Did you know that you have power? Even better is that it’s infinite and right at your fingertips! It’s a powerful thing to know both what power is granted to you, and what is earned! If you feel like this question is true for you, lean in because Kai and Zhou have both been struggling with their own understanding of positional and personal power, and we can all learn a little bit from their curiosity! Let’s dive into the next part in our series on influencing even better!
- Grow Your Positional Power
Kai has been at her organization and in the same position for three years. The days are getting long and she’s starting to feel like she’s “just a project coordinator” with no real influence or in her workplace.
One day, Kai is assigned a particularly difficult project for which little planning has been done. At first, she’s frustrated because she can’t move forward with the information she has. But as she thinks about it more, she realizes that this is exactly the challenge she’s been looking for. She’s a project coordinator because she knows how to manage time well, she loves to plan, and she’s great at organizing a team and scheduling the conversations to get the information she needs. With this self-reminder, she gets to work scheduling the meetings that will help her get better informed, introducing herself as the Project Coordinator for the project at hand.
All Kai needed to remember was that her position grants her the power to get things done, in an area that she excels in. Here’s a little more about positional power:
Positional Power: Positional power is granted to you by an authority or by an organization and it comes with a title. You’re not “just” a [insert your own title here] …, you have been empowered! But like every role, our titles come with responsibility. They come with the expectation that we‘re going to do something good with what we’ve been assigned to do. Here are some examples.
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- If your job is to be the scribe, then there’s an expectation that you will take good notes, so if there are distractions in the room, you can say, “I couldn’t hear that last point because there was so much noise, in my role as Scribe, I’d like to ask that it be repeated, please”.
- If your job is to be the safety coordinator, then there’s an expectation that you will take safety seriously, and help keep us safe. So, if the emergency exit is being blocked, you could say, “in my role as safety coordinator, I’d like to ask that we please keep the emergency exit clear.”
- If your job is to be the project manager, then there’s an expectation to be on time, to set reasonable goals, and to get to a point where everyone is satisfied with the results, so if something is falling behind, then you could say, “in my role as project manager, I need to ask for some help to get some support on this project so we can finish on time.”
Kai uses her positional power to establish plans for moving forward. Our titles are what empower us and help us to deliver success.
By growing her positional power, Kai delivers successful project results, despite the setbacks she faced in the beginning. Her team works well together and presents an impressive project helps deliver value for their customers, and results in a promotion for Kai, all because she leaned into what she’d been empowered to do in her position.
- Grow Your Personal Power
Zhou is a manager in his company, where he started over ten years ago. And while he knows his position comes with power and responsibility, he sometimes struggles to speak kindly with his team and those around him. He’s had a couple of team members leave in the past couple of years, and he wants to know why. Input from those closest to him reveals that he doesn’t always seem to use his power for good, and it makes him someone that others don’t want to work with. That doesn’t sit well with Zhou, and he wants to make a positive change for himself and everyone around him.
While Zhou has done okay with his positional power, he could use some growth when it comes to his personal power. Here’s what he needs to know:
Personal Power: Personal power might be called charisma, influence, or the ability to motivate others. This is your earned power. It’s how you’ve chosen to show up consistently as someone who offers a smile, a helping hand, or an encouraging word, all in the interest of serving others and your organization.
It’s one thing to do what your job asks of you, but how likeable are you when you do it? I don’t have to be a jerk when I do my job, especially when I know that in my position, I need to ask for more support, more direction, or more planning. I can insist on good-natured conversations that move everyone forward instead of back, and bring success to the position I’ve been empowered to fulfill. Here is where we recognize humanity and ask how we can build each other up and inspire greatness.
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- As the scribe, my personal power is eroded if I just say, “everyone be quiet, I can’t hear!” or if I don’t speak up and then take bad notes.
- As the safety coordinator, my personal power is eroded if I say, “don’t you idiots know better than to block the emergency exit?” or if an emergency happens while the exit is blocked.
- As the project manager, my personal power is eroded if I wring my hands in helplessness and complain that “they are making my project hard” or if my project continues to deliver late.
With this newfound knowledge, Zhou knows exactly what he needs to do. The next day in the office, he’s especially careful to choose his words kindly and offer a smile to everyone he passes. In a meeting, he asks every team member how he can help and support them in their tasks, and everyone is pleasantly surprised. He keeps this up for the next couple of months, and soon it’s a daily habit! Because of his continued effort and readiness to serve others, the office seems brighter, everyone smiles more, and his team is happier.
In some circles, “power” is what turns the lights on. In others, “power” is what you use to make people do what we want. But when it comes to humans, we’re all about influence! Influence is how we inspire others to want to do something that moves the rest of us towards a common good.
- Grow Them Together!
Both Kai and Zhou struggled when it came to using their positional and personal powers, but they learned that when used together, the impact on influence is even greater!
When we think about how to use both of these powers in our everyday lives, they show up in a couple of ways – in our regular communications and in our out-of-the-box communications.
For regular communications: These are the communications essential to your everyday life and your everyday work.
- How easy do you make it for stakeholders to get information from you?
- Do you reduce the number of clicks it takes them to get somewhere?
- Do you send information well in advance?
- Do you anticipate the needs of others because you paid attention?
When we make things easier for others, we increase our effectiveness and take our positional power and use it to grow our personal power. We use the authority of our positions to accomplish tasks and help make the days of everyone around us a little brighter.
For out-of-the-box communications: These are the interactions that happen in the hallway, in the elevator, and every time I get up from my desk.
- Am I ready for anything?
- Is information always at my fingertips?
- Am I ready to ask what someone needs help with or to provide them with the information they need to know?
Here is how we raise our influence – by being ready with a smile, being aware of the situation, and being ready to share what’s going well within the organization.
By understanding how we’re expected to show up in our positions, and then leveraging our kindness, our goodness, and our friendliness to make the days of those around us even better, we can improve our influence, inspire, and motivate.
If you’re leading a project or initiative, for example, here are some questions you can ask yourself to make sure you’re always prepared to use your positional and personal powers:
- What’s the project and why are you doing it?
- Where are you in the lifecycle of the project and how are things going?
- What is in your way now (issues) or what’s on the horizon that could be harmful to the project (risks)?
Having this information always at the ready means that your stakeholders will never catch you off-guard, and you’ll always be prepared to give them the information they expect and need you to know. And if, while you’re sharing those updates, you also share something kind or something worth smiling about, you can brighten their day too!
How can you show up and use your positional and personal powers?
Our positional and personal powers not only help us to increase our influence, but when we invest time into growing in each area, we look to the good of our organizations! While we inspire and motivate others, we can do so in a way that also inspires them to be kind, to smile more, and helps all of us to get more done. As a result, our teams have better workdays and our customers have better interactions with us. Putting the good of the organization first is even one of the core tenants of our Change Makers Certification Program. If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to check it out today!
