Colin Gautrey

Leveraging Greater Power

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Mustering power in complex environments is the essence of Influential Leadership and the successful implementation of political campaigns (which were covered in the last article, Political Campaign Planning). Power needs to be a serious consideration at the strategic planning stage. A strategy, on its own, no matter how good it is, will fail unless it is backed with sufficient power to overcome the inevitable resistance and opposition. Earlier in this series, you were encouraged to identify powerful stakeholders without considering what makes people powerful. This article will fill that gap and develop your ability to quantify what makes people powerful within your organisation. Stating the obvious, in order to leverage more power, you have to do more with what you have got, you have to increase your power and/or you have to get powerful people to lend their power to your cause. Here is a summary (taken from Influential Leadership) of what can make Read More

How to Develop Your Personal Power

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Personal power provides you with a short cut to influence without the need to rely upon the use of political tactics. If you have sufficient power, people will do what you need them to do without you having to try too hard. Put another way, personal power is about gaining more control over what happens in your life — it enables you to be able to decide what you want to have happen in a particular situation. It doesn't mean that you always get your way, or that you should always get your way. Instead, it is increasing the potential that you have to influence things in a way that is convenient to you. You should also bear in mind that power is not necessarily an ugly concept. Two people can have identical power and use it differently depending on their morals and agenda, and it is the ethical stance which makes the use of power good or bad. Using your personal power to help others, provide greater value to your customers and colleagues and make the world a better place is certainly an activity to be encouraged! This guide brings together the key resources in the blog Read More

Exercise: Developing Your Personal Power

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In this exercise, you will be combining the previous exercises on what power you already have with the work you did to identify the power you need in order to influence the group or groups you have decided to focus on. These are simple ideas which can help you to develop steady. There are few quick fixes when it comes to building personal power. Below you will see some fairly straightforward questions together with a list of the different sources of power. Behind each link you will find a comprehensive set of indicators and also lots of tips and ideas on the simple things you can do to develop more of that source of power. Read More

Exercise: What Power Do You Need?

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For this exercise on developing your power, take a piece of paper and create the table below with the columns shown. As you complete the exercise, note down what comes to mind. One of the reasons why this is useful is that, as you go about your week, more ideas will come to mind. Then when you review your exercise at a later date, you can continue to build a greater understanding of the group you wish to influence. Read More

Exercise: What Personal Power Do You Have?

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This exercise is designed to get you thinking about the amount of personal power you currently have. By focusing your attention here, you will begin to notice more things which make you powerful. It is common for people to be unaware of the things they have (or do) which influence others. If you can do this with a friend or colleague, so much Read More

Personal Power Word Examples

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To stimulate your thinking about power, and what personal power you and others have, I like to use these words which are all related to how people influence. Some you will like, others you will hate. It is less about your personal taste and more about the effect these examples of power have on people, which you need to take notice of. Naturally, as you do the various exercises, you would be well advised to focus on building positive power because the use of negative power can have long-lasting and damaging effects on your career — and your health! Read More

Building Personal Power

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In another article, we explained the different components of personal power — the assets you own and the skills that you have. It is important to remember the point about the assets being the short cut to influence because of the time benefit you can achieve. For instance, imagine that one of your significant skills is your ability to be able to persuade people to your way of thinking. You may be very good at this; however, it still takes time to persuade people. Far easier would be the situation when the person who you want to influence figures out for themselves what you Read More

Are You Wasting Your Time When You Try to Influence?

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I’d put money on it. One of the key reasons why I think this is, is that we seem to be programmed to influence in the way we like to be influenced ― about half of this comes down to what we think makes us powerful. Time for a quick recap on power… Power is the capacity to influence. Influence is an outcome ― people doing, thinking or feeling differently. This capacity can comprise of:
  • Assets (money, position, knowledge, etc.).
  • Skills (communication, persuasion, problem solving, etc.).
  • Tactics (rational argument, inspirational appeals, force, etc.).
For a more detailed explanation, take a look at The Components of Power. Now, just take a moment to consider what assets, skills and tactics make you powerful. If you have previously done our Personal Power Profile, perhaps this is a good time to dig it out Read More

How to Develop Political Courage

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One of the downsides of having great political instincts and insight is that it increases the need to make political decisions. Once you have worked out what agendas are being hidden and discovered people’s strategies, tactics and games, what are you going to do about it? How are you going to respond? Your next step is likely to make you a political mover — someone who is an actor in the situation rather than just an observer, bystander or pawn in the game. From here on, you Read More

Are You Powerful Enough?

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Mention this five-letter word — power — and there is often a deep emotional reaction. If so, it is usually negative. In the absence of a strong reaction, most people are neutral or simply curious — rarely are they enthusiastic. The reaction depends on the individual's experience and, with negative reactions, their battle scars. Those who have been on the unfortunate end of abusive power tend to shun the very idea of acquiring power. Which is a shame. Those who have seen all the good that can arise because of power are naturally curious and open to explore some more. They will stop short of the vigorous pursuit of power because that is probably not something they want to be caught doing — a little socially unacceptable perhaps?

Power is the capability to get people to act, think or feel differently.

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