The Power & Leadership Dichotomy in Teams
The issue of power is ever present in relationships and has been since time immemorial. Power is a neutral tool that can be used or abused. The reason interactions between team members inevitably become political to a larger or lesser degree because of the power issue in relationships. Teams armed with an awareness and understanding of the power forces at work in their teams can take steps to guard against the abuse of it. The current world wide political conditions of uncertainty invariably have spilled over into the corporate business teams’ landscape. The upshot is conducive conditions influencing people to unwittingly engage in the abuse of power to get things done in the absence of leadership.
The Nature of Power – Essentially power usually takes one of two forms; Influence, the ability to encourage someone to do what you suggest and Compulsion, the ability to force someone to do what you command. Many believe power is vested in a position or title, granted by management or someone else, which comes with authority and control, and a belief in the form of supremacy over others. That is from the “outside-in” so to speak.
Autocratic Power – Power is concentrated in a single centre, be it an individual or few loyalists. The consequence is a ‘parent-child’ culture characterised by obedience, compliance or rebelliousness. The dilemma is, due to our early childhood experiences, we all have a problem with authority, to a larger or lesser degree as a result of the parents and other authority figures in our lives at the time. The upshot often manifest in typical reactions like resistance, resentment & revenge. Two unfortunate consequences follow; 1. Hypocrisy – Inducing a collective sense of hypocrisy among team members, who feel that teamwork has devolved into nothing more than an empty slogan. Decisions relating to building effective teamwork are verbalised but execution is often delayed, or conveniently postponed. A psychological fact is people learn what they live and live what they learn. 2. Artificial Harmony– A climate of superficial politeness is reinforced as an operational norm. Fear lies at the bottom of this. Fear of conflict. Rather be obedient and toe the line of authority, a consequence of position/autocratic power.
Personal Power – However others believe real power comes from within, that is from the “inside-out”. They maintain that power is the ability of each individual to cultivate by themselves. Real power is increased within a person simply by the choices you make, the actions you take, and the thoughts you entertain. Power is available to everyone, no matter their position or title.
The Nature of Leadership – Effective leadership has a personal-interpersonal nature and personal power is at its base. Leaders have followers, period. A skill different from any other, it requires follower acceptance. In addition, leadership is not accidental; it is intentional and has a definite outcome in mind. It is in alignment with influencing people and evoking followership, the ability to encourage someone else to want what is suggested. Some key outcomes of people who exercise effective leadership are;
- Have the acceptance and loyalty of followers – Give recognition to validate follower contributions
- Enabling others to connect what they do to who they are – Happy to hear the views and opinions of others without feeling threatened – Are genuine listeners to identify the needs of followers – Are trustworthy – Are happy to learn and own up to their mistakes – Communicate effectively, not forcefully
Situational Leadership – Effective leadership is responsive to the change of situations and apply dimensions of leadership that is required by the followers. The current environment of uncertainty calls for a healthy balance between power and leadership because people need attention differently at different times for different reasons. In fact, we can never control people; we don’t have access over their inner processes that make people do the things they do. All we can really do is act in ways to create working conditions that encourage people to do what we suggest through effective leadership.
People naturally resist being forced to do something against their will or better judgement, so constantly relying on compulsion to get things done is a poor strategy. Abusing power only serves to make people dislike you, and they’ll quit working with you at the earliest available opportunity.
Sources: Johan Cronjé, Specialist Coach in Organisation & Team Performance, Intégro Learning SA; Rick Miller, Organisational turnaround specialist coach; Josh Kaufman, Business performance specialist; Mandie Holgate, International business performance coach