Here are three more questions regarding Authority Points.
How do I know how many authority points I have right now?
You don't get a number. But you can feel it. It's a bit wishy-washy, I know.
Try proposing an idea in a meeting. Does everyone listen? Do people build on it? Or does it die quietly? Or you could try asking for resources or support. How hard do you have to push? When you speak, do people act? When you're silent, do people notice?
Your Authority Points show up in how much friction you face to get things done.
What happens when I spend my authority points on something and it fails?
You lose them twice. Oops.
You spend them once the moment you start championing your initiative. And then again when it doesn't work out. That's the real cost of failure. It's why you need to be strategic about where you spend yours.
Pick initiatives you're confident will land. Pick people to ally with who have a track record.
The good news is if you spend some and your initiative succeeds, you'll get points back.
Can you recover authority points once you've lost them?
You can recover them. How? Slowly.
Trust rebuilds through the same mechanism you built it in the first place. Through consistency, reliability and follow-through. If you broke trust by over-promising, deliver on smaller promises repeatedly. If you failed on a big project, succeed on smaller ones to get back into it.
People forget your failures faster if you show them you've learned. It takes time though. Recovery is slower than the initial damage.
Here's the thing.
As humans, the one thing that drives us is loss aversion. We'll do anything to minimise or even avoid the risk of losing something. You and your accessibility initiative are a risk. The less Authority Points you have, the more of a risk you are.
The moment you pass the threshold, you stop being a risk. You become an asset.
Suddenly you're the person they actually want in the room. Not the one they're worried about. Not the gamble. The safe bet.
That's when shit changes. That's when accessibility stops being "that thing Sarah keeps asking about" and starts being "we should probably get Sarah's input on this." The initiative doesn't change. Your ideas don't change. But how people perceive them does.
Once past the threshold, your Authority Points will actually go further. People will be more willing to listen. More willing to take risks on your proposals. Because you've already proven you won't waste their time or burn them.
You just have to get there first.