You’ve reached the point in your career where you feel ready for more responsibility and maybe even the opportunity to lead. You want to wield more authority over a team, which should be as simple as a title change, right? Wrong. To be the kind of leader that inspires happier teams, you need to ensure you’re focusing on influence, rather than power, to achieve strategic outcomes. That means towing a delicate line between exerting the kind of pressure that inspires critical, creative thinking and creating a workplace that allows people to feel relaxed and confident in their abilities. The relationship between power and influence is vital to good leadership. And because happier employees are also 12% more productive, take ten times fewer sick days and can improve sales by up to 37% 1, you need to ensure you’re on the right side of the influence, power debate. What’s the difference between power and influence?Power and influence both refer to naturally possessed traits that follow as a consequence of authority. The difference lies in how these two approaches to leadership encourage a team to complete their work. Power can be defined as the following: “The authority to change the behaviour of others and make them do things that they might not do otherwise.”2 The trouble with power is that, for the group, there is no alternative but to comply – which means that power is often achieved through fear or coercion. On the other hand, influence is defined as: “the ability to alter other people’s perceptions of a situation.”3 Unlike power, influence makes use of positive language and subtle behaviours to encourage the desired outcome. Power forces people to complete a task, where influence helps them understand why that task is necessary. Here is a list of the fundamental differences between power and influence:1. Power is forced while influence is voluntary Power relies heavily on forcing team members to do something through the use of threats, whether they’re implied or explicit. Intimidation is achieved by creating the belief that if an employee does not comply, they will face punishment – whether that means being fired, losing out on a promotion or being berated in a public space. This kind of negative leadership can create the feeling amongst team members that they have no choice but to do things a certain way. Influence leads to an entirely voluntary approach to completing work. Through the use of positive affirmations and encouragement, influence results in the team feeling that they have a choice in both the work they’re required to complete as well as the means they take to get it done. Threats are traded in for persuasion and negotiation to allow employees more control over the work they’re doing. 2. Power is undemocratic while influence focuses on the team Power remains in the hands of one person, or a small group. This independent approach to leadership means that the team is not consulted during the decision-making process, and are often micromanaged to ensure that the leader’s methods are upheld. This undemocratic response to leadership removes a sense of responsibility from the team, decreasing morale. Influence understands that teamwork is a dependent process: the team is dependent on their leader for guidance and the leader is dependent on employees to produce excellent work. As a result, there is a shift from autocratic decision-making to an emphasis on transparency and getting the team involved at various stages of a project’s inception. This approach means that team members feel valued, and as a result, produce work that reflects that. 3. Power makes uses of one-way dialogue while influence creates a conversation Power is exerted by leaders who enjoy a sense of hierarchy in their organisation. That hierarchy is most apparent in the way in which teams communicate. When only a powerful leader is present, teams will be talked down to through orders and instruction. This results in ambiguity and unclear expectations, as there is little room for asking questions or giving feedback. Transparency is not valued in leadership that depends on power and, as a result, employees can become disengaged. Influence is concerned with the thoughts and feedback of the group. Influential leaders encourage straightforward conversation where processes can be improved and creative ideas are pushed forward. This approach to leadership fosters trust and relies on negotiation to make team members feel valued and heard. Influence does not do well in systems of hierarchy. 4. Power can cost a business money while influence improves retention Power in the United States alone, only 32.6% of employees are engaged at work, which can cost a business up to $550 billion a year.4 This is the result of unhappy employees who are less likely to feel a sense of loyalty to their organisation and are more likely to hand in their letter of resignation. The consequences of bad leadership are not just social or emotional – a business’s bottom line can directly be affected. Influence 46% of HR specialists say that retention is their biggest challenge when it comes to staff concerns.5 Influence boosts engagement in staff because they feel personally invested in the work they’re creating. This is coupled with the fact that exerting influence as a leader is inexpensive – it focuses on soft skills that can be learnt and practised and doesn’t require additional resources. 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This volume is a readily accessible compilation of current, original research in the area of power and influence in organizations. Power and Influence in Organizations offers a rich exploration of emerging trends and new perspectives. Contributors include leading scholars in organizational behavior and theory and major contemporary intellectual pioneers in research on power and influence, including Samuel B. Bacharach, Robert Cialdini, Edward J. Lawler, and Jeffrey Pfeffer. Each contributor provides insight into his or her own research, an overview of general trends, and thoughts about the direction of future research. Topics examined include manipulation of employee perceptions and values; the links between power and accountability; sharing power; the effects of gender on power and influence; illusions of influence; and impression management. Advanced students and scholars in organizational behavior, social influence, power and politics, conflict management, and institutional politics will find Power and Influence in Organizations stimulating and a useful roadmap to present and future research.
“There are two distinctive types of leadership. One is power and the other is influence. These two styles are often considered synonymous, as if you have one, it’s assumed you probably have the other. But a closer look at these two forms of leadership shows they work in widely different ways." An international religious leader, philosopher, and respected moral authority of our time, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the UK and the Commonwealth whom I had the honor of interviewing, writes about leadership in many of his books and inspires thousands of people to lead a more moral, purposeful life. He suggests that influence is consistently successful while power wreaks havoc. "Power is a zero-sum game," he says. "The more we give away, the less we have." Influencer Leaders Share Success, While Power Leadership Fails If you have influence and share it with nine people, you increase your influence nine-fold as your influence spreads. Highly effective leaders seek to uncover the greatness in each individual. These influence leaders are more likable than "power" leaders, as they consistently identify a common point of interest with others and compromise whenever possible so both sides leave satisfied. The best leaders also tend to be great negotiators: They seek to understand the other side's perspective so they can offer options that benefit everyone. Pressure to achieve doesn't override an influence leader's compassion for people when they make a mistake. Actually, influence leaders encourage people to take calculated risks, accept failure and get back in the game with renewed knowledge of the problem. They don't fear failure as much as they fear not trying to find innovative solutions. Martin Winterkorn, former chairman of Volkswagen, exemplified failed power leadership. He discouraged feedback and refused to hear problems from the ranks, creating a punitive culture that was said to have pushed engineers to cheat out of fear of not reaching their goals. The excessive emphasis Winterkorn placed on avoiding failure ironically led to his professional failure and to a huge financial loss for Volkswagen. "Plato famously argued in The Republic that a tyrant, however powerful, ultimately suffers in the end by corrupting his own soul," said Stanford psychologist Robert Sutton. "They might win at life but still fail as human beings." This power-driven style leads to high employee turnover and low motivation and productivity. In Winterkorn's case, he failed in both arenas: He let down customers, authorities and regulators for cheating diesel car emissions tests. Power leaders seek control and often abuse their influence. Often, they yearn for attention and respect and use their power to wield attention. They lead by intimidation and fear rather than by garnering respect. They see it as their right and privilege to rule over others rather than their responsibility to set a positive example, advise and offer guidance. Because they keep people close to them who are likeminded, their homogenous teams may enjoy comfortable relationships, but they tend to be less innovative. Influence Leaders Serve As Mentors, Inspire Innovation and Empower Others Greed, arrogance and a focus on maintaining a position of power undermine a company's culture. Influence leaders do the opposite -- they lead by serving as mentors and inspire others to follow their vision. They’re willing to take a back seat if that means helping others with talent get heard. They have high character, keep their promises and regularly share credit with fellow employees for good results. Influence leaders encourage feedback of all kinds and know their role is to inspire creativity and innovation rather than control and dominate. Rabbi Sacks told me that the best way for managers to inspire leadership in the ranks is to delegate down and empower people as far as possible, then see how they perform. "First offer praise, encourage, motivate, then be a little bit critical in a constructive way. Get people to feel they're helping other people’s lives, learning new skills, and doing important work. This means you have to learn modesty and self-limitation to create space for other people to lead. One of the most important methods of helping people reach their full potential is highly-focused praise. That creates an enormously positive attitude with individuals and with the group as a whole." Finally, he advises, be there to mentor and guide those leaders who find particular tasks difficult to develop a first-rate corporate culture. Influence Leaders Draw Out Greatness In Others The most confident leaders go so far as to encourage dissension to arrive at more creative solutions to problems. They look for the genius in each employee and come to better solutions, using what Harvard professor and leadership consultant Linda Hill refers to as “collective genius." Hill writes that great leaders of innovation don’t fit the conventional mold of “good” leadership. No matter what industry a business is in, the role of the leader is critical to innovation. Her studies show that almost anything produced by an organization that is new, useful and even slightly complex came from multiple people, not from an individual genius inventor. Influence Leaders Ensure Employees Feel Safe Influence leaders recognize that people give their best when they feel safe and cared for. To encourage openness among employees, good leaders schedule informal walking meetings, others get feedback from anonymous surveys and others try to understand their employees' personal needs, whether it’s job enrichment, paid time off for religious holidays or flexible hours and mentorship. It’s up to the leader to discover what matters most to his/her employees and to respect their individual, personal needs. When people feel safe and protected by an organization, their natural inclination is to trust and cooperate. When asked why they would give their blood, sweat and tears for a person, an influence leader would say, "Because they would have done it for me." Isn't that the organization we would all like to work in? We need leaders we trust and who use their power to construct an organization on principles of justice, righteousness and compassion. The best leaders recognize that education and guidance should override coercion. Above all, great leaders model right over might and influence over power. As Rabbi Sacks says, “The use of power diminishes others; the practice of influence enlarges them." Knowledge, inspiration and vision can be shared without loss. When leaders see conflict as an opportunity for collaboration and growth rather than as a threat, the byproduct will inevitably be greater harmony in the ranks and increased innovation. |