I feel that I should really be writing this newsletter about procrastination seeing as I haven’t been in touch since February.  I hope you’ll understand that it’s not because I haven’t wanted to write, it’s just that there’s always been something else to do which has taken prioirty!! ;) However, as I can be prone to procrastination from time to time, I’ve decided to save that subject for another day and write about it as part of a time management piece when we get to the letter T!

 Instead I’m going to use the letter P to talk about ‘power’.  That’s not just because there is so much jostling for position within British politics at the moment and many horrifyingly negative examples playing out on social media since the referendum, but also down to the fact that I’ve been facilitating a number of leadership and management programmes during the last year.  I’ve observed power being used in a number of ways …. some used positively and some negatively so I thought it would be interesting to capture them!

So what do I mean by power?  Power can come in many forms and can mean different things to different people.  Some may see it as being successful, whilst others as being corrupt.   I tend to view power as the ability to influence others and self.  If only I could feel powerful at the moment and make the right choice not to eat the chocolate eclairs that are in my drawer!!!

 When working with my clients I often use John French and Bertram Raven’s leadership model which determines fives bases of power determined by the followers’ beliefs of the leader.  The five bases are:

• Legitimate power needs followers to believe the leader has the right to tell them what to do
• Reward power needs followers to believe the leader will reward them
• Coercive power needs followers to believe the leader will punish them
• Expert power needs followers to believe the leader is an expert
• Referent power needs followers to believe the leader has desirable qualities

The follower is influenced by what they believe the leader to be.  Interestingly it doesn’t matter whether the leader does have that power or not, if the follower believes they have it, they will react to it.

Legitimate Power – For example, the Queen, the prime minister or a CEO has legitimate power. However this type of power can be unpredictable and unstable. Just think about the UK at the moment.  Having undertaken the referendum and seeing the result that the United Kingdom wanted to exit, David Cameron resigned.  And although he said that he’d remain to keep the stability until October, in reality his power has dramatically reduced as we know he is on his way out.  If you lose the title or position, legitimate power can instantly disappear.

Reward Power – People in power are often able to give out rewards. They are the ones who provide the promotions, development opportunities, etc. If others expect that you’ll reward them for doing what you want, there’s a high probability that they’ll do it. The problem with this power base is that you may not have as much control over rewards as you need. So, when you’ve used up all available rewards, or when the rewards don’t have enough perceived value to others, your power weakens.   Both sides of the referendum debate could be accused of using this type of power.

Coercive Power – This source of power can cause unhealthy behaviour and dissatisfaction in the workplace. Implying or threatening that someone will be fired, demoted, denied privileges, or given unpopular work to do are all part of coercive power.  Although I could point you to the dreadful attacks on individuals through social media, I felt the recent story about the trainer in China was very fitting!  You might have read the article a couple of weeks ago about a bank in China who hired a training company to run a “performance breakthrough” course.  After a day of training for more than 200 staff, the trainer demanded explanations from the eight employees with the weakest scores.  The employees provided responses to which the trainer replied “Prepare to be spanked!” before doing so repeatedly with a block of wood!  Some even received a haircut or had their head shaved.  I’m sure there will be little love lost and no trust built between trainer and bank employees, do you?

If you are truly going to influence you need a more robust source of power than can be supplied by a title, an ability to reward, or an ability to punish.  That’s why we need expert and referent power to gain people’s attention.

Expert Power – When you have knowledge and skills that enable you to understand a situation, suggest solutions, use your judgment, and generally outperform others, people will probably listen to you. When you demonstrate expertise, people tend to trust you and respect what you say and you will find it much easier to motivate and energise them.  However expert power isn’t enough.

Referent Power – Referent power comes from one person liking and respecting another, and strongly identifying with that person in some way. This is sometimes thought of as charisma or charm. A person with charm often makes others feel good, so tends to have a lot of influence.   As you don’t necessarily have to do anything to earn referent power it may be easily abused.  Someone who is likable, but lacks integrity and honesty, may rise to power and use that power to alienate people as well as gain personal advantage.  As you read this, you may be thinking of certain government individuals who may have abused their referent power recently and have seen the tables turned in their direction.

It’s clear that we need to be aware of which power base we’re using at all times with our friends and family as well as our colleagues, as power doesn’t just occur in the work place.  Think about the power children wield over their parents to get their own way whether that is playing one parent off against the other, being tenacious and not letting go, using emotions whether anger or frustration, crying or laughter.  We learn what gets the best results and then continue to use them later in life.  Even my cat, Maverick, has learned that he has a certain power.  There’s nothing like using our bedroom door as a scratching post at 4.30 in the morning to get us up to tend to his needs!

It’s interesting to know that there is something called a Power Paradox.  This works on the principle that the skills that were the most important to obtaining power in the first place are often the skills that deteriorate once we have the power.  Think of people who have risen up the ladder very quickly without someone to support them and challenge them when they wander off track.  The power goes to their head and they gain a distorted view of how they see themselves and others which affects their attitude and behaviour.  We’ve seen this happen with numerous people in the public eye, from footballers to celebrities, presenters etc.

So how many powers do you use on a daily basis?

• Is it the power you have in restaurants when you make the waitress feel uncomfortable because there isn’t anything on the menu for you to eat because of all your food intolerances?
• What about arriving at meetings late every time and expecting people to recap what has already been said?
• Or perhaps it’s, ‘I’m too busy to really listen in the meeting, so have to continually email and text whilst others collaborate on various points’
• Maybe you have an expertise in a certain skill set but rather than sharing it, you use it to exert your power over others and make them feel inferior or worthless
• Or could it be that you are part of a certain crowd and don’t welcome others into that arena when you are with them?
• Perhaps you find it better to admonish others in public
• Or could it be that you use your power with kindness and make people feel a part of your world?

To quote from Gandhi, ‘Power is of two kinds.  One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love.  Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment’.  So bearing this in mind, think about what you can do to make sure that you use your power wisely.    There is a lot of uncertainty in the world at the moment which makes people anxious and leads them to act and behave in ways that are totally out of character.  Use your emotional intelligence to try to understand their feelings and needs and then work with them to determine the right results.  As Dacher Keltner said ‘True power requires modesty and empathy, not force and coercion’.