1. Being a Powerful Change Leader

One of the primary issues with which a leader-manager has to deal is power. Often, people have mixed feelings about how to use power and how power is used with them. Usually, people desire to use their position and authority appropriately and they often want to be perceived as powerful, or competent, efficient and credible.

Being a leader-manager does not mean that one gives up the use of power. On the contrary, the difference between a traditional manager and a leader-manager is that the leader usually uses power differently, often by sharing power across organizational hierarchies.

In order to begin assessing your understanding about the use of power, please take a few minutes to complete the following exercise: Power and You.

Power and You

Adapted from Gibson & Hodgetts

There are many types of power. A manger’s use of each type of power will vary, depending on her/his leadership style and/or the situation. Below, you will find three different situations designed to help you assess the way you use power. The following situations are each followed by five alternative ways to address the situation. Read every situation carefully and choose the alternative that you would most prefer. Put a “1” next to this choice. Then place a “2” next to your second favorite choice, down to a “5” next to your least favorite choice. There can be no ties; it is a forced-choice selection. When you are finished, transfer all your responses to the scoring key at the end of the activity.

Situation 1: You have just been informed that one of your team must be transferred to another department. You believe the best choice is Gia and have called her in to your office. She appears somewhat upset with your decision. You believe it is time to use your power to persuade her to take the transfer. What would you do?

_____ a. Explain to her that this new position is a good career move and offers greater promise than her current job.

_____ b. Tell her that if she does not take the transfer her promotional status will be greatly endangered.

_____ c. Remind her that you are the boss and in that capacity have made the decision for her; her job is to go along with it.

_____ d. Point out to her that you have always looked out for her best interests and would never do anything that was not going to advance her career in the organization.

_____ e. Show her how carefully you went about selecting the best person for the transfer and why she fits the bill perfectly.

Situation 2: Roberto has been late for the third day in a row. You have not said anything until now but believe that it is important that you now have a talk with him. How would you handle the situation?

_____ a. Remind him that rewards are directly tied to performance and if he keeps coming in late he is going to jeopardize his chances for a good raise to say nothing about eventual promotion opportunities.

_____ b. Tell him that tardiness is not condoned, remind him of the starting time, and make it clear if he is late again you will see that his pay is docked.

_____ c. Tell him that as the boss your job is to enforce the rules and that means insisting that he show up on time from now on.

_____ d. Remind him that you got where you are by being on time and if he wants to move up the hierarchy he will have to start coming in on time.

_____ e. Explain to him that his workload is tied directly to the workday and if he does not come in on time he is going to have great difficulty getting everything done by quitting time.

Situation 3: Flavio has been running a soccer pool. This has been called to your attention by some of your people and, since the practice is in violation of organization rules, you have called Flavio in for a talk. How would you handle the situation?

_____ a. Tell Flavio that violation of the rules could endanger his status with the organization and result in his not getting promoted as fast as he would like.

_____ b. Tell Flavio that you will not tolerate violation of the rules and will fire him if he does not stop the practice immediately

_____ c. Explain to Flavio that rules are rules and as manager you are required to enforce them, so he must end the soccer pool practice.

_____ d. Remind Flavio that you got where you are by following the letter and spirit of the organization’s rules and regulations and urge him for his own good to do the same.

_____ e. Tell Flavio that your experience with the organization is that these practices always end up causing trouble for the individual and urge him to stop running the pool.

Answers: Transfer your answers to the scoring key below by placing your five numbers for each situation (a-e) across the page in the same order in which they appear above. Then add each of the columns to give a total for a-e respectively

Situation 1 _____a _____b _____c _____d _____e

Situation 2 _____a _____b _____c _____d _____e

Situation 3 _____a _____b _____c _____d _____e

Totals _____a _____b _____c _____d _____e

For an interpretation of your answers, read the following slides about power.

Power is “the ability to influence, persuade or move another person” (Gibson & Hodgetts, 1991, p. 299).

In social interactions, including interactions between leaders and her/his stakeholders, power is about….

Many of us think about the exercise of power as coercion or the excessive use of force to achieve selfish ends. It is certainly true that people can and do use their position or status in an organization to solely achieve personal ends. More generally, however, power is a dynamic of most relationships between people. When power is conceptualized as an ability to exert control, influence and to effect change, the connection to management and leadership is clarified.

Effective leaders know how to exert appropriate control and influence and they know how to make change happen by working with others. Most importantly: “Communication is essential to the leader’s exercise of influence”(Neher, 1997, p. 217).

Power is given, not taken. What makes a leader powerful is not necessarily about her/his attempts to take control. Rather, what makes a leader powerful is that those with whom s/he interacts give

him power through their willingness to follow. Furthermore, people within an organization might have difficulty coming to an agreement about how to define power, but people are generally confident about their ability to recognize power when they see or experience its effects.

As each of the following explanations illustrates, power is intimately connection to the perception of a receiver, who is willing--to a greater or lesser extent--to go along with the influence request.

Coercive Power and Reward Power deal with the process of exchange between parties. Coercive power is exercised when others believe that the power holder has the ability to administer punishments or to withhold rewards. Coercive power stems from the expectation of punishment for one’s failure to conform to an influence attempt. Reward power similarly depends upon the perception of others that the person holding power has the ability to administer desired rewards such as raises or promotions, or to remove or decrease negative stimuli.

Referent Power is based on the identification, or feeling of oneness, with the person attempting to exert influence. The target of influence is concerned with identity, relationship or maintaining the relationship. Those who give referent power often identify though a desire to be like an agent. For example, “I’m like him and shall behave or believe as s/he does” or “I want to be like him and will be more like him if I behave or believe as s/he does”. The greater the attraction to the person, the greater the identification and hence the greater the power. An person may be unaware that s/he has referent power as this aspect of power takes no deliberate effort to evoke.

Expert Power is derived from the perception that an person has special expertise, knowledge, skill or information. The perception of expertness comes from our own level of expertise as well as against an absolute standard, such as a university degree. Usually, expert power is restricted to a specific area of an person’s expertise—such as organizationallaw, if s/he is a organizationallawyer—although some “halo effect” (transference of expertness from one field to another) might occur.

Legitimate Power is based on the perception that an agent has a legitimate right to prescribe and proscribe the behavior of others; that is tell others what to do. This type of power stems from internalized values that the person has the right to influence and the receiver has an obligation to go along with this influence. For example, students usually adhere to a professor’s request because the professor has the legitimate authority to prescribe what should be learned and how. Legitimate power also involves the perceived right of a person to hold a given office or position as designated by a legitimizing agent such as an electorate.