“If you take more than you give, you are forceful. If you give more than you take, you are powerful” – Anonymous.
Whats the difference between power and force?
We all know the narcistic leader in love with himself and blind for his customers and employees, that’s a sign of force. Don’t get confused we also know the leader who wants help and give yet has no power – no solutions, no innovation, no competence.
Power comes when we have a high level of self development: integrity, are joyful, have competence and pour our power into creating value and making the world a better place. I call this business spirituality.
- Force arises from lower consciousness levels such as shame, fear, anger, rage, pride, whereas Power arises from higher consciousness levels such as courage, neutrality, will, reason, love.
- Force manifests in the world as divisive, limited, destructive, polarizing, whereas Power manifests in the world in unifying ways, motivated by the desire for the well-being of humanity.
Example of force in leadership
- When the leader is mainly driven by his ego drives and overcompensating these drives to satisfy his needs and wants.
- Example: The Wolf of Wallstreet, everything must make way for his (insatiable) lust, desires, and money mindset. This is an extreme example.
- When the leader isn’t aware of his emotional patterns such as anger, shame and fear and projecting his patterns on his or her teams. He demands what his ‘ego drives’ demand from him or her and not so much what is needed. The empathic boss, who doesn’t have the willpower and courage to do the unpopular and put healthy boundaries between his team and other stakeholders, energy, time flows away because of a lack of strategy and borders.
- Forcefulness becomes less when identification with the ego loosens significantly, and the awareness of the self’s thoughts, emotions, and inner subjective experiences heightens. Willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own actions and behaviors, and to stop blaming and victimhood are major signs of this level of consciousness. Leaders step up and face the music.
- What patterns and destructive actions does the leader needs to work on?
- How can he increase added value for its team members and his team as a collective?
- How can he make sure his team benefits to the greater good of the organization?
- What are his or her most important values and principles and how can that be put as a central compass in his career and leadership? Where can integrity be enlarged?
Example of power in leadership
- Leaders help – and use a bit of force to -their team members reclaim their power by breaking through their shame, fear, and anxiety through building the necessary skills. Team members are becoming strong, effective, and productive team members. This is the phase of developing power skills and the most important soft skills.
- He or she has a clear vision, acts from his values, principles, and integrity. He sees his place in the world as a kingdom that is ruled by righteousness, stability, prosperity, and vitality.
- He knows how to create value in the world and share this value with the organization and his team.
- On a deeper level intellect and clarity of thinking reign. He knows to structure his organization in such a way that it’s aligned with the way the world works, a certain degree of truth, which the ego can’t see. The largest organizational challenges are tackled:
- Competitiveness and innovation of the organization are increased, with higher customer satisfaction and productivity.
- Burnout percentages are lowered, and retention of people is much higher – who wants to leave this place?
Transform your leadership step by step
So, if you want to increase your power, start transforming yourself. Any path of increasing your power start with self-confrontation and truth. Where do stand as a leader in regard to consciousness? Reflect upon the levels of consciousness from Hawkins. Where do you stand on the force versus power scale and where can you align and grow. Additionally, how can you increase power with creating additional value with your teams and organization and sharing it with them and your clients, stakeholders?
If you combine both you are on the path towards business spirituality, and this is the leadership paradigm of the future (its 12/8/23)
If you need help with leadership development for your organization, read more about our programs here or reach out to me