Power Patterns

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

This scene is more than the typical walk through the woods on a winters eve. Take a moment to discern the patterns in the pines. The inherent structure of the trees, the boughs, the needles remain intact - and visible - despite the unexpected screen of snow. The foundations of leadership are much the same... core competencies are not easily hidden. Who we are speaks louder than our words.

Is Power An Illusion?

What is it about the combination of power and leadership that incites an instant response right from gut level? This morning I posted a quick Twitter question and within minutes received pitches from managers and workers, entrepreneurs and students about their experiences with powerful leaders. Some used, let’s say, strong language.

My thinking about the illusion of power was inspired by a research paper released this week by the Stanford Graduate School of Business under the title: “Illusory Control: A Generative Force Behind Power’s Far-Reaching Effects”. The experiments that were conducted are a fascinating read about what motivates people to take action.

The bottom line is that acquiring a position of power – even through role play – motivates people to action. When participants viewed themselves as more prominent and more influential in a situation, they were inspired to take more risks and tackle goals with added confidence.



“Taking on a formal position of power – be it managerial, political or cultural – gives people the illusion they have more control over their organization and their world.”

The study goes on to say: “In the best-case scenarios, this can lead to achieving unimaginable accomplishments. In the worst, it can lead to poor decision making and devastating losses.”

In my own limited Twitter experiment, I asked for the three most important “competencies” of powerful leaders. Core competencies are the skills, tasks, behaviors and attitudes required to do the job. Competence can be measured quite easily by observing what someone says they will do versus what they actually do, resulting in a match/gap ratio. The responses from 99 different sources (on January 5, 2009) included these top 7 competencies:

- Trust
- Compassion and empathy
- Passion

- Ego – let it GO
- Listen to what your people say
- Keeping secrets makes leaders stink
- Don’t feed us crap. Tell us what is going on

My totally subjective analysis? The illusion of power plays an important role in organizations. For example, let’s look at “trust” with the lens of “Ego-less-ness”, or “listening to what employees are saying”, or “Keeping secrets”, or “Telling people what is going on”. How does the leader walk the talk when trust is the issue? How does trust get turned around?

The Stanford study concludes that “An illusion of power and control may lead to its own demise”.



What I’m hearing from the global ranks, is that leaders need to be constantly on the alert for their own illusions of grandeur, their perceptions of their position within their organizations, and what is not said. I would be interested in future research to study the effects of the illusion of power over time and whether they are moderated as the leader builds experience.



Any thoughts? Please comment!

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Maggie Chicoine is a professional level member of the Professional Writers’ Association of Canada, and the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. Her column, The Tuesday File, appears weekly in LakeSuperiorNews.com. Northern Ontario Business also features her column: Just Do This, Straight Talk for Entrepreneurs.

Reach her at 1 800 587 1767 or maggiechicoine@gmail.com or twitter “Ideasculptor”.

The full PDF of the Stanford Graduate School of Business study is located at https://gsbapps.stanford.edu/researchpapers/library/RP2009.pdf . Authors: Nathanael J. Fast, Debroah, H. Gruenfeld, Niro Sivanathan, and Adam D. Galinsky,”