Back in 2016, I was working as an electrical engineer on a portion of a large, company-wide electrical infrastructure program. Large budget, complex scope, and my portion relied on other team members from different disciplines accomplishing their milestones on time.
But there was a problem.
None of them reported to me.
I had no formal authority. No direct line of control. But I was still accountable for results. We didn't have a dedicated project manager on the project, as in the grand scheme of oil and gas projects, it was still a comparatively minor project. Common practice was that the engineer whose discipline the project was "the most" of, would lead - and being an electrical project that fell to me as the electrical engineer on the team.
At first, I tried to push through with technical logic. I laid out timelines, sent reminder emails, tracked every deliverable in detailed spreadsheets. I assumed that if the plan made sense and I was polite, people would get on board.
But that’s not what happened.
Many updates never arrived. Tasks quietly slipped. People didn't reply. And when I escalated, it usually only made things worse.
I wasn’t making unreasonable demands (I thought). But I didn’t realize that on projects, influence doesn’t come from being technically right—it comes from how well you can lead people who don’t have to listen to you.
And in engineering, most of us aren’t taught how to do that.
Why this is a problem for engineers
In engineering, authority is usually clear. There’s a chain of command. A technical standard to follow. If someone’s work doesn’t meet the standard, you can point to the standard.
But project work is different.
You are working across disciplines. You rely on inputs from people in other departments, other companies, other locations, many times global. You need alignment across groups that don’t share your tools, timelines, or priorities.
And unless you’ve been officially promoted, chances are those people don’t report to you. And unless you work in a dedicated project team and you are its manager, they will never report to you throughout your career as a project manager. Ever.
So what do you do?
You can’t “pull rank.”
You can’t issue "orders" like a supervisor.
You can’t rely on logic alone.
You have to earn influence. And that’s a skill most engineers don’t get trained in or taught. They are expected to just "gain it through experience", suggesting that being a highly experienced engineer will automatically grant that authority. And yes it does, to one small degree, while neglecting all the other sides of that rubik's cube.
Engineers are told to be the best engineer, and people will listen to you. And that's true for other engineers that either report to you, or are in the same technical discipline as you. But for others? Other engineers, other disciplines, non-technical stakeholders - not so much.
This would be like an orangutan explaining to a horse how to climb trees, and expecting that that would make the horse follow his instructions on sprinting just as well.
The limits of logic (and where engineers get stuck)
For a long time, I thought that if I was clear, reasonable, and technically correct, people would respond. And when they didn’t, I assumed they were being difficult.
But that wasn’t it.
I was treating coordination like a transaction. Send the request. Track the action item. Expect results. If I followed the right steps, I assumed people would follow through.
But influence isn’t transactional. It’s relational.
People respond based on how they perceive your credibility, your reliability, and your intent. If they don’t trust your judgment, they’ll double-check you. If they don’t feel seen, they’ll deprioritize your requests. If they don’t feel safe, they’ll stay silent.
The tricky part is that none of this shows up in any reporting metrics. You only see it when things start slipping—and by then, it’s already too late.
I’ve seen engineers get stuck here. They’re smart, capable, and technically solid. But they keep getting bypassed or ignored, because they never learned how to lead without leaning on authority.
And they burn out trying to compensate. They work longer hours, do more themselves, and chase accountability through the back door. But the real fix isn’t more effort—it’s a shift in approach.
What builds influence when you have no authority
Influence comes down to three elements: trust, buy-in, and value.
Trust means people believe your intent is solid.
Buy-in means they see how your ask helps them or the project.
Value means you make their life easier, not harder.
If you’re missing even one of those, your influence is limited.
That doesn’t mean you need to become everyone’s best friend. You don’t need to be a motivational speaker. You don’t need to start using “leadership” buzzwords.
But you do need to start thinking like a facilitator, not a controller.
The engineers who thrive on complex projects are the ones who learn to lead laterally. They don’t just manage their own discipline—they build bridges with, and between, others. They find the gaps and close them. They coordinate information and expectations.
They know how to talk to people in procurement, field construction, utilities, safety, and legal—each in their own language.
And that makes them the person people trust when things get messy.
Practical ways to lead without authority
Let me walk through five things that have consistently worked for me when I’ve had to lead projects—or portions of them—without formal power.
1. Start upstream. Way upstream.
If you’re relying on formal meetings or emails to get buy-in and build trust, you’re already late to the party.
Influence starts in casual conversations, in early input, in hallway chats and sidebars before decisions are made. Ask people early: “What would make this easier for you?” or “What do you need from me to make this work smoothly for you?”
People remember who thought about them before things get stressful. Who doesn't just show up when excrement hits the rotating air circulation device and expects them to drop everything to fix THEIR problem. They'll remember who considered how to make their job/life easier in the first place. That’s who they’ll help when everything goes wrong or they get busy and have to defer some things.
2. Narrate your thinking out loud
This one’s especially hard for engineers, because we’re used to showing finished work.
But influence increases when people understand how you think. If you explain your reasoning—and especially if you surface trade-offs and competing pressures—it invites trust.
You’re not just saying, “Do this.” You’re saying, “Here’s the problem, here’s what I have to weigh off against this, here’s what I’m leaning toward—would that work for you? Anything I'm missing or not considering?”
That kind of openness makes it easier for others to say yes—or at least flag what won’t work early.
3. Make their problem your problem
People are more willing to work with you if they feel like you’re working with them.
If someone is late getting you info, ask what’s getting in their way. Not to call them out—but to help them solve it and make it easier to deliver on time, next time.
And if you can help? Do it. Even if it’s not “your job.”
Even just asking "Is there anything I can do to help", is already a massive trust-builder.
People will remember that the next time you’re the one asking for a favour.
4. Be the person who brings clarity in chaos
Projects get messy. Priorities shift. People panic.
If you can be the person who calmly summarizes what’s happening, what the options are, and what needs to happen next, people will naturally start to defer to you—regardless of your title.
Clarity builds authority. Even when you don’t have "formal" power.
5. Credit is cheap—and priceless
When someone helps you move a deliverable forward, say so. Especially in front of others.
People support leaders who make them feel visible, feel seen, feel recognized, especially in front of their peers and their managers and supervisors.
This takes ten seconds. But it earns you a tons of trust.
Do this often and regularly, but make sure you remain genuine - don't just do it like you're checking a box, that will have the opposite effect.
What this looked like on my own projects
I was leading a microtunnelling project in British Columbia in Canada in 2020, where I worked with a team that spanned internal engineering, external consultants, tunnelling contractors, and operations. No one reported to me. I took this project over just before going into construction, so I didn't have the benefit of long time trust building throughout the early and detailed design phases.
I couldn’t just throw action items at people, that would have backfired spectacularly. "Who is this new guy coming in here trying to give orders?" So I started with side conversations. I learned what the sticking points were for each group. I brought concerns to meetings that hadn’t been surfaced yet—and when I flagged them, I also brought options. Always options.
The beautiful part? I didn't know anything about tunnelling. Nada. Nothing! So I asked questions, asked "Can you explain this to me like I'm 10 years old"? And when I didn't get it "5 years old?". That had several benefits, people took a step back and simplified their thinking so they could explain it to me, and they noticed flaws in their own logic. Then I would ask them to work with me to come up with some options. That gave me the problems and options I could take to others on the team that needed to be consulted to solve them, in meetings, in side conversations, etc. And while doing that I always gave credit to the person who "discovered" the issue, and helped develop the options we were talking about.
See what happened there? I didn't know anything about the project, but by being vulnerable and not trying to pretend I knew everything, I got others to point out the flaws, develop the options, and then had the chance to give them credit for it - which built massive amounts of trust.
That changed how people saw me. Not as another PM barking for updates—but as someone who helped them get ahead of problems, navigate complexity, and move things forward.
That’s what leadership without authority looks like. It’s not about being in charge. It’s about being the person who makes people feel good about their own word and makes their life easier. Everyone likes working on successful projects, and if you can make people feel like they have a hand in making them successful, they will move the Earth for you.
The mindset shift: You’re not managing tasks. You’re managing cooperation.
Early in your career, it’s easy to think that leadership only starts when you get a title. But real leadership—especially in projects—often starts long before that.
If you can’t lead without authority, a title won’t help you.
But if you can build trust, show value, and bring people together around a shared outcome? People will follow your lead—even if your org chart says they don’t have to.
This is what separates engineers who get stuck in “technical support” roles from those who move into leadership early.
You don’t have to wait 25 years to become an amazing engineer first.
You just have to shift how you show up tomorrow.
Your weekly actionable Tip:
Pick one part of your current projects that depends on someone outside your team, like a stakeholder or someone on another team- someone that doesn't report to you.
Now ask yourself:
- Have I made it easy for them to work with me?
- Have I given them context, not just tasks?
- Do they know I see and value their contribution?
If the answer is no, start small. Send a note of appreciation. Ask about their constraints. Flag something before it’s a problem.
These are small actions that cost you seconds.
But they build massive trust.
And trust is what gets projects delivered.
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