Power

Work begins when there is desire to bring change. Power, the access to trust and influence, is needed for change.

Trust is the basis of how power is used. Without trust, all types of power can be abused.

Power Is Assigned

Power cannot be taken. It can only be assigned.

For individuals that are perceived to be power hungry and have ceased power, they have coerced others and through that coercion, were assigned power.

Examples:

• A kidnapper threatens to kill your child unless a ransom of $10,000 is paid. There is a choice to pay the ransom¹ and in that choice, this assigns coercive power to the kidnapper.
• When the Germans took everything away from the Jews, the jews had nothing left. The Germans lost their hold on the Jews, since they chose not to assign any more power to their captors.

8 Types Of Power

These are the 8 reasons that people would assign power. This is evidence-based from observation of human behavior.

New power isn’t better than old power - each has their place.

Old Power

Till the 1990s, these were the types of recognized power:

1. Legitimate: power assigned to members of an institution, exists only if the institution remains. E.g, the family unit, monarchies, governments. The prime minister would no longer have any legitimate power if there is no longer a government.
2. Expert: power assigned to individuals when they have mastery of a specific skill set.
3. Coercive: assigned when someone has something they do not want to lose. This is not necessarily bad, e.g in the case of fitness instructors.
4. Reward: assigned to someone which has something you want.

These forms of power are needed for leading and managing systems and to build systems up.

New Power (after 1990s)

New forms of power arising after the 1990s. Old forms of power diminish when affluence and knowledge increase. E.g, how the internet diminishes the influence of expert power.

1. Referent: whether I can relate to you. Vulnerability allows leaders to be more relatable. E.g, Me Too movement.

   Can be polarizing or fragmentary because some people will not be able to relate. E.g, people who are alienated because they cannot relate to the Me Too movement.

2. Information: expert power is tied to experience and knowledge. Information power is tied to information and understanding of context. People who are in the grape vine have information power.

3. Moral: practicing what you preach, whether people do what they say. Doesn’t refer to goodness or righteousness.

4. Charismatic: this is not charisma, though charisma is part of it. Refers to wholeness and health. We all experience aspects of life where we feel broken. Some people have done the work to heal. They have a quiet charisma, being whole and comfortable in their skin.

These powers are needed for healing and balance in systems.

How Power Relates To Be-Do-Have

With the Be-Do-Have Model, the 8 powers can be plotted on a venn diagram with 3 components: be, do and have.

• Have: legitimate, information and expert power are what you own.
• Be ∩ Do: practicing what you preach, moral power
• Be ∩ Have: referent power
• Do ∩ Have: reward power - I can only give because I own
• Do: coercive
• Be: charismatic

Personal Biases

Each person is biased about which power they respond to. For instance, a new director joining with little experience in the industry vs an assistant manager that has 25 years in the industry. Who would you assign more power to?

Asians are biased towards using old power, since that is what they are shown as children. Legitimate and coercive power are the most commonly used in Asian parenting.

The takeaway here is to develop new forms of power for ourselves.

Alternative Paths To Success

It is commonly believed that you cannot affect change without legitimacy. For instance, from legitimacy, you gain expert then information power.

Today, it is also possible to work backward. For instance, with referent power, you get more information power because people relate to you, which leads to expertise and legitimacy.