Power approaches.

In Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges, researcher Amy Cuddy states, "Power makes us approach. Powerlessness makes us avoid." It is nice when research bears out a truth that feels like common sense. When we feel powerful, we take things on. When we feel powerless, we avoid taking things on. Simple.

So how do we know who truly has the power in an organization? At the personal level, what is truly powering us?

Leadership literature highlights several types of organizational power. The two that stick with me most are positional and charismatic. Positional is hierarchical with power diminishing from C-suite to middle management to front line employees. We can see this in the military and multi-national organizations; it is the sort of thing that holacracy (see Zappos) tries to break. Charismatic power is held within individual members of organizations. Charismatic leaders may not have positional power but they sway their colleagues regardless. In the individual, positional power may be akin to our responsibilities while charismatic power is more like our preferences and habits.

When thinking about making transformational moves, all types of power need to be addressed, appeased, bought-in. Kegan and Lahey, authors of Immunity to Change, write that this immunity stems from competing commitments, things in our narratives conscious or not that we are so committed to hanging in to that it keeps us from changing. Here is a longer description in HBR. In the language of power, these competing commitments are those powers that have yet to be convinced that the change is worth the effort. My desire to enjoy the taste of sweets has not yet been convinced that long-term health benefits are worth the effort - just, you know, as an example.

During personal transformation, this immunity can make us feel powerless as we notice how much as avoid change. Yet we can reframe this as thinking that the competing commitment, which is also ours, is powerful, actively approaching change and rerouting it back to maintenance of the status quo. The power is within us. We need to find where it is exerting pressure and alter the direction. This takes time and patience and self-compassion.

Take away: Transformation requires the buy-in of all the powers that be. Even if positional power buys-in, once they leave their preferred changes may not remain intact if the charismatic powers make it so (intentional Star Trek NG reference). Think Steve Jobs and the changes in Apple.

Action step: Identify the powers that need to buy-in and prepare for the potential of multiple, slow-moving conversations. Positional power is often easy to spot yet in start-ups where the org chart is fluid it may not be so obvious. Engage in formal and informal conversations and listen to the positions and names that repeatedly arise. Find the people who are approaching innovation, who are making things happen however small. Those are the powerful, even if they are not aware of it. Expect little in terms of anyone's commitment to change and maintain the resources to keep moving the needle, however long it takes.