I saw this point on LinkedIn from Leise Passer Jensen and it resonated with meโฆ powerfully.โ
No-one could have warned me about this prior to my first leadership job:
๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฅ๐ค๐ฌ๐๐ง ๐ค๐ซ๐๐ง ๐ค๐ฉ๐๐๐ง๐จ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช ๐ข๐๐ฎ ๐ก๐ค๐จ๐ ๐๐ฉ ๐ค๐ซ๐๐ง ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐จ๐๐ก๐.
This is scary:
Contemporary research now shows thatโฆ
โฆ everyone is predisposed to abusing power. So that includes you and me.
The most dangerous threat for leaders is โฆpower.
Power corrupts and may change your brain.
Its consequential behavior can harm ourselves and others.
Few people were told this before they accept an appointed leadership role. That can be dangerous for us as leaders as well as for those who are subjected to our leadership.Power changes the brain!
When humans lived on the savannah that was a good survival strategy. But now, millions of years later, it creates problems in our relationships with others.
Research shows that all people are predisposed to abusing power.
In case you tasted power - and liked the taste like I did โ your brain craves more. That is the point in time to not lose power over
yourself by closing your eyes to the following risk. The problem is...
... the feeling of power turns off mirror neurons and the person's access to empathy.
It made me think of that quote by Lord Actonโ
All power tends to corrupt, and absolute power, corrupts absolutely.
And it reminded me of the truth in its and Leiseโs words. Management and leadership power can be quite dangerous to deal with. You ignore the impact it can have on you and the change it can make in you at your own peril. I believe itโs an inherent aspect of any role that has power over others.
You see it in government and politics. You see it in organizational management. And you see it in your agile transformations.
Later in her post, she shared these three antidotes to power corruption in leadersโ
Self-awareness,
Feedback, and
Self-reflection
And those resonated in my leadership journey. To be honest and vulnerable, when I first became a software engineering manager, the power went a bit to my head. And I began to become someone else. Lucky for me, I had some fantastic role models and mentors at the time who called me out on it and helped me to focus on the above three points.
It also helped that Iโm a reflection junkie, so I quickly pivoted onto a new servant leadership awareness and development path. But those initial missteps were my early warning about how dangerous power can be.
Wrapping Up
These and many others of Leiseโs are apparently in a book she has co-authored & shared on the web entitledโPissing Good Management. Perhaps it needs a bit of โtranslation.โ ๐
Here are a couple of links to the bookโ
Iโm just beginning to dig into it myself, but so far, I appreciate her perspectives.
Stay agile and reflect-fully powerful, my friends,
Bob.