I think about influence and power on a regular basis.
I was always embarrassed about my job when I worked in Human Resources. If I wasn’t in the middle of some stupid project or compliance issue, I was traveling to a remote part of the country (or world) to lay people off. I had little power and very little influence—but I had a nice paycheck that went to consumer items to distract me from how little meaning I had in my life.
When I left HR, I wanted to write and consult. Over the past three years I’ve discovered that I still don’t have much power. I have influence over a small subset of the HR community, but the change is slow & small. I measure the improvements to the world of HR by a shift in semantics and relationships. I’ve made a little progress, but there is so much more work to do.
I’m in this for the long run, though. My blog has been a vehicle to mainstream news outlets, and my message eeks out slowly to a larger community. I think this blog gives me a platform to change the future of work. I just haven’t figured out the details, yet.
So I have some thoughts on influence and power. I’d like to share them, and I would like to hear your response and your insights.
- I think most people overstate their influence.
- I think power is most effective when you surround yourself with smart and influential people who can advise and guide you.
- There are many people who feel that it’s okay to be influential and are willing to abdicate power, and I think those people are suckers.
It’s nice to be influential, but it’s also easy. It’s harder to be accountable for change. Leaders are the ones who seize the platform and are willing to fail in an attempt to make a difference and change things.
I wonder what you are doing, if anything, to take the reigns and be accountable for something bigger. Or do you prefer to influence in a more subtle way?
{ 23 comments }
I believe your right, most people not only overstate their influence, but also overestimate it. Accountability is lacking all over, not just HR, it’s a shame for sure. However, power, power is a rarer and more dangerous mistress. All power is derived from fear. Even those who wield benevolent power, maintain it by maintaining an unstated fear of those who support them of possibly losing that benevolence.
I personally believe that be we should all be accountable for what we do, to conduct ourselves with self awareness, and when we can stand by our own decisions, we rob others of power over us.
Puf nailed it with the word accountability. In the immortal words of Uncle Ben Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
Influencers are free to campaign for ideas or bitch about problems, but are rarely accountable for actually making things better in the end. It’s all too easy to second guess the decisions of those in power (Presidents, Congress, etc.) because they actually are accountable for specific actions rather then vague ideas.
I disagree that people tend to overestimate their influence. If anything, I see folks devaluing and underestimating it.
As an HR professional, to be successful and add value we need to be able to influence effectively and be accountable for what we are influencing on. You can’t have it both ways.
Influencing is a strong business tool. In the corporate world so many people think a company as if it really exists as an entity with values, morals and judgments. Companies do not have any of these things. Companies are not living, thinking entities. It is only the people within a company that have this unique ability. They, the employees, make a company what it is. They have the ability to influence. To say what is right and what is wrong. To make decisions and be accountable for those decisions.
People who refuse to acknowledge that sit on the sidelines and believe they are victims. They are only victims of their own inability to do what is right and be accountable for their lack of action.
(Sorry for the rant – it has been a long week and it is only Tuesday!)
Wield power where you can, influence where you can’t.
Really interesting thoughts….not that they aren’t normally….ok I’ll stop digging.
You’re all probably aware that on this little island we currently have a hung parliament….with no one party having overall control. And I think this really brings into focus the difference between power and influence but also the absolute inter-relation. Suddenly the smaller parties are influencing the agenda because in order to have true power the larger parties need them…..it has been a really fascinating period and so different to the normal dick swinging approach of politicians.
Personally I have never really sought power. I think it inevitably corrupts people, to quote Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. I would like to think that in my real life (the offline one where I have a name and stuff) that I have managed to influence people to think a little differently about work and about life. To drop a second quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world” and that kkind of sums up the way I try to be.
Power sucks. I used to have a boss that considered whether a candidate was powerful. They were bullies. They got stuff done by making sure that everyone knew they weren’t as valued or as powerful as they were. They believed their titles.
Influence isn’t a bad thing. To be truly influential though, effectively influential you need to be a leader. People who truly deserve what might be considered a position of power (hate the word) are those that influence AND get things done working with and through others.
Leaders right? people who can get others to execute and still respect them.
I consider myself more of an influencer then a welder of power. Power is so very totalitarianistic (I think I just made up a new word?). Power is a necessary evil, we need it but at the same time I despise it. To think that someone has power over me makes me shudder….I prefer to think that I can influence people to do the right thing then to use my “power” to fear them into doing it. When you influence people, you get them to think that they came up with the idea rather then making them do it because you had power over them (power and fear, they can almost be used interchangeably). Like a caged rat, fear can only last for so long until the rat starts to defend itself and bite you.
Semantics are fun. I have the intelligence to know that the bear claw I ate for breakfast this morning wasn’t a good choice. Unfortunately I lacked the wisdom to or willpower to refrain from making that choice.
Some people are powerfull BECAUSE of their influence. Some people are influential because of the power they hold. Cheney was powerful because of the unprecedented influence he held over Dubya. The U.S. is influential (though much less so today than perhaps the recent past) because of the power we had and the potential to exercise that power if our influence was ignored.
The prudent thing for leaders of all sorts is to accumulate both, use both judiciously and appropriately, and to understand that the misapplication of either can result in the loss of both.
Influence. Accountability. I think they go hand in hand, and it’s only in retrospect that we can assign either blame or fame to those who paved the road and pushed their ideals along.
Today’s social media tools allow for a new form of digital courage without any of the responsibility for the resulting outcomes. I personally measure success by what actually happened versus what we wish would happen. The score right now is “wishes” (1000 pts) and “outcomes” (10 pts). We still have a long way to go.
The parallel to influence and accountability? Responsibility and authority. Often people are given responsibility without authority – which leads to epic fail. Most businesses operate as a hierarchy. With that model, there continues to be problems with people creating ‘little kingdoms’ and fighting for control of budget and the almighty headcount.
Never under estimate the power of slow steady progress to attain influence. Behind patience is usually a bell curve. And next thing you know you have ramped up.
Back when I was just out of high school, my younger brother was hanging with a group of friends and he fancied himself the “leader” of the group– of which he wielded a certain amount of power and influence. One day– being frustrated, my brother said to me “I’m surrounded by idiots– stupid fucking idiots!!”, as to which I quickly retorted “Well– that makes you the head idiot, now doesn’t it–” He was never the same since.
Unfortunately— some people take great pleasure in being the head idiot.
@MarkStelzner – “digital courage” brings to mind that we have difference definitions of power and influence; funny how this digital courage actually enables others to overstate the influence of individuals. Once in motion, this overstated influence morphs into a false power to influence…
Question for you Punky, what’s power if no one else is around? Can an individual be powerful if they are a party of one? Is their power less effective as such?
When Thomas Szasz wrote “The Myth of Mental Illness”, he introduced the concept that mental illness isn’t real but a construct developed by doctors that enabled them to treat a person accordingly. Hence, the label became the manner in which people were treated.
The label of “leader” needs to be reconsidered….
Influence is earned. Power is taken and frequently challenged.
Those who influence me (who I choose to listen to) tend to be those who do things/take action, teach, train, mentor, take risks, try new things, share successes and failures.
They tend to have other characteristics like bring/push others forward, share credit, promote others, bring in new people to a group, are willing to step back and let others shine.
I like to watch what people do versus what they say.
I think Social Media tools have allowed folks to be self created “experts” and gurus”. My question to anyone is, “What have you done, what is your record”.
If you want my respect, earn it.
We toss around words like “Power” and “Influence” like punch lines. The truth is that these are mathematical concepts – yep, I hate to say that . . . Josh, the math guy again.
We can subjectively toss around our ideas about what “Power” and “Influence” mean; we can talk U.S Politics versus China Politics; we can further opine about Winston Churchill, MLK, FDR, Stalin, etc. . . .
Influence is about our ability to propagate ‘something’ through a network (a real network, you know, a human one, not an online/’social’ one). Power is something much different – what we should be paying attention to within organizations is Informal Power . . . that’s the juice.
Informal Power is the key to U.S. Foreign Policy . . . it’s also the juice that powers the hidden networks (within companies) that drive how work really gets done.
P.S. Thanks, Laurie, for having the cajones to challenge our Industry’s obsession with “Social” – it’s the ultimate Red Herring. Oh, and by the way, show me a guy who walks into a bar thinking they’re “powerful” and I’ll show you a guy 2 seconds away from getting knocked out and carried out on a gurney. “Power” breaks down outside of bureaucracies and the closed systems described by OrgCharts . . .
knowledge is power
leverage is power
birth rite is power
position can create power
some you can control and some are your cast in life….
you can control knowledge and you can create leverage in a multitude of ways…
Influence is a verb, no more the an action -like leverage -and can be positive or negative (ok enough for the philosphy lecture)….use your influence every day for positive things…help others be better people, workers, and human beings…pay it fwd….
Power is over rated…and this is coming from some one who actually has tremendous power in their company and runs HR…
One more thing, you should never be embarrased about your work…only the stupid things people sometimes require you to act on…I love HR…and we do add value in many ways even if a lot of people think we don’t (who cares what other people think any way!)…life and jobs aren’t perfect and sometimes we have to do things that aren’t so nice…like firing/laying off people, but sometimes we get a chance to do really positive things to (i will leave that to another blog response)…
M
sorry for the lecture, but HR can and does positive things too….
M
@Puf Power is derived from fear? Hm. I need to think about this one. Right now, I can’t think of an example that disproves you. Rats. I’m working on it.
@David I love it when people hate & criticize politicians but refuse to get involved in anything — even at the local level. Frustrates me to no end.
@Michelle I disagree that people tend to overestimate their influence. If anything, I see folks devaluing and underestimating it. I agree with you that some people devalue and underestimate it. I also think they don’t understand how to wield that influence. I think about women of my grandmother’s generation. Consumers, voters, etc., but couldn’t influence or wield power. It took baby boomers to start that movement.
@Yossi Brilliant.
@TheHRD Smart quote at the end and HOLYCRAP David Cameron & Nick Clegg? What an odd couple.
@nelking Power sucks? I dunno. I think power is interesting and can be used in good ways. I like the women who have power at my favorite animal rescue. They’ve moved into trap/spay/neuter/release, which is very controversial for a fostering agency. They’re like, fuck it, we’re gonna try something new even if we fail. That’s power.
@LatinaHR I hear you, but I wonder if power gets a bad rap because we never talk about healthy use of power. When my Mom wouldn’t let me pierce my ears until I was 13? That was power — and she was right that I needed to be 13 because I needed a level of maturity. So I dunno. Power can be healthy.
@Scott The prudent thing for leaders of all sorts is to accumulate both, use both judiciously and appropriately, and to understand that the misapplication of either can result in the loss of both. I think this last paragraph is really insightful. Thank you.
@stelzner Wait, you want to measure success? That’s a whole different blog post.
@Marsha If I never witness another fight for headcount, it will be too soon.
@Lyn Patience is a virtue — for real.
@MattyMat Snap, I’m the head idiot of PRHR.
@steve Question for you Punky, what’s power if no one else is around? Can an individual be powerful if they are a party of one? Is their power less effective as such? I think there’s something to be said of inner power and confidence. I don’t believe in parties of one. Never. Someone is always watching and waiting to jump on the bandwagon.
@Paul What have you done? I love that question. What is your record? Also a good one.
@Josh OF COURSE IT’S MATH. You’re so right, though. There’s a number/value and I see it — both formally and informally. Informal/subtle power and influence is the most impactful. Yes.
@Mark Good lecture. Maybe I’m embarrassed because I sucked so hard in HR. Hm.
Hmmm…. but I wouldn’t define that as power.
Bottomline, it’s semantics. Old school power, from the financial services industry, was your title, how pretty your executive assistant was and how many people you could order around. That needs to go. If you use your influence/power/leadership/cajones to move big ass ideas forward, yeah go for it. No matter what you call it. Action is all that matters.
I think an action a person takes can be powerful, but when it becomes an attribute of the person it sucks.
@nelking maybe this is semantics. it’s my blog. that would make sense, wouldn’t it? I’m all about semantics & low on substance.
Here’s my perspective in some environments I’ve worked in:
A lot of the “higher ups” are disconnected from the people who do the work. They focus on things that are important (or sometimes only perceived as such) but don’t see the day-to-day things that really matter or consume time. Also, when they ask for input from the underlings, it’s not uncommon for the administrators to make their own decisions, disregarding the advice they received. If the administrator hasn’t worked in the area the underlings do, then there is also a loss of respect towards those administrators when that happens.
In defense of the administrators, they sometimes have to answer to people or situations that the underlings never see. Or they have to sell ideas that they know will work to people who strongly resist making a substantial, initial cost, especially if *any* kind of risk is involved.
I’m grateful to say that my job seems pretty balanced. Really, it’s the system we work with that’s messed. Everybody knows that, so we really just try to mitigate our dysfunction.
No Laurie. Not low on substance. You and your cajones/huevos have done quite a bit to advance the modern HR discussion. Let’s change power to cajones/huevos. That which pushes us to bold, positively intended, forward moving action. Whether it ends up being right or wrong, someone stepped up, took the risk and made something happen.
Thanks for the info yesterday. I get where you are going now and find that I am a much better reader of Harvard Business Review than anything with HR in the title. In my work, I expect to go bold or go home. The hiring, development and diversity goals are high profile and my success is directly tied to the bonuses of the operators I support. I prefer power and periodically find myself on the wrong end of a reprimand for offending the sensibilities of some of the managers. Wimps.
Comments on this entry are closed.