Calling someone a “leader” without any actual leadership abilities is never sufficient. In other words, “power has to be in the equation for an individual to be called a leader” People don’t follow leaders without power. But it’s crucial to understand the various sources and boundaries of one’s power in an organizational setting.
Why use power in the workplace?
Use your influence in the workplace for the following reasons:
What are the six types of power?
Social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven identified five different types of power in social situations in a 1959 study. Raven identified the sixth, informational, in 1965. Here are descriptions and illustrations of each of the six categories of social power:
1. Reward
The capacity to reward people for adhering to your requests or instructions is known as reward power. For instance, a manager may be able to give sales representatives who meet quotas raises, promotions, bonuses, or even just simple compliments. These rewards can increase employees incentive to perform.
Control may limit reward power in the workplace. For instance, reward power may be weakened if a manager doesn’t have enough money in the budget for raises or bonuses. Another factor that can reduce the power of rewards is the quantity of rewards. Distributing all of the available incentives and awards may also reduce a manager’s influence.
2. Expert
A person’s knowledge of a particular subject gives them authority in that field. For instance, the sole web developer for a marketing company can influence others to adopt better workflows through their expertise in web development. People with expert power are able to comprehend situations and offer solutions to issues based on their knowledge. When you use decisiveness and confidence in your knowledge to suggest solutions to workplace problems, expert power can help you win the respect of others in the workplace.
3. Legitimate
Legitimate power comes from a role a person plays. A supervisor may have legal authority at work because of the position’s authority. Police chief, president, and chief financial officer are additional positions with legal authority.
If a CEO fires the supervisor, for instance, a loss of title could weaken legitimate power. Another weakness of legitimate power lies in its scope. For instance, a manager at a PR firm can keep an eye on KPIs and use their influence to motivate staff to meet these metrics. However, because legitimate power only grants the supervisor control over employees while they are at work, they may not be able to use their influence to encourage changes in employees’ private lives.
4. Coercive
Coercive power is the capacity to impose penalties on someone who disobeys your commands. Although using coercive power frequently has negative consequences, you can also use it to your advantage. For instance, a manager could threaten to fire staff members who don’t report for work on time if they don’t give a good reason for missing it as a means of coercive power. This can guarantee that workers report sick promptly, preventing staffing issues for the manager.
The capacity of coercive power to serve as a bullying tactic and foster a toxic workplace culture is one of its weaknesses. When workers put in extra effort out of fear of punishment rather than for a more motivating reason, like the possibility of receiving a reward, this can increase turnover and lower employee satisfaction.
5. Referent
Referent power is the capacity to persuade others based on your appeal or personality. Role models and those who set an example use referent power to influence others to adopt new behaviors or accomplish their objectives, for instance.
Referent power carries responsibility in addition to the potential for positive influence on others. For instance, being liked doesn’t always imply that a person is trustworthy. Those who opt to exercise referent power can concentrate on enhancing and upholding their integrity to prevent abusing their influence.
6. Informational
The capacity to withhold or reveal significant information is known as informational power. In contrast to the other five types of power, this one derives its power directly from the situation. For instance, once you reveal personal information, the power is lost.
The office manager at a sales office, for instance, would have informational power if they were present during a conference call in which the company’s corporate headquarters announced office downsizing because they have knowledge that the rest of the sales team would find valuable. If the office manager informs the sales team about the layoffs, they forfeit their informational advantage.
How to use power in a positive manner
Here are some actions you can take to use power effectively at work:
1. Evaluate your situation
In order to effectively use power in a professional setting, you must first assess the following aspects of your current working situation:
2. Understand the limits of your power
Understanding your power’s limitations is the next step to effectively using it at work now that you are aware of the type and amount of power you have. Understanding your power’s limitations can help you make the best use of your influence. You can list the various powers you possess and specify factors or outcomes that would curtail those powers.
For instance, a senior employee of a sales company who has expert and referent power but no legitimate power may have less influence overall.
3. Set a goal
Setting a goal to accomplish with your influence is the next step in effectively using power in the workplace. For instance, if the manager of the sales company emphasizes increasing sales volume over the upcoming quarter during a weekly meeting, the senior sales representative could set a goal to use their power as a referent and expert to motivate the other members of the sales team to achieve this goal.
4. Identify strategies
Once you’ve decided on a goal, you can plan a series of tactics for utilizing your strength to reach that goal. This step can assist you in avoiding adding negativity to the process by ensuring that each of your influence strategies is constructive. The senior salesperson can use the following techniques to persuade other members of the sales team to increase volume of sales:
5. Evaluate outcomes
Finally, you can evaluate the results of your power-related actions at work. If your objectives were attained, you could assess what influence you had on the outcome. Alternatively, if your efforts were unsuccessful, consider how you might behave differently in the future. You can make sure you continue to use your power in the workplace as a positive force by evaluating the results of using it. It can also assist you in enhancing your own practices at work so that you don’t abuse your power in the future. Following this procedure will help you develop as a leader and positively influence others at work.
The 6 Types of Power You Need to Know About
FAQ
What are the 6 source of power?
Legitimate, referent, expert, reward, coercive, and informational power are the six sources of power.
What are the 7 types of powers?
- Legitimate Power. When someone is in a position of authority, they can exert control over others.
- Coercive Power. There is no specific time of day that Lipkin advises us to use it.
- Expert Power. …
- Informational Power. …
- Power of Reward. …
- Connection Power. …
- Referent Power.
What are the six 6 bases of social power within reference groups?
As previously stated, social communication research now consistently examines six key concepts of power strategies. Coercive, Reward, Legitimate, Referent, Expert, and Informational are the terms used to describe them.
