Are You Power Agile?

A colleague of mine, someone I worked with for many years, had been a consultant who was widely praised for his ability to ask probing questions. He had a reputation for getting to the heart of the matter through his curiosity and inquisitiveness.

Last year he was hired into a Director role at a large international company and in his first performance review, he was told that while he was doing well, the one thing he had to work on was that he was indirect.

He was asking too many questions, which his boss felt were unnecessary, and he needed to be more direct and decisive.

He confided in me that this was really hard for him. He felt inauthentic telling people what to do. He joked that his superpower as an external consultant suddenly became a shortcoming when he changed roles.

It’s no joke, though. It’s fashionable to talk about superpowers these days, but when you think about it, there really is no such thing as a superpower. Just a power that works really well in one context.

But this causes us to get stuck in a binary way of thinking about power (you have it, or you don’t) that we forget that power is contextual, fleeting, and variable.

Power is a lot like a piece of clothing; you wear it, not just for decorum, warmth, or protection, but to fit the occasion. You might love that well-worn flannel shirt you’ve had since high school, but no, you can’t wear it to your sister’s wedding.

You don’t wear your suit and tie to take your kid bowling.

To stretch the metaphor a wee bit, rather than think in terms of superpowers, think in terms of a closet full of different powers. You have to know which one to wear depending on what the situation requires.

Like my colleague, you know that as a Director, just asking probing questions and facilitating an insightful group discussion, isn’t enough. You need another tool, one more consistent with your role of positional power.

We need a kind of “power agility”.

Power agility means:

• You’re not reliant on one context, or one superpower to be effective. Unlike my colleague, whose personal power and insight gained him accolades with his clients but became a hindrance with his team, you have a range of powers to choose from, to suit the situation.
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• You can read the room. You know what’s needed, which power to pull out from your utility belt. You know when it’s time to be quiet and take a back seat, you know when people need you to step up and make a decision, and you know when asking probing questions is the right call.
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• You do what the role requires, not always what your feelings tell you to do. If you’re the boss, it’s up to you to get things started, to make decisions at times, to tell people what to do, even if you feel inauthentic doing so. You know that no matter what you feel, you have to step up and do what the role requires.
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• Finally, you know that power has nothing to do with roles and positions. Power is also insight, a sense of leadership, and the motivation to make things better. Even if you don’t feel ready, even if you get it wrong, or if others are in charge, just being a useful bystander, cheerful assistant, lending a hand is, in fact, an act of power.
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To navigate our roles of power well, we must be able (and willing) to adjust, to be adaptable, to practice power agility, and to remain mindful of what is called for, moment to moment.