Leading outside of your reporting lines is the key to success today. Our business environment is constantly changing, and reporting lines today are for reporting and information flow only. Successful projects are managed across boundaries, even industries.

So forget reporting lines and apply diplomacy!

The term "diplomacy" has two meanings: the first refers to the set of procedures that regulate relations between States; the second is linked to courtesy and skill. The sum of both leads us to an open sense of diplomacy as the intelligent management of relations between institutions or people.

Companies and projects are managed through conversations and decisions. Both happen in formal and informal settings. Usually, things get done in informal settings and are then reported in formal settings. Thus your success depends on your ability to manage and drive results through informal surroundings and across reporting lines.

This is where diplomacy comes in:

As States do when they interact, you must, in sequence:

1. Set objectives for a relationship,

2. Create credibility and very clear messages, which allow you to

3. Create trust between people and safe spaces for trusting relationships.

With this, you manage the process. And if you add courtesy and skill to manage these relationships, you create authentic power. Not power given by the organisation but by authority.

"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy," wrote Isaac Newton.

I can't wait to read your feedback, comments, questions, shoutouts and suggestions.

And give some thought to the following: For which challenge that you are facing will you try diplomacy?