The Best Leaders Have Strong Personal Power

In business, managers are tasked with making sure that directives, from senior leadership, are followed. That work assigned to their area is accomplished. And that it is accomplished by way of coercion if necessary. Negative reinforcement is often an effective motivator. Directives often times come down from the top. The managers then become the enforcers of said directives. In certain situations, some managers are put into their position simply because of seniority. Or, because they were an expert in their area. But neither of those reasons make them qualified to be a good manager.

Micro-managers lack the ability to effectively train others

We have all heard the horror stories of micro-managers. Some of us have even experienced having one as a boss at least once in our professional careers. These are managers who don’t trust their personnel to accomplish the work set forth. To ensure assigned work is accomplished a certain way, they hover over their employees. Regardless of who set those specifications. Never mind the concept that, as their manager, they should have trained their employees accurately and effectively to accomplish the work assigned to them. 

I think most micro-managers have little to no leadership skills. They also lack the ability to train others. Their lack of leadership skills should have automatically disqualified them from being a manager. Unfortunately, businesses too often don’t understand the significance of leadership skills in positions of authority or influence.

Leaders can’t and/or shouldn’t rely on positional power.

Unlike managers, leaders may or may not have the authority to direct others. Therefore, they can’t rely on “Positional Power” or the power that their position holds to get goals accomplished. Instead of relying on positional power, effective leaders have the foresight to see where to go and how to get there. It’s through their gift of persuasion that they’re able to help guide others to that goal. Leaders don’t need the positional power to make things happen. Their power doesn’t come from their position but from their capabilities. This is referred to as “Personal Power.

5 Essential Skills of a Successful Leader

Other non-positional powers include (but are not limited to), informational, referent, situational, expert, reward-oriented, punitive, ingratiating, pressure-based, guilt-based, persuasive, and avoiding. For this post though, we will focus exclusively on personal power. That is because personal power is a far greater influencer than positional power that can be implemented by anyone. While the majority of the other power’s, listed above, require some form of positional power to be effective.

Personal power is persuading others through skills.

Personal power influences others to want to go along. Whereas a manager with only positional power will try to push and even drag others along if necessary. Personal power is most effective when the power wielder, and don’t kid yourself it is power, is able to persuade others using a combination of social and personal skills. As well as emotional intelligence. Understand, it is extremely import for others to believe that their leader is authentic. The authenticity of the leader will be their greatest strength or weakness.

Leaders who employ personal power, over positional power, are letting others know that they value each one of them individually. Not just as an employee but as a person. Their focus is on the individual achievements of others. This type of leader understands that when they help others to succeed, they themselves also succeed. Often, this is referred to as Servant Leadership. That topic will be covered in a later post.

What is the Best Leadership Style?

Not only are they successful with their personal power, they also have a repertoire of other skills. To include (but not limited to), time management, change management, risk management, waste mitigation, and they are usually a salesperson. Not a salesperson in the sense that they sell things for a living. Rather they’re a salesperson as in a persuader. Having the ability to convince others that what they’re trying to accomplish is in the best interest of all parties involved. They’re able to answer the age-old question for each person they’re trying to lead. And that’s the question of, “what’s in it for me?” Answering this question is also a good skill to use when it comes to change management. Because change is difficult for most people.

A leader with personal power is like a good salesperson.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the human race is an extremely selfish species. We magnify so-called “superheroes” because they are willing to sacrifice themselves for others. If everyone was willing to do that, then there’d be no such thing as heroes let alone superheroes. Self-preservation is the most important thing when it comes to the human species. For instance, if you’ve ridden on an airplane, then you know what the flight attendants always say regarding the oxygen masks. If they deploy, first put yours on before you try to help others. Self-preservation. The theory is that you can’t help others if you pass out from lack of oxygen. That makes sense. But if you think about it, if you can’t breathe due to a lack of oxygen at 30,000 feet above the earth, you have much bigger problems ahead of you. 

The best leaders have strong personal power.

The best leaders have strong personal power, strong business skills such as time management and change management, they’re good salespeople being able to answer the question of, “what’s in it for me?” And they’re able to help others understand the why. Not just what’s in it for me, but to help them understand why the change is necessary, why the hill has to be taken, or whatever the why is of the situation. Of course, the leader also has to at least have a baseline understanding of the task or job at hand. They only need a baseline because good leaders will surround themselves with experts. Stay tuned, because we’ll tackle that in a later post.

The best leaders are not experts in any one area because they have so many hats that they have to wear. They have to be an encourager, an empathizer, a motivator, a persuader/salesperson, able to answer the why, a change manager, relatable, and so much more that give them their personal power. And it’s through that personal power that they’re able to help, convince, direct (as in direction and not directive), and accomplish the task at hand or turn a vision into a reality.

Effective leaders understand that they’re not alone.

They also understand that they’re not in it alone. They understand that if they’re successful, the one’s they’re trying to influence will be in the thick of it along with them. That’s one of the driving forces that followers look for in their leaders. The followers understand that the leader not only has their best interest in mind, but that the leader is in it with them. They know that the leader would not make them do anything that they themselves would not do or has not done. Whether it’s physically or figuratively.

Personal power is a force to be reckoned with. It will take you much farther than any positional power ever could. With great personal power comes great personal responsibility.