How to Spot Informal Leaders and Leverage Their Potential

Project managers become leaders of their teams due to their position. But it often happens that there is a person within the team who has the authority, but doesn`t take any formal managerial position. Such an “informal leader” has huge impact on the team members` minds and behavior. But why do informal leaders emerge in teams? There are a couple of theories. Some people believe that informal leadership is developed spontaneously like a symbol of the peers unity. The others insist that emergence of the informal leader is the result of the formal leader`s management mistakes.

In any case, the persons who take the role of the informal leader have specific сharacter traits such as competence or an ability to find a solution to a difficult problem and others. These features help them to gain other people’s trust and credibility.

It is crucial for the formal leader to establish and keep relationships with the informal leader, because the latter often influences the collective view of the team. First of all, you as a manager have to figure out who the informal leader in your team is. How to do this?

The first sign of an informal leader is a high communicability. As a rule, informal leaders rely on people and communication with them. That is why quite often the manager spots the informal leader only after a group of unsatisfied people has been formed around him or her. If you want to reveal the informal leader as early as possible, try to notice who in your team organizes after-hours events and whose birthday gathers the most number of the team members.

Then try to figure out to whom your colleagues come for advice or help most often. The psychological reason of informal leadership is the recognition of the informal leader as a person who outperforms other peers in one or several aspects such as working experience, competence, communicability and pro-activity, public speaking, etc. A person who possesses either mentioned or some other unique qualities is empowered by team members to be a leader.

Pay special attention to those who publicly put the management decisions under the question. It is especially dangerous when this dissident engages other colleagues in confrontation because this definitely means that he or she has a high leadership potential. Such a person is able to organize a serious protest action in the team or even lead some key people away from the company. Very often the informal leaders manage to stay in the background: they play a key role in forming of a collective position, but then this position is articulated by another person on the meeting with the management. That is why, before introducing any decision that may cause people`s dissatisfaction, get the support of the informal leader having discussed the decision with him or her in advance.

An additional sign of an informal leader is straightforward attitude of team members to such a person. They either like him or dislike, but definitely know and notice him even if they don`t collaborate directly.

You may also use some science-backed approaches, for example, Sociometry in order to spot an informal leader, since the subjective methods mentioned above are not always accurate.

The types of informal leaders

There are several types of informal leaders that are distinguished according to their behavior. Let’s take a look at them.

Innovator. The informal leaders of this type are constantly looking for new ideas, trying to showcase themselves, most likely outside of the formal structure. The innovators are emotional and creative, but if they don’t find any support of their ideas, they can drop the initiative very quickly. It makes sense to seek for some advice of the innovator, when you see that your project or business is stuck and needs some fresh ideas. So, if you want to do some brainstorming within the team, never forget to invite the innovator. You may also lean on the innovator when introducing organization changes.

Communicator. The communicator willingly talks to people and shares the information. People follow such kind of a persons because they are charismatic and never let the team mates get bored. Communicators are the best fit for mentoring newbies. Also, they’re quite good at organizing corporate parties and team buildings. This type of informal leader is very helpful for the manager when the latter wants to get a buy-in for a new idea or to get some additional information about what is going on inside the team.

Coordinator. Such a person does not generate or implement any idea on his own. Instead, he helps people around him to be as much productive as they can. Coordinators are very organized and extremely good at planning. As a rule, they have trust and authority within the team because they can give reasoned answers to all the questions. Coordinator is a good candidate to be your partner and a right-hand man.

Crisis manager. This is a type of people who prove themselves as leaders only when a stressful situation comes. Such people are ready to take responsibility in the case of need. In a regular situation the informal leaders of this type may be unnoticeable, but in the case of a force majeure they may become a good partner for you. By the way, never forget to express your gratitude to the crisis manager for the help, and better do it in public.

Dissident. This is a person who heads all dissatisfactions in the group.  Dissidents don’t like anything. They always point out what’s wrong but, unfortunately, never suggest solutions. This type of informal leader may become the cause of conflicts and quarrels in the team. That`s why it’s important to manage their behavior carefully.

The KingMaker. Such type of informal leader lives in the shadow of his boss. At the same time the KingMaker knows almost everything about the colleagues. Having got a lot of information, the KingMaker is able to perfectly influence the decisions made by the formal leader. But he or she never takes responsibility for these decisions. If you have the KingMaker in your team, you should analyse very carefully any advice received from him.

Apart of these types, there are two general styles of behavior that can be demonstrated by an informal leader – constructive and destructive. In the first case, the informal leader generates ideas, suggests improvements, organizes the work and motivates the colleagues. In the second case, the informal leader creates disorder and conflicts and manipulates the people.

It is critical for a manager to understand what the attitude and the goals of an informal leader are like. If the informal leader demonstrates constructive behavior, it benefits the organization and business. You as a manager should build partnership with such kind of a person.

Another matter is a destructive informal leader who tries to make harm to the company and manipulates the people in order to fulfil some personal ambitions. Try to learn how to manage the energy and behavior of such people in the right direction.

Нow to get the support of the constructive informal leader

Treat the informal leader as an equal. Let the informal leader understand that you recognize him or her as a partner and appreciate alternative point of view. Don`t hesitate to ask for the advice of the informal leader when making some important decisions. Express your gratitude when the informal leader has helped you with some ideas or organizational work.

Encourage initiative. A lot of informal leaders are seeking recognition and self-actualization rather than power. The best methods to build good relationships with such people are sharing responsibilities and financial interest with them. You may encourage their social work, assign them as mentors to the peers, engage them in the process of the corporate culture formation, etc. In addition, you may free the informal leader from some routine tasks and suggest  a professional training instead. And then this person will become your best assistant.

Legitimize informal authority. Quite often informal leaders lose interest to authority and influence after they have become legal. That’s why one of the most effective methods to leverage hidden influence of  informal leaders is to assign them to a managerial position. In this case they will likely change their attitude to the management work and can become your partners.

How to mitigate the destructive influence of the informal leader

Negotiate openly with the whole team. If you as a manager spend your time only on resolving strategic things and don’t pay attention to your team, the need in informal leader will emerge sooner or later, because every collective is a mini-society, and any society needs to be driven by someone. Engage your people in open discussions on projects and problems. In this case the informal leader will be forced to go out from the shadow and to speak up. You in turn will be able to bring up your arguments in advance, before the collective opinion is formed behind the scenes. Informal leaders often are scared of a public responsibility.

Limit the communication of the destructive informal leader. Try to share responsibilities between different employees, so that decisions on different questions are not dependent on the informal leader. In the worst case move this person to another department. Increasing workload of the informal leader also helps. He or she may be extra initiative just because of boredom.

Give a very complicated task to the informal leader. Try to come up with a very difficult or even unworkable task. Present the idea of this task to the informal leader as an opportunity to show his or her uniqueness. This challenge may distract the informal leader from making intrigues, at least, temporarily. Use this time to take your control over the team back.

Conclusion

Sooner or later every manager faces an informal leader in the team. When it has happened it`s very important to build the correct communication strategy with the informal leader depending on their intention. What you definitely can’t do is ignoring them, because a shadow war between the formal and the informal leader always has negative impact on the productivity and psychological climate of the team.

What is your experience with informal leaders? Did you turn them into partners or have any troubles with them? Please, tell your story in the comments.