What Power Requires of Us

The author, a leadership scholar, executive advisor, and Professor Emerita, notes that going beyond thinking of leaders gaining power and achieving results, “the more important challenge is how that power is experienced by the people who live with its effects.” Power is not neutral, she asserts, and provides examples to learn from. There is importance in “making impact visible.” To this end, she writes:“Making impact visible requires deliberate attention. It means asking how a decision will be carried out in practice.” A related “obligation in the use of power is to preserve agency – the ability of people to exercise choice.” The use of authority in everyday practice is stressed, in terms of leadership within conversations, constraints, inputs, and adjustments. The best leaders “seek results in ways that strengthen rather than diminish the people whose efforts make those results possible.”