How Leaders Use Power To Drive Change

Last April, Larry Fink was quoted in BusinessWeek saying, “I don’t identify as powerful.” Now that’s provocative coming from the CEO of BlackRock, the biggest asset management firm on the planet, and #34 on Forbes Most Powerful People list.

Over nearly 30 years as a business school professor and dean, I have interviewed literally hundreds of CEOs and C-suite leaders. I can’t tell you how often when I ask them about power, they deftly dodge the question or change the subject. It’s one of those interesting juxtapositions in life where those who truly have power deny it, while others who don’t have it can’t stop talking about it.

Perhaps even more germane is not who “admits” to having power, but observing how people who have it use it. When you think about power, it’s important to think about why it matters in organizations and what a good leader’s motivation is when he or she uses it.

Best use of power is to drive change

If you have power, the most productive use is not to assert dominance or control, which can erode team spirit and even culture over time. The most productive use is to drive needed organizational change. That means using your power to make things happen that wouldn’t otherwise happen without you. Because if things are going the way you believe they should, there’s no need to intervene. It’s only when things go off-course that effective leaders bring out their “edge.”

That means that if you observe your boss’s power, it’s probably because he/she is trying to modify some behavior – be it a person challenging him/her in a meeting or a business unit heading in the wrong direction. Sometimes power can be experienced as a gentle redirect; other times it can be felt as a very pointed jab.

Three power moves for one-on-one course correction

What fascinates me is how leaders use their power across different settings: with individuals, in groups and in organizations. Consider the choices a leader has with an individual when seeking to change behavior and performance.

1. The off-line coaching conversation. As we all know, if you want to redirect someone’s actions or plans, it’s best to start one-on-one, in a private venue. That setting allows the team member to save face publicly with peers and allows for a learning dialogue to occur. It doesn’t have to be a big deal – artful leaders often start with a question, concern or thought.

The leader’s job is to learn how to conduct these conversations well – with a moderated tone, using only the number of words required to make the point; allowing for silence, if needed, so the team member can think and ask questions about what he/she is hearing.

In the best delivery, the team member can sense that he has your support. This conversation doesn’t jeopardize that. This is all about coaching to improve the game, not criticizing to belittle or berate. Doing this well, especially early in one’s development as a leader, requires preparing in advance, thinking deeply about what the feedback actually is and how best to characterize it, and to give specific examples and concrete alternatives to show how key situations might have progressed differently.

Conversely, the team member’s job is to receive the feedback gracefully – to listen carefully, not take it personally, but constructively; to ask questions, to make sure he/she understands the direction. While these coaching conversations may not be the most comfortable, it’s always better to hear the feedback than not. And it’s a universal truth: no one ever developed into a great leader receiving only praise.

2. The public redirect. That said, there are times in group settings, when an individual goes off-course (perhaps repeatedly in a single meeting despite a private coaching conversation or two). When that happens, the leader may feel the need to correct more publicly to get the point across. To do that, a seasoned leader may start with a gentle signal, such as a reframing question, inquiring about some stated facts or asking the team member to offer a more detailed explanation of what he or she is thinking.

The astute employee picks up the cue and self-corrects or perhaps goes silent for a few minutes, in order to reflect. This then allows the whole team to move in the desired direction in a natural and calmly energizing way.

The leader’s job in these situations to develop a light touch, staying calm and measured. The goal here is to master the art of the probing question as an unobtrusive means of individual and team correction.

3. The rebuke or sideswipe. The coaching conversation and the redirect exemplify the more delicate uses of power. They are not the ones where you necessarily see or feel a leader’s “edge” – especially if the leader has strong EQ and is a seasoned people coach.

But for the individual who doesn’t take the hint, power may come in the form of public and pointed correction or critique. When a rebuke happens, the leader may cut off the speaker, publicly disagree with what is being said or challenge the speaker on his/her reasoning or logic. This type of action unsettles the meeting and creates a more charged tone. But it serves its purpose if the direction of a conversation or project needs to be reestablished or bad behavior stopped.

On the rare occasions when an individual proves particularly obtuse or obstinate, the leader may take control of the agenda even more forcefully, with language that takes the individual “off-line” verbally, even reputationally. This public “sideswipe” can have negative repercussions – for the individual and sometimes the surrounding relationships as well - so it should be used selectively. But, when used appropriately, the sideswipe makes the point, both to the individual who is affected and as a cautionary tale of what not to do for onlookers, that the leader means business.

Developing and deploying the full spectrum of power moves

The best leaders have the full spectrum of power moves at their disposal in order to make the right things happen. Each serves its purpose and the ease with which it is enacted often depends on the leader’s interpersonal capabilities, experience and situational assessment. Big challenges and big personalities often evoke edgier displays, but the strongest leaders learn how to execute all of these moves – and more.

Your job as a subordinate is to learn how to hear and read the moves. Your job as a leader is to master the moves themselves. That mastery takes measured observation and assessment to figure out what is needed when. It takes practice as you learn to finesse your execution over time, and it takes on-going self-reflection as you continually finetune your own game and, with that, your team’s and your organization’s performance.

This article originally appeared in Forbes. Sally Blount is Dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.