reinforce your authority in their everyday actions, like having you lead project meetings and directing project questions to you. This will assist in your credibility and build up the authority you have with the team.
3.) Do you have the right level of Access?
Do you have access to your key stakeholders? Project sponsors? Clients? End users? Are stakeholders disengaged? Or are they “protected” from the project team?
Your first step is to work to get the access you need. Prioritize and pursue. As you analyze your stakeholders, assess any gaps in access and seek to close those gaps. Individual meetings to set expectations are a good tool to close any gaps. You can also produce meaningful deliverables and artifacts to keep your stakeholders engaged. This can range from formal status reports to impromptu emails. Although some stakeholders may require more detailed information, is critical that you remain consistent in your messaging to make sure all of the stakeholders are aligned.
I’d like to hear from you. What is your level of Autonomy, Authority, and Access in your current project? Do you have any experiences to share in which you’ve increased these (or haven’t) and seen an impact on your projects success? Let me know what you think.
Lead and Deliver 