The Power of Giving Away Power: a Foreword

The vision is clear: to build a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they are, and end the day fulfilled by the work that they do. The only way to build this world is if we work together. But there’s a problem...

Over the past few decades, our society has overindexed on rugged individualism. Images of the lone cowboy in a Marlboro commercial became an ideal to strive for. We emulated the big personality leaders who presented an image of the “strong man,” the genius in the room. As the “high performing individual” became the standard, company structures transformed to feed the beast. They adapted their incentive and reward systems to recognize individual performance almost exclusively. Ethics, teamwork, and leadership qualities seemed to fall to the wayside when we evaluated people for promotion. Even our business schools became complicit. Over the years they adapted their curricula to serve the market rather than teach leadership as it should be taught. However, if it’s long term results, stability, or innovation we’re hoping to achieve, this model of leadership simply doesn’t work. The unfortunate irony is, the opposite model doesn’t work either. Consensus building, leaderless organizations, tribal leadership, even the much touted “bottom-up” approach all suffer complications in their own ways. The good news is, there is another option. This is where The Power of Giving Away Power comes in.

Matthew Barzun has spent decades figuring out where big ideas come from. Once he learned the concept of giving away power, he applied it to his own career. And it worked. Matthew’s ideas played a significant role in helping CNET grow into a powerhouse media platform. Challenging the traditional way money was raised for political campaigns, Matthew lead the grassroots fundraising platform for Senator Barack Obama that significantly outpaced Hillary Clinton’s efforts with $5 and $10 donations. And as US Ambassador to the UK, Matthew practiced giving away power in a way the ambassadors just didn’t do. And the ideas that were generated as a result were astounding.

I had the opportunity to meet Matthew during the time he was the ambassador in Britain. I was astonished by his thinking. Whenever we would have occasion to talk, I would scramble to find a pen and paper so I could take notes on everything he said. This was why I asked Matthew to write a book for Optimism Press. His ideas, the way he sees the world, can help move us closer to that vision—a world in which we feel inspired, safe, and fulfilled in our lives and our careers.

Be sure to grab your copy of The Power of Giving Away Power.

Give power and inspire on!