Chapter 4 - Leadership, Power & Influence

Why learn about good and poor leadership?

Is there someone in particular that pops into your head when someone mentions the term “leader”? Perhaps you think of someone like Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon and radically changed the way people shop today. Or maybe you think of someone like Oprah Winfrey, who after ending the well-known Oprah Winfrey Show moved on to found her own network. Or you might think of someone like Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s third CEO, who has started to move the company toward more cooperative work with its competitors and empowering its customers to achieve more.

Having power and using power are two different things. For example, imagine a manager who has the power to reward or punish employees. When the manager makes a request, he or she will probably be obeyed even though the manager does not actually reward the employee. The fact that the manager has the ability to give rewards and punishments will be enough for employees to follow the request. What are the sources of one’s power over others? Researchers identified six sources of power, which include legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, information, and referent. You might earn power from one source or all six depending on the situation. Let us take a look at each of these in turn, and continue with Steve Jobs from the opening case as our example.