Original subtitles

Hello, my name is Kate Favreau, and today I'm going to talk about positional

versus personal power.

So one of the things that the basis of social power by French and Raven kind of

noted was that all power, no matter what type, depends on the perception of the

recipient of that behavior. So power really comes in all different forms, but

depends on what the recipient is perceiving is happening.

So let's now talk about positional power.

So some of this language comes kind of directly from the slides, but it's also

related to those kind of subtypes of power as well.

So a title or role is obviously aligned to legitimate power, meaning it could be

the CEO or the project manager.

As the basis of social power told us, these kind of depend on cultural, social

structure, and legitimizing agent for an organization. Obviously, that could be

the rest of the organization believes that this person, the CEO, has an

on the rest of the company.

The other thing when we're talking about reward power is certainly positional

power can leverage those rewards, but as the basis of social power talked about,

it kind of depends on the perceived strength of it into whether it's

not. If a person believes that the reward is really, really worth it, then

positional power might come into play.

If they don't, then if they think that the strength of that reward is pretty

low, that reward power might not make a lot of sense based on that perception.

One thing to also think about is this could be temporary.

So the project manager could be just for one project. That means they're only in

a position of power for that one thing. But maybe in another part of the

organization, they have no positional power.

You also might assume, or we might all assume based on those roles and social

structures, that expert power goes with positional power, but that's not always

the case. The CEO isn't always the expert in what's going on. They may just

the ability to direct or give orders. So that expert power doesn't always go

with positional power.

And then this connection power could come into play, especially if maybe it's

whole bunch of senior vice presidents who are all connecting and understanding

that what they say can then be powerful.

to the whole organization.

And maybe if the senior vice president that's working on a project with me is

able to go to the executive team and kind of exert that connection power to

better resources for the team or something like that, then those

into play.

When we start to talk about personal power, we really talk about this expert

power, this referent power, and this informational power, right? So whether

that experience, and when we talk about experience, that's versus the absolute

standard of the rest of the group. If everybody in the group all has the same

amount of experience with the activity, then the expert power goes away. So

really it's thinking about how is this person different than the standard by

rest of the group.

This trusted relationship also becomes a kind of referent power.

that is trust and admiration based on who the rest of the people know this

person to be.

And then has information, right? If you know something about someone's personal

life that you can help them, or if you know something more about the certain

aspect of the project, then that information power really comes into play

this personal power.

Once again, all of this is based on perception of teammates, more so earned

given, right? Personal power comes with all of this experience, information, and

trust, which is really hard to just hand to someone or put them in a place of

positional power.

And it's a little bit more stable because it's harder to take away, right?

is really about who that person is, how they have grown, how they have built

their careers and things like that. So it's a little bit harder to just say,

nope, you're no longer in that role because whether they go to somewhere

whether they do something else, everyone still has that kind of perception of

trust or experience or information that goes along with that.

So when we talk about the power utility and leading project, I use Adriana

Girdler's five leadership skills for project management.

The first one is share the vision, right? This typically comes more in

positional power.

Once again, do the perceived role of that position, right? If you have the

person in position of power saying, here's our vision and here's what's

forward, that can typically be more aligned in that area. Certainly can come

into play with personal power, but really, to me, it seems like it's more

position. power knowing how to delegate so this can be great if you're in

personal power but really when it comes to positional power that's where others

in the organization based on that cultural norm of that social standing

understand that this person can tell me how to change my priorities or what to

focus on whereas if it's just personal power that becomes a little different

Being a problem solver. So this sometimes may fall to those who have

power if, once again, those positional power holders don't have the expert

power.

Certainly the positional power can be the expert, and so they can really help

solve the problem.

Or maybe the problem isn't having to do with expert power. It's having to do

with prioritizing time or something like that. So being a problem solver can

kind of go into the different places here.

Staying calm and collective.

Once again, if somebody in power for the project or for the organization doesn't

do this, it does make it harder for others to exhibit it. It adds urgency.

adds stress. It adds all of those different things.

Certainly, if the positional power holders do exercise this, then those

downstream may have better ability to kind of work within that.

And then team building. This falls to both positional and personal power

You know, all of those different elements for a good team are needed for

personal and professional power or positional power.

So three ways that I kind of pulled out to improve personal power is to show up

for others. This goes back to that kind of referent power of being a good

teammate, getting trusted, listening, helping when possible. If you have that

expertise or if you have that informational power, how can you kind of

up for others when maybe they don't and be able to kind of build that trust.

Being accountable and meeting deadlines and doing what you say you'll do. Once

again, this is just another way to build trust to show that maybe you have that.

informational or expert power if you're able to do these things that you said

you would do.

But if you're not, this is number three, right? Know your stuff. So do that

research. Become the expert if you can. Have the information you need.

Continue to grow and be able to pay attention and know what works and

you can build that referent power to observe and evolve and help the team

So that's my presentation.

Thank you.