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There are 2 types of power in a company: position power and influence power.
The former is the type of power people tend to think about. Position power is about one’s role in a company. It is an outward facing power that is communicated easily through one’s title—the Director or the Chief Executive Officer for example. These titles inform others of one’s authority based on rank in a company.
Influence power is more easily overlooked. It is not tied to one’s position or role in a company, but rather to one’s relationships with coworkers in that company. Influence power is held by people who, without a fancy title, are able influence the ways others think, and the company culture. Some people with influence power are able to lead their peers while others actually influence people above them. People with influence power often know a lot of secrets. Coworkers tend to share information with them because they’ve spent time building strong relationships with those around them. They often have more contextual information than most—perhaps a sense of the history of a company, or an ability to put all their information together to see a bird’s eye view of what’s going on.
As a leader, it is important to recognize who has influence power in your company. To whom do people listen? Who seems to be able to sway a group’s decision? Who is holding everyone’s secrets? Remember, this has nothing to do with rank. It rests more in relationships and personalities. Once you identify those individuals, keep them close. Observe how they’ve built such a following and how they are able to command such power, regardless of a title or high rank. One can get to the top without having much influence power, but one’s ability to stay at the top and create a genuine following by employees requires a recognition that position power alone does not suffice.
What do you think about position power versus influence power?