What is Power?
Pat McLagan
Power is a hot topic, and its uses, misuses, and abuses are in full and amplified display in society, government, and business today. We all must do our best to be sure that the institutional power we give to leaders is wisely used. But first, we need to understand what power is. That’s the focus of this article in my new newsletter series.
In these times when we are observing severe abuses of power, perhaps we should step back and think about what power is and how potentially explosive and transformative it can be – toward destruction or as an evolution accelerant.
Think about power in the workplace, for example. It used to be rather clear: people at the top had the power, those lower in the pyramid stuck to their knitting – their job description — their box on the organization chart. At least we pretended that this was the best way to get organization alignment. Yes, I know we have long talked about empowerment, participation, and all that. But there is a continued lingering fear that opening up organizations to more employee involvement leads to chaos and loss of control.
We need to face into this fear to find new ways to both distribute and focus power for sustainable business success in today’s knowledge-dependent, highly networked, and now AI-assisted economic, social and psychic environment. “Sustainable” is the key: being sustainable requires us to think about the best interests of multiple stakeholders over time. It adds a new wrinkle to the dialogue.
A place to start is with some insights about what “power” is.
- General physicists define it as the rate at which energy is transferred, used or transformed.
- Optical engineers see it as the magnification capability of a microscope
- Mathematicians talk about power as an exponentially increasing number that results from multiplying something by itself.
- Theologians define the ultimate power as “god.”
- Politicians aspire to power as the ability to do something, act, achieve something
- Psychologists see it as a potential energy associated with one’s rank or position relative to others (rank may be a function of age, gender, height, position, knowledge, experience, etc.). Psychological power can be taken or attributed!
So, at its heart, power is:
- energy
- an ability to alter, amplify and multiply, accelerate, act, achieve
- a higher order of influence
The use of power is on lots of people’s minds today – and how we resolve our issues with and channel power promise to change how we live and work – and increasingly, society itself. Scientists are learning more about the power in the smallest bits of matter and the largest processes of the universe. Environmentalists are looking for new ways to harness the solar and wind energy that is all around us and isn’t depleted by its use. Biologists are unlocking the power inside DNA. Economists, businesses and technologists are discovering the massive power inherent in large, even global, economic networks (e.g., supply chains) and self-organizing groups of customers and competitors. Psychologists and medical specialists are discovering huge untapped potential powers inside the human brain. It’s a very exciting time.
What are your sources of power? How will you use your expanded insights about power to shape tomorrow’s world, the country, society, workplaces and relationships? What are the implications for people in formal authority whose roles multiply their personal power? What are the implications for every one of us? Why isn’t power, its use, misuse, and abuse relative to the workplace and the world a more explored leadership and participation topic – especially in today’s polarized society where power is often used to accelerate conflict?
Want to explore leadership power further in an allegory patterned after Dante’s Divine Comedy? Check out The Shadow Side of Power: Lessons for Leaders (and their Supporters). Warning: it is not your usual diatribe about power! More like a novel.
[email protected] www.PatriciaMcLagan.com linkedin.com/in/patmclagan
