By Bill Hawkins
When I’m working with leaders in organizations—especially large organizations—they’ll often describe their frustration with the lack of power to accomplish what they feel needs to be accomplished to reach their personal goals. They express frustration that the organization hasn’t given them the authority to do what they need to do. Then I find myself in a discussion about how the authority and power that you have isn’t just what the organization gives you. There is much more to that, and we call it the Power Bank of components.
The first component is position power, which is given to you by the organization. It’s traditional. It’s the ability to reward, to punish, to approve budgets and make decisions, or it may be a favorite function, like the trainer or the admin’s boss. In fact, in one organization that I worked with, probably one of the most powerful people in the organization was the assistant to the president, because that person could get you time with the president. That person could get your paperwork completed or not completed. It’s position power.
But there’s also relationship power. And this is one that is frequently overlooked. It’s those connections. You may not have power yourself, but do you know someone who’s influential? Are there friends or relatives or people who used to work together? Have you invested time in other people? When you invest time in other people, they might be able to return the favor in the future. Have you exchanged favors? There are professional relationships with people whom you’ve trained or promoted or hired into the organization. There’s always that special connection with people who have hired you, promoted you, or helped make you successful.
And then there’s knowledge power. Now the key here is that the power comes when the knowledge, information, or skills that you have is wanted or needed by others. It must be rare, not readily accessible, and other people have to consider it valuable. You may be the world’s foremost authority on monarch butterflies, but if people don’t really want or need that information, it won’t necessarily give you influence. Knowledge power is also competence in a specific area. At the task level, it may be a reputation for getting things done. At the leadership level, it’s being able to lead people to get things done. It could be a degree, certification, or special training—but you have the knowledge to make things happen.
And finally, personal attributes. Who you are as a person matters, and it matters to other people. It’s your presence, your values, integrity, and enthusiasm. Personally, I am adopted, and anytime I’m working with someone who has adopted a child, I always go out of my way to tell them the gift they’ve given. I say, “From the kid’s point of view, let me tell you what you’ve done. You’ve given somebody a chance and an opportunity who might not have had one.” This creates a personal connection with other people.
Another example would be when one of my partners attended an event that was also attended by a former president of the United States. Now, this president was in a different political party than my partner and my partner didn’t vote for him. You wouldn’t necessarily think there would have been a connection, but after spending about half an hour together, my partner came back saying, “That person’s message, their reputation, their enthusiasm, the charisma…I bought in, to the point where if this person asked me to cut back on my full-time work and do work in their charity, I think I would have done it. They sold me on their personal attributes.”
There you have it. Power is your influence potential. Position power, the power that the organization gives you is part of it, but it’s also relationships, it’s knowledge, it’s your personal attributes. And remember, the more you have in the bank, the less you have to borrow.