Written by: Madeleine Homan Blanchard, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
People are confused about power—how to get it, how to keep it, how to make it work for you. People want power, but they generally overlook the forms of power readily available to them. People often squander or disregard the power they already have. When people have power, they are often at a loss about what to do with it. People often chafe at others having power over them, and yet they give their power away without even realizing it.
First, let’s define what we mean by power. People sometimes mean power when they refer to control, influence, command, clout, license, or ability. Merriam-Webster has a few applicable offerings as well, but for the purposes of this conversation, I will define power as the ability or capacity to make an impact.
In their book Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager, authors Blanchard, Fowler, and Hawkins state that there are five kinds of power:
Position Power: Title or authority to make decisions and direct others. This is the most obvious form of power and the one most people spend a lot of time chasing.
Task Power: Power conferred by a given job or task that has been entrusted to you. This kind of power often comes with hidden responsibilities and accountabilities that are often unclear at the outset.
Personal Power: Power that comes from natural and/or well-developed interpersonal skills, the ability to attract others, innate self-assurance, uncommon but useful aptitudes, and/or unusual amounts of stamina. This type of power can also be sourced by a deep interest or passion that drives extraordinary focus, zeal, and relentless pursuit of a goal.
Relationship Power: Power is derived from having supportive relationships with others who have the power to mentor, make introductions to others with power, provide resources, or otherwise help.
Knowledge Power: Power that comes from having access to information others don’t have ready access to or having a deep familiarity and comprehension of a complex body of facts.
The distinctions between these different kinds of power are important because most people focus solely on the acquisition of Position Power. Or they are frustrated that Knowledge Power should be enough to get them where they want to go. Expanding our awareness of different types of power can keep us from developing the wrong kinds of power for the wrong reasons. Many people set out to acquire power without a clear idea of why they want it—and power isn’t very useful if we aren’t willing and able to use it to do something.
7 Things You Need to Understand about Power
Making an impact takes a lot of energy. But it is the intention behind the energy that creates the power to make the impact. This brings us to the first of seven concepts about power everyone needs to know.
1. Personal Power is everything.
I would argue that the most overlooked form of power is Personal Power because it is the foundation for the acquisition and best use of all of the other kinds of power. The conscious developing, harnessing, protecting, and leveraging of Personal Power is what provides the insight necessary for deciding which other kinds of power you need to accomplish an objective or achieve a big dream.
For example, many people set their sights on Position Power as a default without ever asking themselves why. Once achieved, Position Power often comes with disillusionment at how deceptive it is. The brutal truth is that position alone, without a compelling vision or the skills to inspire followership and influence others, can be a disappointment at best and an overwhelming responsibility at worst. Personal Power provides the strength and resourcefulness to acquire knowledge and wisdom. Personal Power will attract the Relationship Power to get the help you need when you need it.
2. Clear intention amplifies power.
The more specific you are about the impact you are seeking to make, the more likely you are to build power. Clear intention, or your WHY, must be the driver for the acquisition of power. Without it, you will begin to desire power simply for the sake of power, which is dangerous. Power without focused intention is the equivalent of a downed electrical wire: unsafe and often deadly. History and, indeed, our daily news are littered with leaders whose hunger for power for power’s sake has wreaked havoc, death, and destruction.
3. Power comes with choice; choice comes with responsibility.
The more Personal Power someone has, the more types of power are available to them and the more they will be able to accomplish. When the sky is the limit, the way to maintain power is with focus. When there is an unlimited choice, the focus is what keeps the power from getting out of hand. The person who has the most power in an organization or in a room has the most responsibility to role model what is most important, choose what to focus on, and take care of others.
4. Personal Power can be threatening to others.
Those who are born with or develop a great deal of Personal Power will find some people attracted to them because of it and others put off by it. Some people will experience Personal Power as a force field that repels—especially when found in women or children. Some may worry that people with Personal Power will use that power against them or try to wield it over them. Some may simply envy it. That’s okay. Not everybody has to love you. If you have a great deal of Personal Power, you need to recognize it and take responsibility for it. You will want to take extra care to build trust and to signal that you are aware of your impact and intentions and to use them for good.
5. People with a lot of Personal Power risk becoming lightning rods.
Sometimes people are confused about their intentions and desires and either has very little Personal Power or haven’t recognized and accepted the power they have. Rather than claim their own power, these people often will hand over their power to those they perceive to be powerful. They will project their own power onto an effectively powerful person. They will over-idealize or compete with them because they are either unwilling to take responsibility for their own power or unconsciously attempting to make someone else responsible for it. Angeles Arrien, in her book The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, writes eloquently on this topic. People who want more power will often give powerful people the little power they have and then resent that powerful person for it.
6. People with Personal Power make their own rules.
In The 7 Rules of Power, Jeffrey Pfeffer says that to gain power, people need to break the rules. I would argue something similar but a little bit different. It is my experience that it can be most powerful to understand the rules extremely well so that you can choose to ignore them selectively or break them in ways that make sense and won’t hurt anyone.
7. Once you have power, no one can take it away.
You can give it away, but no one can take your power away unless you allow it. Period. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
More Power, More Options
As an executive coach, one of the most useful discoveries I see clients make is when they learn they have a lot more choices than they had realized. We tend to see only obvious choices or the ones others have presented to us. The way to break that habit is to stop and ask yourself: “Wait a minute, what other options might be available here?”
When you realize just how much power you have, it shifts your perspective about what you might be able to do with it. I would suggest one of the things you can do is broaden your list of options that are available to you.
Madeleine Homan Blanchard, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Madeleine is on the Board of Directors of The Ken Blanchard Companies a prominent global leadership development company. A pioneer of the coaching profession, she is a co-founder of Blanchard Coaching Services and a co-creator of the first ever Coaching Management System. Madeleine was a Founding Advisory Board member and Master Trainer for CoachU and a Founding Board member of the International Coach Federation, where she served for six years. A pioneer of the coaching profession since 1989, Madeleine works with organizations to leverage professional coaching, teach coaching skills to leaders and create a coaching culture. Her best coaching work is done with creative geniuses. Her expertise covers leadership
