Owning your power
As a leader, sharing your power can increase your influence in several ways. Power and influence are the cornerstones of good leadership, however it’s important to acknowledge that it’s informal power and influence that will have the most significant impact. Informal power or influence can be simply described as someone who doesn’t necessarily have a formal leadership role or title but their capability, trustworthiness, subject matter expertise and presence give rise to a level of influence beyond their role. These people are often known as having XX levels of personal power.
What is personal power and why you should care
Let’s begin with what personal power is and isn’t. It starts with your individual character and personality traits that support you developing cooperative and collaborative behaviours with your team, your peers, colleagues and the managers and executives that you report to. People who are seen as having higher levels of personal power have great interpersonal skills and the ability to build rapport rapidly with the people around them. This is because they are intentional with making connection and making people feel at ease when they are around them. They are viewed by those around them as capable, affable, trustworthy and reliable. All-important qualities to informally lead and influence the people around you. And importantly, crucial qualities for people who do have formal authority also.
Personal power is not about authority or command. These are power structures that come from positional power and formal leadership roles and titles. In saying that, it is still important, in fact it’s critical that as you increase in your formal authority throughout your career that you continue to own and develop your personal power. Nothing is more insipid than a leader who relies on the formality of their role to influence and get things done.
Personal power and credibility
We all know that trust is currency when it comes to the workplace (and may other places in life also). It builds trust when you share your power with your team. You demonstrate that you trust them, their experience and expertise, and you value their contributions. This in turn improves their loyalty and engagement in their individual roles as well as with one another. An engaged team is a high performing team.
Sharing your power with your team fosters collaboration by encouraging your team to take ownership and responsibility of their work by cooperating with one another to work towards the best outcomes. Oftentimes this will lead to more creative (innovative) solutions as everyone brings their unique perspectives and ideas to the table, engendering a sense of collective equity.
Sharing power increases accountability by creating a peer culture of where team members are responsible for their own actions and decisions. This is easier said than done at times and for it be consistent and effective, it does need someone monitoring. I would suggest that the ground rules for how this operate in your team be openly discussed until you reach a set of acceptable ground rules that everyone is comfortable with. Accountability and ownership within the team have been shown to improve productivity when it comes to getting results.
One of the most important reasons that sharing your power increases your influence is the way in which it fosters learning and growth creating opportunities for team members (yourself included) to develop and learn. When people feel a sense of autonomy and responsibility, it inspires them to develop new skills and behaviours to take on more challenging and complex tasks which in turn helps them to improve their confidence and advance their careers.
Sharing your power with your team and the people around you, does not by any means, dilute yours. If anything, it increases it by helping you to develop a team of capable, responsible, respectful individuals. My firm belief is that your team are a reflection of you and your leadership style. If you want people to think of you as trustworthy, credible, capable and inspiring – then treat your team in that same way and they will carry that message in how they show up either in your workplace or in a role somewhere in a new workplace.
Personal power, informal power has a tangible ripple effect, it could even be with people that you may never even meet. When you share your power you are taking the high road, creating a work environment and team culture where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute to the team’s and the organisation’s success.
Liz Ellis is a certified Leadership and Performance Coach, Master Practitioner of Neurolinguisitic Programming and Conscious Hypnosis and a Practitioner of Timeline Therapy. She is founder and Principal Coach at Empowered Leader, a practice that supports leaders to overcome challenges in their role and bumps along the road in their career by reconnecting them to their values,vision and purpose.