During the Q&A after I speak about leadership and change, someone in the audience will often ask: “But I’m not a leader, so a lot of change efforts get thrown at me. How do I get my bosses to NOT do a top-down change?”

It’s an understandable concern because I’ve been there…we all have, probably. “The truth is,” I say back to them, “we’re all leaders. Every one of us has the power to influence others in some way.”

It’s natural (and easy) for us to hide behind this “I’m not a leader” thinking, but that’s not a healthy mindset; we’re playing the victim, letting our sphere of control—what we can control, often decided by organization structure and levels and titles—we’re letting that get in the way of our real strength, which is our sphere of influence. While there are consequences to ignoring our sphere of control—and we can’t ignore those consequences—it’s truly not as important as our sphere of influence.

Our sphere of influence is much broader than our sphere of control. It includes anyone in our orbit, people we can influence. And we can’t limit our sphere of influence because of the pecking order; we owe it to ourselves, to our bosses and to our organizations to grow and deepen our sphere of influence.  That includes our bosses who are handing down change to us. And even their bosses. We must find ways to engage these people so they want to learn what we have to share so they can enjoy and understand it.

This is easier said than done, to be sure, so I’ve developed the attached white paper to help anyone who’s grappling with the “but I’m not a boss” questions during a change. It’s entitled “Changing Leaders’ Mindsets About Leading Change.”

Take a look and share it with others grappling with this challenge.

And let me know what you think. I look forward to being in touch.

Al Comeaux