Life down the drain
Power is the ability to get something done.
Power is good.
Crying babies, loud roommates, angry bosses, loving spouses, and visionary leaders, all have power. Everyone has power. The sweetest power is the power to influence. Sadly, few pay attention to their power and so it goes to waste.
The plan: First I’ll overview five types of power. (it’s not a technical list) Then I’ll offer five reasons power goes down the drain.
Understanding your power.
Threatening someone – coercive power. Warning: Threatening doesn’t work well with the young work force. And doesn’t last long with anyone.
Praise – reinforcing power. Saying, “Great job! You’re done an hour early,” reinforces the effective use of time.
When others admire you – referent power. This type of power is based on respect and relationship. People who use referent power say things like, “I need a favor.” or “It helps me when you stay late.”
Rewarding – power to confer benefit. You can reward someone with money, status, new opportunities, access, or some other perceived benefit.
Expert power – the ability to influence others through what you do well. For example, a trusted mechanic influences customers when he explains they need new ball-joints.
Unused power can’t be reclaimed,
its life down the drain.
Five reasons power goes down the drain.
- You mistakenly doubt or forget your power.
- You’re too busy with your own stuff to influence others for good.
- You’re short-sighted and don’t have a life vision that includes positive influence.
- Your past failures drag you into apathy.
- You’re not thinking about leveraging your power to create good.
Wasted power is the greatest waste of all.
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I offered five ideas explaining power wastage. Why do you think power goes down the drain?
What suggestions can you make that reverse power wastage?
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Leadership Freak
Dan Rockwell
I see what you are saying, but the reality is far more obstructionist than you allow for in your commentary. People who use pc language to downplay legitimate concerns, stigmatizing the vocabulary necessary for successful outcomes, interrupters, screamers, slanderers to upper management, dress code violators, caffeine junkies, people who have their first drink before breakfast, and a host of other irritating and inherent flaws in management culture calculated to keep the “team” in play. All if these gradeschool diversion tactics covered in a decoupage of industry buzz-words, lingo, terminology that have little actual relevance to the issue being discussed.
Hilarious! I can’t keep up with you.
Hi Dan,
I think your work here is valuable. It’ just the solutions are more stream-of-consciousness from a perspective of frustrated potential. People changed the rules before they had the intellectual capacity to properly comprehend their original function. We hypocritically stigmatize the very tenets of our supposed political revolution when the development of the ego is not duly considered. We delay that which we feel overshadows our own achievements and the only way around that is peer-pressure. The larger group has to set limits on infantile behavior. New stigmas have to be set in rapid motion in order to counter the hopeless gradeschool insanity. Interrupting, censorship, power-struggle initiators, irresponsible habits, all need immediate attention.
Thanks for the post. I just noticed a small typo in number 4: “your” instead of “you’re”.
thanks Salih!
Dan
I believe everything posted was actually very logical.
But, think about this, suppose you added a little content?
I mean, I don’t wish to tell you how to run your blog, however what if you added something to possibly get a person’s attention?
I mean Life down the drain Leadership Freak is kinda boring. You should look at Yahoo’s front page and see how they write article headlines to get people to click. You might try adding a video or a pic or two to get people excited about what you’ve got to say.
Just my opinion, it could make your posts a little livelier.