Using Your Power

In a recent leadership summit, Dr. John Townsend, best-selling author and psychologist, defined personal power as the capacity to change the environment. Organizations require constant movement and it takes leadership energy, focus, and intentionality to take a company from where it is to where they want it to be.

Ways Leaders Express Their Power

Dr. Townsend identifies five distinct ways leadership power must be expressed in order to create the right kind of movement in an organization:

• Inspire: Speak with full expression, develop skills in using stories and paradigm-shifting examples. This brings about internal movement in people, catalyzing full engagement, high performance, and creativity.
• Connect: Listen and attune deeply, so people feel authentically heard and cared for. Relationships build trust, and over time this creates high motivation and team interdependence.
• Influence: Pitching ideas, facilitating brainstorming, presenting facts, and developing strategies serves to get buy-in and everyone going in the same direction. It’s not power over but power with.
• Authority: A leader must be willing to use their authority to make tough calls. But it’s important that they use that authority at the right time, to not over use it, and not in an authoritarian way. Risk averse leaders who fail to act will miss opportunities. Even in times of uncertainty, a bad decision is better than no decision. A leader must also confront well when another’s behavior or performance is disruptive. People will resent a leader who doesn’t stand up and do the hard stuff.
• Model: Eat your cooking. Show others the values you present to the team. Your teams are observing how you communicate, how you handle conflict, spend money, interact with your peers, how you speak about others when they are not there and even how much you are working on your own growth and development. Like Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see.”

What Diffuses Power?

Leaders are often afraid of their own power and it impairs their ability to lead. A leader may have a fear of harming others, and avoid sharing clear expectations. When performance problems arise, they don’t address it, resulting in escalating problems.

Or a leader’s underlying reason for not using power is more of a confidence issue. They may hold back on learning ways to inspire and influence for fear of being rejected. I have heard many coaching clients describe it as Imposter Syndrome. If only they really knew me and what I struggle with! Other leaders say, I’m introverted, or I’m just not a good speaker.

Unaddressed, these tendencies will limit a leader’s success.

Velocity Is a Function of Clarity

The bottom line is that when leaders don’t use their power, there is a lack of clarity. Without clarity, people make their own decisions about priorities, leading to silos, bureaucracy, and sluggish movement toward goals. Ultimately, people will not be engaged and move on to companies where there is a clear vision and velocity that inspires.

So, ask yourself:

• When have you been afraid of your own power and how did it affect your leadership?
• What were your models of power as a person? What did you learn, for better or worse?

Power Skills

• Express your opinions often — but without harshness. “May I push back on part of that?” or “I like that idea because … and here is another way we could approach this issue.” Watch your tendency to either clam up or be too heavy handed. “My way or the highway” never goes over well.
• Ask for feedback on how you come across. Using your power well involves doing a reality check on your relational skills and behavioral patterns. If you are working with a coach, get a 360 done to learn more.
• Give honest feedback often and in the moment. Check back in to see how it landed. Having a difficult conversation is, as one leader recently said, “all I do these days.” It is the job of the leader to confront well, say the hard things, and make unpopular decisions. Some organizations have a pervasive “nice” culture and it just doesn’t work. Brené Brown tells us, “Clear is kind.” It’s also effective.
• Enhance your speaking, story-telling, and presenting skills through such groups as Toastmasters or National Speakers Association, or work with a speaking coach to build your ability to influence and inspire.

As we commemorate the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, a man who used his power to transform a nation, let his words, his model, and his mission inspire you to be bolder, more just, and more loving in all you do!

Be the leader that uses power to make positive changes in yourself, in others and in our world!

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