Letter from the CEO Greetings Momentum Subscribers,
This issue of Momentum is about something some dream of, some fear, and some feel pretty good about having - POWER. We often forget the role of power in our lives. As leaders, we deal with positional power, influence power, personal charisma or authority, and we have the choice between empowering others or hoarding our own. What is your relationship to power? How does it impact you and those around you?
Karlin Sloan
CEO
Karlin Sloan & Company
|
Power Over versus Empowerment
by Karlin Sloan
We all like bosses who share power, empower us, and help us to contribute our best.
Research from the Gallup organization shows us that of engaged
employees, 49% strongly agree that "A strong positive
relationship with this person [boss] is crucial to my success at work,"
Gallup research also shows that nearly one-quarter of U.S. employees
(24%) would fire their boss if
given the chance. And as many as 51% of actively disengaged workers
would get rid of their leader if they could.
Think about that for a moment in relation to how power is used in your
organization. If dominance power leads to disengagement, shared power
leads to a more engaged, more productive workforce with better relationships between managers and their direct reports.
Take a moment to think of your first experiences of power, either your own power, or that of someone else. I've asked many executives to think about this question, and I've gotten answers from "I knew I was powerful when I took my sisters ice cream" to "I won a track race and felt like I was the most powerful kid on earth" to "I was the victim of a bully at school who I saw as very powerful."
Leadership and management are all about power, though we often don't want to acknowledge it. We as leaders of people have the opportunity to share power, to empower others, and to create the kind of positive power that happens when a group is aligned toward a common goal. Unfortunately, many leaders opt to use their power to wield over others rather than to share with others, which leads to mistrust, "dominant/submissive" relationship dynamics, and disempowered/ disengaged employees.
Sometimes leaders opt to hold on to their power because they have seen that while their own performance can be trusted, they can't trust others to execute at the same level of excellence. Empowering others doesn't mean giving away your own ability to lead, manage, make decisions or be effective in a leadership role. It means developing talent that you can trust to take on greater levels of responsibility. Empowering leaders and clear and specific about expectations.
Three steps to becoming more conscious of power dynamics:
1.) Watch how you wield the power you have based on your position, your skills, or your ability to influence. Do you trust others with power? Do you need to make all the decisions yourself? Do you develop empowered employees?
2.) Watch how others in your organization collaborate and manage teams. What style is effective in your organization?
3.) Know your own defensiveness - what really shifts you out of your center/ your own seat of power? When you prepare for what might shake you, you are much more likely to hold your ground and stay powerful. In the worlds of one of our fantastic consulting team members "I think of myself being like a tall reed - strong but flexible in the wind."
|
|
Tapping the Power in Teams
by Kevin Cuthbert
I recently found myself working with an executive who is at the top of his game. A few years before we met he had created a worldwide organization that had earned his company tens of millions of dollars. He was regularly and publicly praised for his achievements by the company's most senior leaders. "Tony" had surrounded himself with a team of experienced high performers.
Each person on this team was successful in their own right, and felt a sense of personal power. Unfortunately this personal power didn't translate to group power. Instead, they had begun competing internally, staking out territory, and operating out of fear. Instead of being "better with" each other, they were continuously devolving into a "better than" one-upsmanship.
What was missing that could unify this team of strong personalities and a-players? A sense that together they could be stronger and more powerful than apart.
In this consultant's experience, power dynamics and in particular "better than" thinking are so pervasive that they almost go unnoticed by work teams. More often than not, these kinds of issues also go undiscussed. Through facilitations that provided a neutral ground in which to discuss the "undiscussables" of power dynamics, this group emerged as a team once they were able to find common ground, common goals and common set of leadership principles from which to operate.
This discussion is where the work starts, with simple questions that help people to share their own and understand others relationship to power. With that on the table, teams are able to develop and achieve common goals and to establish behaviors that lead to improved performance that can be sustained over time. The best part? The team in question is now more than a group of high-powered a-players working at odds, they are a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, outperforming expectations and enjoying the process as a team.
|
|
|
Quotations
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be." - Thomas Jefferson
"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my
vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde
"Everything in nature contains all the power of nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"We have learned that power is a positive force if it is used for positive purposes." - Elizabeth Dole
"Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself." - Gloria Steinem
|
,
YOUR FEEDBACK IS WELCOME HERE
Thank you for being a Momentum Subscriber.
Please keep any comments, queries, and bright ideas coming to community@karlinsloan.com
We'd like to know what's important to you, and what you'd like to see in our upcoming issues.
Best wishes,
The KS&C Momentum Team
|
|
- 
