LEADING WITH PERSONAL POWER: GAINING RESPECT THROUGH COURAGE, VISION, AND TRUST

Abstract The author is a professor of management communication at Tulane University, where he teaches both power and persuasion. He starts by contrasting servant leaders with people who have a dominant leadership style, noting that the “problem with the dichotomy between servant leadership and dominance is that it is fabricated.” He defines personal power as “our belief in our own capability to create impact. Unlike formal power, which focuses on external qualities like authority and resource control, personal power is an internal psychological state that radiates outward to influence those around us.” He then delineates The Psychology of Courage (Individual Power); Personal Responsibility; Internal Orientation; and the Big Picture (Group Power). Within the latter, he writes: “Research led by Pamela Smith at University of California, San Diego found that those with personal power think and speak more abstractly.” He also writes about status roles in teams, curiosity, and leadership trust. Citing the work of C. Shawn Burke in The Leadership Quarterly , he says leadership trust boils down to “three features: trust in the leader’s integrity, trust in the leader’s ability, and trust in the leader’s benevolence.” The author concludes that “in the end great leaders serve the group and so we respect them.”