We have learnt that leadership is a process of influence, that all leaders need power,
and there are different types of power.
This leads to an obvious question – 'how can we build our power bases
as developing leaders?'
In this presentation we will explore four strategies to build personal power, and three
strategies to build position power.
Let's begin with personal power.
Personal power can be associated with our expertise, credibility, likeability and relationships.
The first strategy to build personal power is to build and communicate one's expertise.
Begin by considering what type of expertise you could build
that would enhance your ability to influence.
Remember that there are different types of knowledge.
For example, a leader with technical expertise may also understand how their organisation
works from a systems, cultural and relational perspective.
Often boundary spanning leaders have a 'T-shaped' professional profile.
By that we mean they have at least one area of deep knowledge, and they also have broad
knowledge in a number of areas.
For example, a structural engineer may have deep knowledge of the design of buildings,
but also broad knowledge of topics such as how to lead teams, manage projects, and consult
with the community.
There is a positive correlation between leadership effectiveness and the 'openness to experience'
personality trait.
Leaders with high levels of this trait are keen to try new approaches and continuously
learn.
As President Kennedy stated: "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other".
So, adopt a mindset of continuous learning as a leader.
In addition to acquiring expertise, people around you need to know you have it.
I frequently see inexperienced leaders fall into this trap - they acquire high levels
of knowledge and expertise, but their colleagues don't know they have it.
Consequently, their potential for influence hasn't grown.
Leaders can communicate their expertise in different ways, including publishing papers,
presenting talks, having an up-to-date, online professional profile, and using social media
tools to highlight successful projects.
Another strategy to build personal power is to build one's credibility as a leader.
In their bestselling book, The Leadership Challenge, Professors Jim Kouzes and Barry
Posner argue that credibility is the foundation for leadership.
They recommend that leaders take three steps to build credibility.
First, they should clarify their personal values.
Personal values are behaviours or outcomes that we deem to be particularly important
such as honesty, serving others or sustainability.
Second, they should clearly communicate these values to their colleagues so people know
what they stand for as a leader.
Third, they should always act in accordance with these values – especially when under
pressure.
Do you follow these three steps?
Other ways to build credibility include establishing
a reputation as a competent leader who is also honest, forward-looking and delivers
on promises.
The third strategy to build personal power is to cultivate appropriate social networks.
Appropriately built and maintained social networks can help to access valuable information
and influence people.
Clearly, someone is more likely to carefully consider your proposal if they know you, trust
you and value their relationship with you.
All leadership happens through relationships, so getting the right relationships in place
well before you need them is 'core business' for leaders.
This requires a strategic, proactive mindset.
It is also important to be authentic, have a generous spirit and look to build mutually
beneficial relationships.
The fourth strategy for building personal power is to build skills in navigating organisational
politics.
Braddy and Campbell from the Center for Creative Leadership define political skill as "The
ability to maximise and leverage relationships in order to achieve organisational, team and
individual goals."
In other words, being politically savvy involves learning how to navigate one's organisational
systems and networks in order to get things done.
Brady and Campbell recommend strengthening four leadership competencies to become more
politically savvy.
The first is social awareness, a leader's ability to observe others to understand their
behaviours and motives.
The second is interpersonal influence, a leader's ability to influence others using a compelling
interpersonal style and a broad range of communication behaviours.
The third is networking, a leader's ability to build relationships with key people and
groups across and outside of the organisation.
And the last one is sincerity, a leader's ability to be open, honest and genuine with
others.
Additional strategies include learning from experienced mentors how to navigate the organisation,
and making a conscious effort to learn how the organisation works.
Let's now turn our attention to building position power.
Position power stems from a formal role within an organisation.
One strategy to build position power is to engage in career planning.
Career planning is part of self-leadership.
It involves thinking about the sort of organisations and roles that are likely
to best suit your values, personal mission, strengths and nature.
It also involves identifying actions that you could take to access desirable roles with
more position power.
For example, you may need to acquire additional qualifications and experience, or build relationships
with key people.
Once again, getting help from an experienced mentor can be helpful.
Another strategy is 'venue shopping'.
This involves looking for existing environments where you can access position power.
For example, a leader could volunteer to perform
a leadership role in one of their professional associations, a conference organising committee,
or a board of a non-government organisation
The final strategy is 'venue creation'.
This involves creating an environment where you can access position power.
For example, setting up a new community of practice to address a pressing global development
problem and becoming its coordinator.
Other venues could include a new research group, non-government organisation or work
unit within your organisation.
As you seek to build your power bases, please
recognise that you are likely to face some ethical dilemmas.
For example, you will need to determine how to let your colleagues know about your expertise
and achievements in ways that are not interpreted as taking too much credit for the group's
success.
Drawing from the work of Howard Gardner and
others, I would recommend asking the following questions when faced with such a dilemma:
Is this strategy for building power consistent with the kind of person, worker
or citizen I want to be?
If everyone adopted a similar mind-set, what would the world be like?
Am I acting in accordance with my core personal values?
Would the strategy pass the 'newspaper test'?
In other words, would I be comfortable if all the details of this attempt at building
power were described on the front page of my local newspaper.
Will this strategy be beneficial in the long term?
In this presentation we have covered seven strategies to build your potential for
influence - your power.
We have also emphasised the importance of acting ethically in the process.
Please take a moment to identify which of these strategies you could use and which should
be included in your leadership plan.
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