Power: An Exploration Into The Invisible
Have you ever stopped to think about the nature of power and how it influences your life? In this episode, I delve into the intricate realm of power and its role in shaping our lives. From personal relationships to political systems, power is an invisible force that permeates every aspect of society. Join me as we uncover the complexities of power, examining its underuse, overuse, and the often overlooked nuances that come with it.
Get comfortable and tune in as I discuss how power is morally neutral, debunking common misconceptions and shedding light on its true nature. I’ll highlight the importance of finding a power balance, and how to recognize different types of power and their limitations. But it’s not all about the pitfalls of power. I’ll also take a closer look at how individuals can harness their personal power to become change agents, forging new paths and envisioning possibilities beyond the status quo, and unravel the secret superpower of personal power and its transformative potential in our lives.
And as with everything I share on the podcast, this is what I believe based on what I’ve read and researched. But please don’t take my word for it. Keep what sticks, discard the rest and for goodness sakes, go out and test drive it!
What You’ll Learn In Today’s Episode:
Some of the different types of power.
The 5 rules of power.
What it means to have low rank and how to manage it.
What the motives are for over or underusing power.
How to use your power for the greater good.
What Was Mentioned:
Power: A User’s Guide by Julie Diamond
Ideas Worth Sharing:
“Power is always at play in all situations whether we can see it or not.” – Christina Sestan
“What you may not realize is that an underuse of power is every bit as destructive as overuse, if not more so.” – Christina Sestan
“Understanding the topic of power more deeply allows for a more nuanced exploration that might turn up types of power we didn’t even know we had. We also start noticing the limits of other people’s power and the whole thing becomes a bit more grey.” – Christina Sestan
“The thing about low rank is that we always feel it.” – Christina Sestan
“Power is, more often than not, invisible to those who have it.” – Christina Sestan
“I like to think of role conflict as ‘keeping it real’.” – Christina Sestan
“But the underuse of power can be just as destructive, though it is far more difficult to spot.” – Christina Sestan
“The thing to remember is that the only one who is confused about your positional power is you.” – Christina Sestan
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Speaker 1 0:01
Hey, it's Christina. Thanks for joining us. And welcome to The Squeeze. Remember, power is a complex game. It's a ubiquitous force in our lives, present in every aspect of society, from politics to personal relationship and Many years ago, I was working inside a large organization, and I had this experience that really helped me understand the mutable nature of power. I was down at the food court, I was waiting in the Starbucks lineup, and I glanced up from my phone, all of a sudden, and I noticed the CEO of the organization where I worked. He was in the lineup, a few people ahead of me. Now, I didn't know him personally, and I don't know that I'd ever actually seen him outside of the usual corporate setting upstairs, except perhaps when he was standing in front of the media and camera crews in the large atrium at the base of the office tower, so seeing him at Starbucks, it was kind of like seeing a cat at the beach, like it's not unheard of, but you can't help doing a few double takes. So I was standing there, and I found myself reflecting on his role and how much responsibility he had. He was the head of an organization with 26,000 people in it, so he was a big cheese, no question, and as such he garnered a lot of respect, and dare I say deference. You know what I mean, it's that kind of bowing and scraping that we do around people in positions of power or celebrity. I'd seen how people would change when they spoke to him, becoming a little more focused, animated, interested, I'd seen senior leaders jockey for his attention around the podium during a conference, and on more than one occasion, I'd seen people take his casual remarks pretty seriously, going so far as to start plotting a new organizational initiative from them. I found the behavior perplexing. It was frustrating, it was silly. I hadn't been working for the organization for a long period of time at this point, and I didn't have much skin in the game, and probably that made it easy to hold it all a little more objectively, which I suppose is why the whole thing was so easily illuminated there in the Starbucks lineup. In spite of all his clout upstairs, here he was. Well, just an ordinary guy in a brown suit, like forgettable. Even on the outside of his usual domain of power, he had to wait in line, just like the rest of us. He had to interact with a rather bored-looking barista, just like the rest of us. And I wondered, did he feel the difference? Did he notice that his power hadn't come downstairs with him? And then a few months later, I had this opportunity that helped me better understand and kind of codify what I'd seen in the Starbucks lineup that day. I was in Portland, and I was training to certify in this new assessment tool. It was a leadership assessment tool called the Diamond Power Index was something specifically designed to examine the effective use of power in organizations, and almost right out of the gate I found the term I was looking for, positional power, because the CEO derived power from his position, his power only worked in the territory of his position, so when he went down to Starbucks in the food court, he was beyond the reach of his office, and his power dipped and disappeared accordingly. It's kind of like when you move beyond the Wi-Fi signal, so positional power was clearly contextual, and you know, from that moment when I kind of figured it out, I sort of couldn't resist imagining this very, very important person at home, because of course he probably wouldn't be treated that way at home, and I just imagined him having like a rebellious teenager, and you know, I thought that was kind of funny, like CEO Shmeo, right? From what I've just described, I'm certain you know what I'm talking about, and you probably have examples you can draw from, whether you understand power dynamics or not, most people sense what I'm talking about. We know there are times and places when we feel more powerful or less powerful, but we might not always have a clear understanding of why it is that way or what to do about it.
Speaker 1 4:14
In my travels, I have on occasion crossed paths with celebrities of varying note. Once, when I was working as a flight attendant, I told a very high-profile Canadian sprinter to take his seat. Another time, at an outdoor music concert, I invited Jim Cuddy, the lead singer for Blue Rodeo, to cut the line and use the porta potty ahead of me. In both instances, I felt a strange kind of giddiness, as though I'd stumbled onto some method for neutralizing their power, because in both instances they capitulated, and I felt well, powerful. I suppose I chalked it up to a basic psychological observation on my part of how these things normally work: bow, scrape, bow, scrape, and I just did something different. I mean, the truth is, I was probably. Probably just as gobsmacked on the inside as anyone else, but I didn't show it. I was excited to be able to bend power, or whatever the heck I thought I was doing. I've also experienced some interesting power dynamics with people who have a lot of money. My previous career in corporate aviation, yeah, I've, I've had a lot of previous careers. It afforded me interactions with extremely affluent people, because, of course, private jets, they're a luxury item for a very small segment of the population, and on one occasion I was invited to an event at the home of a really successful aeronautical engineer in the vicinity of Boeing Field, south of Seattle. The driveway up to the house was so long that the driver had to stop and ask a gardener for directions, and I remember that there was this, like, one whole wall of the living room that retracted and revealed this giant outdoor ballroom. I mean, this was serious wealth. As we pulled up, our host was standing at the top of a grand entrance way, and he was waving to us like you might wave to an approaching ship arriving in port, he was wearing a lime green ascot. Google it, you won't be disappointed. And perhaps because I'd grown up around a lot of nouveau riche types who got a real kick out of flaunting their money, the whole scene just seemed so over the top and calculated to impress. And so when the opportunity arose, and I found myself chatting to the host, I attempted to change the game a little bit. Instead of bow scrape, bow scrape, I straight up asked him if all his money and success had brought him happiness, or something along those lines. It was a while ago, I can't remember exactly what I said. The point is, I broke some invisible norm by asking him something direct and personal. I can't remember what he said, but I do remember a little energetic wobble on his part, just for a moment. And then he quickly regrouped and said something witty and pat before moving on to speak to someone else. I hadn't gotten an answer to my question, but I mean, honestly, I hadn't really expected to. I just wanted to push a button and see what might happen. He seemed pretty wary of me after that. Now, all these years later, I feel like I have a pretty good framework for revealing what had previously been a little invisible to me. I'd been busy fussing around in intersections of overlapping power. I mean, the CEO, he had positional or legitimate power, but within the context of her job, the barista at Starbucks had the personal power to shape the customer experience and influence the attitudes and behaviors of whoever they were serving. The athlete on my flight had referent or charismatic power, and possibly financial power, but as a flight attendant, I trump that with formalized power to enforce the rules designed to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers. I was well within my rights to tell the sprinter to take his seat, even though, frankly, he was more interested in hanging around the galley to sign autographs. The musician also had referent charismatic and probably financial power, but in a porta potty lineup, I had the personal power to consciously decide to let the musician cut the line out of a sign of respect or admiration for his work. It was Jim Cuddy, after all, and I now had a great story to share with my friends when I got back.
Speaker 1 8:15
And finally, the aeronautical engineer at the fancy party, he had financial power, but by applying a combination of my own personal power and probably a bit of referent and maybe even expert power, I was able to unseat him a little with my direct line of questioning. The intersections of power I'd be navigating were complex, but they were beginning to make a lot more sense. I wasn't, in fact, bending power to my will. Darn it, I was just intuitively nudging situations with my own personal power, and that's what this podcast is about: power, overuse, under use, and just plain ignorance. Power is always at play in all situations, whether we see it or not. And while it's as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, have you noticed how rarely we talk about it, and when we do, it's usually with a wrinkled nose and a pretty negative association. When I teach business students politics, power, and influence tactics, there is usually one or two students who object or take offense to the idea that someone would intentionally use their power, positional, personal, or otherwise, to influence an agenda. I guess it sounded kind of nefarious to their ears, but simply being political or leveraging power, or both, doesn't automatically mean people around need to hunker into defensive positions. If anything, we need to get better at normalizing the use of power, one of the biggest impediments to organizational success, after all, is a poor use of power. It's easy to think of a plethora of examples of somebody overusing their power. I once worked with a consulting partner who raised his voice and he paced around the room during. Our contract negotiations, I've been held by US border guards for hours, and then released with no explanation. I've had bosses who've mocked me in front of my team. We're all pretty familiar with examples like this, because they take such a toll on us, but by the same token, I've pulled out my hair, waiting for my boss to just tell me exactly what she wanted me to do. I've watched as a colleague let one of her employees come in late every day without saying anything, even though all her other direct reports were seething. I've even failed to provide critical feedback to an employee who had screwed up because I didn't want to stomp on their engagement. What you may not realize is that an under use of power is every bit as destructive as overuse, if not more so. In fact, in the organizations that I work in, under use might be even more common. But before we go too much further, I'd like to reinforce something really important. I'm going to call it power rule number one, that is that power is morally neutral. It is not in and of itself inherently good or bad. It's a tool or a resource, like any other tool or resource. It's the actions of the person wielding the power who determines its morality. It's the way we use it that matters. On that note, I'm going to invite you to pause for a moment and focus on the word itself. Power, what does it make you think of? What kind of reaction do you have to it? How does it make you feel? In which situations do you notice it most? So, how do we define power from her book, Power: A User's Guide, Julie Diamond, who, by the way, also developed and delivered the training I'd taken part in in Portland, she defines it this way: power is our capacity to impact and influence our environment. Her definition rests on the work of many previous scholars, including German sociologist Max Weber, and it's intended to frame both formal and informal types of power. Historically, of course, power is often defined in terms of battle or military force. Clearly, there are different types of power, and I've mentioned some already in this episode. Remember, the CEO - he had positional power. The aeronautical engineer had financial power. The athlete and the artist had referent, charismatic, and probably financial power, and I had personal and perhaps expert power. Understanding the topic of power more deeply allows for a more nuanced exploration that might turn up types of power we didn't even know we had.
Speaker 1 12:46
We also start noticing the limits of other people's power, and the whole thing becomes a bit more gray, and this is good news, because then perhaps we begin to realize that navigating power requires greater sensitivity and compassion in our interactions with others. We're more successful when we limit those knee-jerk judgments we so desperately want to apply to people in power. The key to working with and understanding power, therefore, is to consider multiple frames simultaneously. So, here's a quick primer that's far from exhaustive, and probably differs from other information out there. The important part, though, is to simply begin to appreciate the variety, positional power, also known as legitimate power. It gives us license to act, and it's derived from the role. When we stray outside the role, of course, we lose our power. That's like the CEO when he goes home, power derived from wealth and success, that's like the aeronautical engineer, that's called financial power or economic power. Someone who's highly admired or respected, like the athlete or music, they have referent power. This is the power influencers have. Expert power refers to someone's level of specialization in a particular arena, and it reminds me of that joke about Neil Armstrong at a dinner party, everyone is sitting around doing that one upmanship thing that people do, but then suddenly Neil speaks up and simply says, I've been to the moon, bam, mic drop, game over, and no conversation about power is, of course, complete without mentioning sociopolitical power, and that encompasses multiple elements of our identity, like race, gender, class, religion, nationality, ethnicity, education, physical and mental ability, gender, and sexual orientation. Lastly, and arguably most important to our navigation of power in general, we come to personal power. What makes personal power so interesting and indispensable is that it gives us the capacity to act, but it doesn't depend on anything external or social for its value. According to Diamond, quote, while personal power can't be measured, its influence. Influence is incalculable. We describe personal power colloquially as what we use to get by in life. End quote. Personal power is an incredible asset for influencing when you don't have formal power, and building personal power is something everyone can do. I'm going to talk more about that later in the podcast. Hey, you're listening to the Squeeze, and if you like what you're hearing, there's a whole world of citrus couching to discover. We've got an online leadership program, it's called Citrus You, and it features those three key tools you need to be a better leader, well, to be a better human. We also have a number of mini learning bundles that you can get into, and there's plenty more. If you're interested, you can follow us on Instagram, or check out our website@www.citruscoaching.com And the show resumes now. 20 years ago, I felt a lot of insecurity talking to other coaches. I'd literally just started out in the industry and had barely gotten my feet wet. I felt a bit like a beggar encroaching on their territory in search of a few handouts. Perhaps that's a bit dramatic, but I'm pretty sure you can relate. I walked into a very tangible power imbalance. They had expert power. I did not. Diamond refers to this as a low rank experience. She writes, quote, regardless of social position, we all have low rank moments. Low rank causes vulnerability from being a beginner to not knowing, needing help, and having a meltdown. Feelings of low rank are an indispensable facet of the human equation, and if we hate it in ourselves, we put our authority in jeopardy. End quote. My example of being a new coach is pretty typical of someone in the middle of a low rank experience, and that brings us to power rule number two, because the thing about low rank, we always feel it, just like when you're at a party with people with more money than you do, you feel your lower socioeconomic status, or the first few days in a new job, when you know you know less than everyone else, you feel your lower spot on the pecking order. No one has to tell you. In those early days of coaching, I felt my lower status to manage low rank, Diamond advises embracing the vulnerability. Quote, if you cannot fail, cannot be wrong, cannot make a mistake, you are a sitting duck.
Speaker 1 17:30
Your inviolable strength comes from your willingness to have nothing to lose. If you can't lose an argument, walk away from a disagreement, admit defeat, or apologize for a mistake, you've placed your feelings of worth in the hands of another and are completely open to manipulation. End quote. Gosh, well, that's kind of sobering, but she's right, because all those attempts to deny our vulnerability, like acting invincible, or like we always know what we're doing, or faking it until you make it, will eventually that facade crumbles and falls apart, sometimes spectacularly. In fact, at some point, if we actually do end up wielding power, because we lack compassion and acceptance for ourselves when we didn't have it, we tend to lack insight into those around us with lower rank, and this creates a dangerous blind spot where we forget all the places where we have rank over others, making us more likely to abuse our power. Diamond writes, quote, prizing high rank over low rank can make us more likely to act or react from a one down position and misuse the power we have over others, end quote. By being more transparent and accepting of our vulnerability in those situations where we feel lower rank, we actually stand to foster higher levels of trust with others, which is weird, because that is exactly the opposite of what our popular culture preaches. I've touched on this topic in earlier episodes when I've explored the role of influencers in our society and their efforts to appear unassailable and above criticism. 20 years ago, when I first interacted with other coaches, accepting my low rank meant showing up in all my green finery, declaring my newbie status, and not pretending or hiding. And as a recovering high performer, that was hard. I'm not going to lie, but it was also a lot easier than pretending, because I've gone that route before, and it takes a lot of energy to maintain the pretense and avoid detection. Can you say imposter syndrome? Now, fast forward to how I feel around coaches these days. It's literally night and day when I'm around other coaches, as I was earlier today on a Zoom call, and many who I didn't know, I wasn't actually that conscious of their level of seniority as coaches, or mine, for that matter. I was just interacting with people who do what I do and talking about organizational trends. Perhaps there was someone on the call having a low-rank experience, but I didn't see it. The fact is. After 20 plus years as a coach, I possess much greater expert power, but I don't think about it too much, because I don't have to. The low rank experience is a thing of the past, at least in the realm of coaching. And this right here is another critical lesson about power that I'm now going to emphasize, and that is rule number three: the more power you have, the less you think of it, power is more often than not invisible to those who have it, and that can set off a whole chain reaction of problems, which I'm going to attempt to unpack next. You've probably heard the quote by Lord Acton from the 19th century. You might not know it was him. Quote, 'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. End quote. Why is it that humans find it so difficult to wield power in ethical and compassionate ways? Why does history spill over with so many horrific examples of corrupted power? In Diamond's book, she describes stepping into power like being under the influence of drugs, and she references three means by which this happens: disinhibition, illusory control, and diminished empathy. With disinhibition, we feel a certain immunity to social norms or expectations. Think Steve Jobs and his black turtleneck, blue jeans, and sneakers. His style reflected his disregard for convention, and, ironically, of course, spawned an iconic and emulated style with disinhibition. We may also have a tendency to weigh in on things beyond our knowledge. With illusory control, we tend to overestimate our chances of success. Think Captain of the Titanic. We imagine that we can influence events with diminished empathy, we become more unconscious of others, and we're unable to take on their perspectives. Okay, remember the movie The Devil Wears Prada.
Speaker 1 21:50
Miranda Priestly, the editor of Runway magazine and the central antagonist, seemed to take great pleasure in keeping people on their toes with her quiet, tyrannical nature, because of her high positional power, she didn't really see people in the lower ranks as people, which is why she was able to behave horribly towards them the way she did. She called every assistant Emily, simply because that's the name she remembered. She rejected the reality of a hurricane, believing she should be able to fly out of Miami. When every other aircraft was grounded, in addition to these three means by which power corrupts, Dimon also details three corresponding opportunities that open up for people in power: self-fulfilling prophecy, lack of feedback, and lack of role clarity. With self-fulfilling prophecy, your power lives in the minds of those around you. People treat you like a leader and may overlook or ignore your mistakes. This is when we find ourselves clumsily bowing and scraping in front of someone we've just learned is a celebrity or someone important. According to Diamond, quote, this is one of the reasons leaders feel like imposters. They sense that people's judgment and treatment are unmoored from reality, that the accolades and admiration are sometimes undeserved. End quote. And by the same token, you can imagine how easily people fall for what is being projected and overlook a more honest self-appraisal of their shortcomings. Powerful leaders often suffer from a lack of feedback because people with lower rank are frequently reticent to give honest feedback. In the movie The Devil Wears Prada, the people who worked for Miranda were too afraid to contradict her, which only served to reaffirm Miranda's perspective. She wasn't a person anymore, either. She was just a symbol to them. And lastly, people with power often experience a lack of role conflict. What this means is that if someone's power is sufficiently high enough that it travels with them everywhere they go, think of HBO's succession, they miss out on the emotional and social development that comes from shifting between high and low ranking roles. The CEO I referenced earlier experienced the shift when he went home, or to the grocery store, or where I saw him at Starbucks. I think of role conflict as keeping it real. When you consider the corrupting means and opportunities that come into play around power, it's not so hard to understand why power so often goes to someone's head. But there's one more piece to Diamond's exploration into the corruption of power motivation. According to Diamond, one of the most powerful motives for misusing power comes from a feeling of powerlessness. In spite of the attainment of a powerful role, feeling powerful is not an assured outcome, and this presents a troublesome gap power plus insecurity equals a very long list of real life figures like Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Vladimir Putin, Elizabeth Holmes, and Robert Murdoch, just to name a few. Low rank is a stronger motion than high rank as Diamond. Explains from an evolutionary standpoint, it's limbic, it's a matter of life and death, but the good news is that low rank as a motivator is not inevitable. If we have appropriate self-management practices, we may be able to avoid joining the litany of powerful tyrants and corrupt business people. In full transparency, this is what holds me back from playing more fully in the public arena. I honestly don't want to navigate the kind of power that some very well-known folks in my industry have attained, the Brene Browns, or Mel Robbins, Elizabeth Gilbert, Martha Beck, Stephen Covey. While I definitely feel pulled to amplify my work in the world to expand beyond the limits of one on one coaching sessions, I'm also really wary of clocking too many followers and ending up on too many people's radars. I mean, don't worry, I'm nowhere near that vicinity yet. I'm just so mystified with people who seek fame for its own sake. That's like asking for a horrible health diagnosis. Like, why invite that into your life? Okay, so far in this podcast, there's been a disproportionate amount of focus on the overuse of power, and those examples are easy to spot. They're common, and that's what makes people very wary about the topic of power in general. But the under use of power can be just as destructive, though it is far more difficult to spot.
Speaker 1 26:20
In fact, I would argue that many leaders fail to recognize the problems their underuse of positional power creates, focusing only on their positive intentions. The thing you need to remember is that the only one who is confused about your positional power is you. Even if you've taken great strides to let everyone know that just because you were promoted, nothing has changed. Nothing, in fact, could be further from the truth. And the people who now report into you know it. Just because you don't feel any different, it's a pretty dangerous assumption to think they won't either. Here are some examples to illustrate under use of power. Have you seen any of these in action? Imagine working with a colleague who frequently misses their deadlines, which in turn negatively impact yours. You've been taking some heat lately, so you decide to speak to them, but so far nothing has changed. And finally, after a few more missed deadlines, you decide to speak to your supervisor. They listen, they're sympathetic, and you feel better thinking now things will get sorted, but it doesn't take you more than a few days to realize that they haven't done anything about it, and things continue the way they were. Another missed deadline, and your frustration starts to build again. You meet with your supervisor, and again they're sympathetic, but no solution is forthcoming. You push them a little, and they tell you that your colleague has been under a lot of stress lately, and they're just trying to support them to get back on track. I don't have to tell you what happens next, nothing different. Same o same. This is a classic case of under use of power. Your supervisor is failing to address a performance issue that is impacting the rest of the team. Your hands are tied because you lack the power to hold your colleague accountable. You talk to some of your other colleagues who've seen what's going on and are equally frustrated, and you begin to sense a kind of a dip in morale, and pretty soon a significant chunk of your workday is taken up fixating on the situation that you have no control over, and before you know it, you're starting to check out postings in other organizations. The depressing reality is that your supervisor is likely oblivious to their impact, persisting in their identity as a caring and compassionate leader. In all likelihood, if you did decide to leave the department, your departure would be met with shock. Now imagine in another scenario you consider yourself a highly collaborative leader. You take pride empowering people to make their own decisions and give them the autonomy to work out their challenges. When team members ask you for clarification or the specifics of what you want them to do, you are more often than not heard turning the question back on them, and asking them what they think they need. Sure, they may appear a little frustrated, but you know they'll appreciate how much authority you're giving them. And so you're very surprised to discover one day that your team is way behind in their deliverables, and you think perhaps they just need more encouragement. So you resolve to be even more positive and empowering, telling them you know how hard they're working, and you trust them to meet their goals, but the metrics keep slipping. This is another classic case of underuse of power. As the boss, your job is to set clear expectations and make critical decisions. What looks like empowerment to you might look like abdication and abandonment to them. Without clear direction and oversight, you're dooming people to fail. Empowerment and autonomy are both good things, but unless the goal posts are clear and you hold accountability, you're promoting a kind of wild west environment that some employees may like, but many may not. And, of course, misuse of power, it's not just limited to the workplace. Yes, have you ever witnessed injustice or discrimination, but stayed silent out of fear or apathy, or have you failed to support a charity that does important work, even though you have the means? And this brings us to power rule number four: under use of power is every bit as messy as overuse. Now, I promised we'd circle back to personal power again, and this is a good place to begin to wrap up the episode.
Speaker 1 30:26
Building your personal power is just a really smart thing to do, for a number of reasons. It's not limited by context, so you can take it wherever you go, from a prickly strata council meeting to an important conversation with your adult siblings to a new proposal at work. Personal power gives you the capacity to act, even if you lack formalized power. It's why people want to follow your lead, why your word has credibility. People with personal power tend to forge their own paths, they act as change agents, seeing possibility beyond the way things are. Diamond provides a simple model for understanding personal power. Imagine a triangle. On the first angle, you find your capable self. This is the degree to which you believe in yourself and your ability to succeed, your self efficacy. It's your perseverance in the face of odds, even if you don't know how to solve a particular problem, you trust your ability to figure it out. You have proficiency at being and accepting you. On the second angle, you find your aware self. This is the degree to which you are able to self-reflect and understand your feelings and thoughts, knowing and taming your triggers. Higher levels of aware self mean you're able to analyze and make sense of your own and others' behavior, staying above the fray and navigating complex situations more objectively. On the third angle, you find your purposeful self. This is the degree to which you are able to find meaning in challenges and hold a positive orientation towards life. It's your ability to take the big view. You learn from mistakes and take risks. You're able to integrate the learning from challenging situations. You are more resilient. Building personal power is a life's work and includes tapping your life experiences, investing in your personal development, and getting to know your personality traits. You can do this by building supportive communities for yourself, developing greater social and emotional development, perhaps through coaching or therapy, seeking feedback and challenges, and contributing where you can. For more information about building personal power, I'll put Julie Diamond's website in the show notes. Remember, power is a complex game. It's a ubiquitous force in our lives, present in every aspect of society, from politics to personal relationship. While it can be a force for good, it can also be easily corruptible, creating the potential for abuse. Personal power can be our secret superpower for navigating the complex dynamics of power in our lives. Personal power helps us to show up more authentically, compassionately, and principled. By cultivating our personal power, we can become more effective leaders, partners, and community members, using our power to create positive change and possibly build a better world for ourselves and those around us. So, remember, rule number one: power is morally neutral. Number two, we always feel low rank. Number three, the more power you have, the less you think of it. Number four, under use of power is every bit as messy as overuse. And lastly, number five, personal power is the ultimate accessory. Bring it with you everywhere. If you're interested in hearing more about the power assessment tool I mentioned at the beginning, the Diamond Power Index, shoot me a message, so I can tell you more about it until next time. So you've been listening to The Squeeze. Thanks for joining us today. If you want to continue tuning in, don't forget to click subscribe, and as always, we want to hear your thoughts, your comments, your feedback, and challenges. If there's anything you don't agree with. Thanks for joining us. And see you next time.
Unknown Speaker 34:27
Bye.