True power lies in empowering others to create moments of greatness
I recently had the honor of keynoting a fascinating session on leadership and power at the Power of Women’s Sports Summit. Held in conjunction with the Billie Jean King Cup – the world’s largest annual women’s international team sports competition – it was a daunting assignment. What could I possibly offer to an audience of power players including franchise owners, media superstars, Olympians, and league commissioners?
Power is one of those things that we may think we understand, but rarely think deeply about. Fortunately, others do – like my friend Ron Carucci. He undertook a 10-year longitudinal study with over 2,700 leaders, examining various aspects of power, including its uses and abuses. One of the biggest abuses of power, he concluded, is simply not using it.
Why do people who have power fail to use it? I believe a central reason is that we often simply do not know the power we have. In my superpowers work, one of the insights is that our differentiating strengths – the things that make us invaluable – are often among our biggest blindspots. That’s why we fail to leverage them fully – and why we need others to help us understand our superpowers.
When I reflect on my work, both with C-suite leaders and some of the best students at an institution like Duke University, I discover three common power blindspots. One can be found among some of the most authentic leaders, who fail to understand their positional power. These leaders treat everyone with dignity and respect, as equals.
Yet because they fail to recognize the weight carried by their position, they can speak or act carelessly. A word of encouragement may hold 10 times more weight than they realize – it can change someone’s day. But so can a carelessly worded critique. Authenticity without due attention to one’s positional power can have unintentional negative consequences.
The second common trap is focusing on one’s deficiencies and failing to gain awareness of one’s proficiencies. We tend to discount what comes easily to us, yet those things can be our superpowers. Failing to leverage that type of power may lead to us missing out on distinctive approaches, or failing to find the right team fit, which would enable us to have even greater impact.
The other common power blindspot is not seeing the generative capability of power. It’s easy to default to building power by hoarding it – whether that’s the power of expertise, knowledge, insight, or even networks. Yet the failure to share constrains how far we can scale both our own capabilities and those of our teams. It is a trap rooted in the fear of not being special once our expertise or insight is made public; sharing might diminish our long-term value. But, in my experience, the contrary holds true. Sharing and redistributing the power you hold creates values for others – and makes you invaluable.
These power traps are not entered consciously. Seeing into our blindspots requires the help of others. So the way to become truly, sustainably, powerful is to empower. This is a tenet of great leadership in an era when we truly need humanizing leadership. It means listening and responding, giving others a voice, and generously sharing opportunities. We unlock our own power by unlocking the power of others.
Power is merely a means to an end, never an end in itself. By using power to unlock power within others, we create moments of greatness. And that’s what leadership is really about.
Sanyin Siang is a Pratt School of Engineering professor and leads the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics at Duke University
