#83: Personal power at work

Last Monday I discussed the role of positional power; today I want to focus on personal power.

Personal power relates directly to the willingness of people to follow you. Followers give you personal power, based on the trust and confidence they have in you. They base this on your past experience, your current performance and your ability to influence them. The more your followers believe that their goals are similar to yours, the greater your personal power.

You can increase your personal power by extending your expert power, which is based on your followers' perception of your knowledge, skill and expertise; by extending your information power, which is based on their perception that you have access to information that is valuable to them; and by extending your referent power, which is based on whether they find it attractive to interact with you.

Never forget that you earn personal power from your followers. Abuse it, and they will take it away.


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
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