Power and Leadership

A Duo of Duality and Paradox!

Leadership! Being one of the “Brian’s” of this world I have watched (and love) the movie The Life of Brian. When I hear the word leadership my comedic side recalls a particular scene. Brian is fleeing a crowd of would-be followers; he is cornered in a hole where he declares “I am not the Messiah”. From the crowd Arthur, played by John Cleese, responds “I say you are Lord, and I should know. I’ve followed a few.” I particularly enjoy the contradiction of the certainty of Arthur justified through his past failures to spot the Messiah. Equally, I am sure we know what leadership is, as we have seen it many times through our lives.

Power! “Knowledge is power.” We hear this quoted frequently in organisations when discussing power and leadership. Having and possessing the knowledge is to hold power (over and/or from others!) We quote Sir Francis Bacon as a revered oracle, yet this is a misquote that reverses the intent of the original correct quotation. The corrected version is “knowledge itself is power” with the intent of conveying they idea that having and sharing knowledge is the cornerstone of influence and therefore power.

So, What is Power and Leadership? Etymology

Leadership (n):

Leader (n): Old English lædere “one who leads, one first or most prominent,” agent noun from Lædan “to guide, conduct.”

-ship: word-forming element meaning “quality, condition; act, power, skill; office, position; relation between,” from Proto-Germanic *-skepi, from *skap- “to create, ordain, appoint.”

Power (n): c. 1300, “ability; ability to act or do; strength, vigour, might,” especially in battle; “efficacy; control, mastery, lordship, dominion, ability or right to command or control; legal power or authority; authorization; military force, an army.”

Power (physics): power is the amount of energy transferred or converted per unit time.

Conventional worldview

Through the above definitions the first thing that strikes me is the incongruency of their description. Leader is framed in a nurturing manner; they lead, guide from the front – a protecting role perhaps. This is akin to the Japanese word sensei – “one who comes before.” Turning this into leadership and the natural link to power brings a shift to a masculine framing: position, act, ordain, strength, might, dominion.

This link between power and leadership is the prevalent practice observed, encouraged, and taught in leadership environments across the world and industrial sectors. In fact, my use of the phrase ‘Leadership environments’ is also leaning on this worldview! Let’s have a think about some specifics.

Leadership is used synonymously with hierarchical position within an organization. We promote and recruit into those ‘senior’ positions through multiple criteria with a common aspect being a ‘technical expertise’, an ability to have the answers or know the way to run department/company based on experience. This is not to say we should ignore such experience; I am highlighting the implied expectation that is imposed on those senior leadership roles: the leader should know, operate without ambiguity to ‘be on top of things.’ The shadow side of this is that the dominant definition of leadership and power come to light (if that’s not mixing my metaphors!) You also hear this form of leadership and power being linked to the mis-quote of Sir Francis Bacon. This flavour of leadership wields power to help manage their own anxieties; because the world is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous and no one can be on top of such an environment no matter what experience and/or capabilities they possess.

From an evolutionary perspective this is to be expected. Our survival instincts, encoded within our lizard brains, operate to avoid uncertainty. Uncertainty is seen as a risk to survival and thus we have reactive behaviours that kick in (by-passing the cerebral cortex) such as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. The idea of being in control makes us feel secure and safe. For leadership, and management in general, this is promoted through methods and approaches taught in mainstream universities and business schools. Taylorism being part of this way of thinking and being for leadership. There are several solid aspects within the Scientific Management principles (such as allowing people to work at the highest grade of their capability and be rewarded for success.) However, it can be argued that Taylor promoted an expected domineering management/leadership style: his personal views being that organizations should operate through enforced adoption of standards, which is the duty of management alone.

A shifting perspective

These are not the only ways to lead and hold power. There are many methodologies that promote different styles of servant leadership, and distributed leadership/power through self-organised team structures e.g. Lean and Agile ways of working/being. Despite the ideas have been around for many years they have not been able to overcome the mainstream approaches. I have a hypothesis that you are more likely to see these practices (the dominant behavioural leadership approach!) in start-ups or organisations that disrupt the trend within their sector. Perhaps there is a link to innovation, which at its heart is an exploration of the ‘unknown’ – an acceptance that their business ecosystem is not deterministic or controllable.

These supportive leadership approaches are more aligned with the colloquial phrases used to describe ‘good leaders.’ Leaders that listen, support, promote others, lead from the back, encourage, develop people, maximise team capabilities … a healthy culture. Phrases that as you read them you will no doubt reflect through your own career journeys at be able to pick out those leaders you have worked with or for.

I want/need to know more …

I have indicated a direction (that you have previously heard about) for a different way to think and be with respect to leadership and power; a direction that is linked to healthy business growth and performance. Through my own journey I bumped into these ideas many years ago and was thirsty to know how to apply and scale these ideas through organisations and sectors. Alas, there was no Haynes manual readily available – and why would there be acknowledging and appreciating the implication of operating in a VUCA world means there is no cookie-cutter solution. Through the years I have gathered piecewise contextual examples of the how to and how not to.

Musings on Leadership and Power Ruled by Secrecy

In the first part of this two-part article, I opened the window on the nature of the predominant leadership style used and promoted in many organizations. I also mentioned that we are operating in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) and that this inherent complex world requires a different kind of thinking and behaving for organizations to thrive and grow.

The predominant leadership style would have us believe that to address such a VUCA environment leaders should create stability, simplify the understanding of the structures and operating model/dynamics, and decisions, build certainty into outcomes by predicting and controlling the path. It is in this stance that we reveal the sandy foundations; the strict control things approach masking the secret that these types of leaders want to hide. They want to hide, through this machismo, their inherent anxiety driven by the unconscious knowledge that they are not on top of things and cannot be on top of things – the image of control is a fallacy and thus organisations with such leadership behaviours are ruled by secrecy: the complexity of a VUCA world is ruled by other laws.

The 2nd Law

“All natural and technological processes, Proceed in such a way that the availability, Of the remaining energy decreases, In all energy exchanges, if no energy, Enters or leaves an isolated system. The entropy of that system increases, Energy continuously flows from being, Concentrated to becoming dispersed, Spread out, wasted and useless.” Muse, The 2nd Law: Unsustainable.

The latent physicist geek within finds the 2nd Law of thermodynamics useful when it comes to thinking about the nature of organizational dynamics; entropy is ever increasing without energy being put into the system to overcome the evolving disorder, and complexity. Our window of thinking on the dynamics of complex systems needs to be widened: dynamic not stable, interdependent not independent, uncertain not certain, patterned not controllable, emergent not predictable, nuanced not either/or.

In the context of leadership and power, styles of leadership and the wielding of its power influence the response of the system. Our awareness of the styles and options available provide more flexibility in how we interact with the complex organizational system that we are an integral part of.

A different style of thinking and behaving that embraces the facets of a complex system needs to infect us at a cerebral level.

Thought Contagion

I previously mentioned other approaches and models to leadership and power (Lean, Agile, Growth mindset to name a few) These look beyond the core idea of leadership being founded in ability to control and enforced control through hierarchical position. They indicate that leadership and power has more (and does) have many more options open to everyone in an organization. However, the how to access, utilise, and scale such ideas is often ephemeral or left as ‘an exercise for the interested reader!’

I find a helpful way to think about the spectrum of leadership styles. This has two primary dimensions of respect for people and energy (consumed by that style). There are four broadbrush categories for leadership; the predominant conventional hierarchical styles being on the left of the figure (low respect for people) They are characterised through their sources of power (position, reward, and coercion). The options on the right-hand side access a wider set of power sources that move beyond leading from hierarchical positions. Leading and influencing from anywhere within your organization with leadership and followership becoming a quantum superposition throughout. Those alternative sources of power being empathy, passion, knowledge, grounded, self-control, nonlinear communications, and contextual systems thinking.

Accessing and applying these powers in varying degrees based on contextual settings helps generate an understanding of how they can influence (so long as we look for and notice their impacts). Knowledge and empathy are good combinations that underpin critical thinking and innovation. Passion, knowledge (sharing), and being grounded pay dividends in achieving goals and innovation for an organization’s future. Self-control works well across all aspects of being in an organization and the lived experience of a complex system.

Understanding and utilising these power sources requires effort (energy!) as well as guidance to explore the multitude of ways to adopt them.

Explorers

A useful start point on an exploration is to know where you are starting from. From there you can shine light on the landscape ahead to see possible paths, and particularly the shadows. Holding up a mirror to your organization (and you) is akin to Plato’s ‘allegory of the cave’; and the growing awareness of options beyond the familiar can be significant.

It also useful to be aware that your destination and path there will be changing as you explore. I have walked these types of paths multiple times. That is not to imply I know the outcome or precise path; I know the paths I have taken and taken with clients. There is no one path and even my experience has not exhausted the numerous paths that could be taken.

In exploring and journeying along the paths it is wise to have a guide with contextual experience to help adapt and flex: your landscape is always changing from both your learning journey and the changing VUCA environment.

Knights of Cydonia

At Active Thinking, we hold equity in a wide set of knowledge and experiences. If I have whetted your appetite to know more or if you are already on (or starting) such a journey, then drop a line. Come ride with me through the veins of history … your future history!