英文原声 A New Prescription for Power

A New Prescription for Power

Spend less time exerting control and more time mobilizing energy and commitment. 

by 

· Elizabeth Long Lingo

 and 

· Kathleen L. McGinn

From the Magazine (July–August 2020)

Tara, the chief strategy officer of a software firm, was the newest member of the C-suite. Except for the CEO, the other officers had joined the executive team from the technology side in the course of acquisitions. Tara, the only MBA, had come from the business side and been recommended by the board. She was excited about her mandate: to drive a coherent strategy across the firm’s fragmented divisions.

00‘59 Several months in, however, Tara had accomplished little. She’d been blocked by her fellow officers at every turn. In frustration, she asked her supporters on the board to back her up with the CEO. She was stunned when they not only declined but said they might have erred in recommending her for the position. What had gone wrong?

01’21 As most leaders discover sooner or later, effectively wielding power is rarely straightforward. Simply exercising control over others—the traditional concept of power—is often not the best strategy; it may not even be an option. When the path ahead or the very need for change is in dispute, when looking to seize an opportunity rather than put out a fire, when working across silos where claims to authority may be ambiguous and contested, leaders should take a different approach. The most potent uses of power often involve no direct influence tactics at all.

02‘02 On the basis of decades of research and consulting with executives and managers, we have developed an approach to power that goes beyond exerting control and mobilizes others’ energy and commitment. Our model of power focuses on its three core dimensions: situational, relational, and dynamic. The degree to which you draw on all three will determine how effectively you get things done.

02’30 Power Is Situational

Leaders often view power as a purely personal quality, derived from their formal roles and titles, accreditations, skills, and experience; from the information they control and the reputation they’ve built; and from their charisma, resilience, and energy. But power also arises from and depends on situational factors such as your objectives, the environment, and bases of power. Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer has observed that one of the primary ways leaders limit their own power is by failing to search for and cultivate sources of influence beyond formal authority and personal charisma. We suggest several steps to help you identify and deploy situational sources of power.

Begin by considering the nature of your goal. For example, are you advancing structural change or refining an existing process? Are you managing a crisis or championing a new initiative? Then think about how you might engage others’ energy and commitment to achieve that goal. Ask yourself not just why the goal is important to you but also why it might be important to your colleagues, your company, and society. By drilling down into these questions, you can capture the emotions needed to win the hearts and minds of others while accumulating resilience and energy for the work ahead.

04'16 Power is often most potent when it mobilizes passion—your own and others’—and when personal objectives and the demands of the situation align. Consider Chief, the private network for connecting and supporting executive women. At critical junctures in their careers, founders Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan had each wished for advice from other female executives only to realize that like many women, they lacked the deep networks men had built. Inspired by the YPO model, which connects young business leaders around the world, they saw an opportunity to link women executives. Leaving high-profile roles at other companies, they called on funders and power brokers inside and outside their personal networks to help realize their vision. Chief’s first “clubhouse” opened its doors in New York in 2019. It was soon fully subscribed, with members paying hefty fees to belong and committing themselves to growing the organization. In pursuing their personal and professional goals, Childers and Kaplan tapped into a need and desire for community among female leaders and crafted an offering that resonated deeply with them.

Most people believe in a just world—one in which credit and rewards accrue in accordance with performance. But that conviction can become an obstacle to the effective development and use of power. In fact, MIT professor Emilio Castilla’s research on the so-called meritocracy paradox finds that bias is higher in contexts that focus exclusively on who is most deserving. Situational power, then, starts with the recognition that working harder and smarter often fails to achieve the “earned” outcome. To get results, leaders should instead work with trusted colleagues and stakeholders to assess the lay of the land and identify blind spots. How does your goal fit within the existing landscape? Why hasn’t the problem you’re addressing already been remedied, or the innovation you’re promoting been realized? What obstacles stand in your way?

06'47 Steven, a rising executive at a century-old insurance company, saw an opportunity to apply a user-centered design approach to drive strategic innovation, but he lacked the status to advance such a major initiative himself. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to get his colleagues on board. As he thought about why he was deadlocked, he realized that they saw design thinking as a fad and didn’t want to commit employees or other resources to it. Yet as he considered the “why” behind his proposal, he recognized that a user-centered approach not only reflected his values but also resonated with the firm’s origin story and mission: taking care of customers in times of need. He realized that reframing his proposal as an articulation of the organization’s core values would yield power he could leverage, especially with his skeptical colleagues. Acting on that insight, he successfully pushed his initiative through.

In a study of successful corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, one of us (Kathleen) and colleagues looked at ways in which formal positions and status markers helped leaders advance their goals. One executive described her motivation for going to business school at age 40 this way: “To get in the room with the guys, you need to be able to talk their language and…have the credibility of knowing that you went to one of the best schools and did very well.” Titles and credentials can secure a place at the table—but they are not always sufficient for the effective exercise of power.

08'43 Another executive in Kathleen’s study was a banker we’ll call Meghan, who, having led several successful IPOs, was hired for a corporate leadership role at a big-box retailer. “The board wanted someone with my skill set, but many in the company reacted violently, like ‘We don’t know you, and we don’t know why you’re here,’” she told us. “I had to work really, really hard to gain authority.” To her surprise, her new colleagues didn’t seem to care about her IPO credentials. “It wasn’t about the deal anymore. I had to put on an apron and work in the store. To gain authority, I had to learn the business from the ground up.”

09'26 When considering a new position, leaders should think not only about what titles and resources the job confers but also about whether the culture is one in which they can thrive. One newly minted MBA turned down an offer that would have required rotations in multiple cities, choosing instead a small, growing firm based in her hometown, where she understood the values needed for success. That intuitive understanding, she felt, would allow her to cultivate a stronger base of power than would the constant adaptation associated with moving from one unfamiliar city to another. “It was a company with a lot of integrity, and it was headquartered in the city my spouse and I were from,” she recalled. “All the stars were aligned.”

10'15 Power Is Relational

Beyond your personal attributes and the situational factors in your organization, your power is also enabled and constrained by your interactions with others. The relationships and coalitions you forge can be a major source of support, advice, information, and resources; those you overlook or ignore can loom as potential points of resistance.

10'48 The COO of an international manufacturing firm we worked with builds and leverages relationships with plant leaders with an unusual frequency and intensity. “The division heads and sales leaders have my cell phone number, and I have theirs. I can call them anytime,” she told us. “They tell me things I need to know, and I tell them things they need to know—things that will help them or are hot buttons for them.” And she is keenly aware of the value of nurturing relationships over time. “I’m working on a project that requires a change in manufacturing and distribution,” she said. “The marketing element of the initiative is huge. Because I worked closely with the marketing team five years ago, anytime I call them, their response is, ‘Yeah, we can do that.’”

To cultivate and exercise relational power, take the following steps.

Consider who could help you advance your ideas and then map the array of allies, resisters, and others who might affect your efforts. This will help you understand people’s positions and priorities, actual and possible points of resistance, and potential blocking and supporting coalitions. Then ask yourself, What sources of influence can I deploy to engage others? How will I be able to tell whether those efforts are enough?

12'17 Another executive in Kathleen’s study recounted a time when, as a newly promoted manager, she was working on a potentially transformative idea. The local vice president expressed interest in the idea but felt it would be impossible to forge a partnership with a key outside company. Undeterred, the manager focused on expanding her knowledge of that firm. “I never stopped talking to people,” she recalled. “Before hanging up, I would say, ‘Can you give me the name of someone else to talk to?’ I learned everything I could about the company—where its business was, where it was trying to make inroads, what its needs were.” Within a few months this relationship building yielded a connection to the company’s founder, who agreed to give the idea a trial. It proved so successful that the manager ended up leaving the company to found her own firm, built around the new partnership.

13'14 Tara, the CSO who was struggling to implement a unified strategy in her software firm, is another case in point. Assessing her company’s relational landscape, she recognized that shared values were established in the divisions and then traveled to the center, not the reverse. As she was considering how to get her plans on track, a divisional general manager left the firm. Seeing the potential benefits to working side by side with other GMs, Tara asked to lead the division during the search for a permanent head while retaining her role as chief strategy officer. This brought her into the fold in a way she could never have achieved solely as CSO, and she gained the other GMs’ buy-in on a strategy that was ultimately backed by her peers in the C-suite.

A pediatrician at a large New England hospital learned the value of this approach. “Usually I would develop what I thought was a good idea and then worry about getting others to adopt it,” she says. “But nothing would happen: People resisted, either openly or passively. Finally, I began to take time up front—engaging in empathic inquiry and inviting others to co-create a solution with me—and the results have been incredible. By the time we pitched to secure resources for a radically new process for onboarding doctors and nurses, I already had the buy-in of the other key doctors and the heads of nursing. The hospital couldn’t say no.” One of us (Elizabeth) has found in her work with executives and entrepreneurs that this pitfall—putting ideas first and people second—is common. By taking the opposite tack, leaders may discover that they no longer have to rely solely on personal influence tactics.