Power and Influence

What comes to mind when you think of power? Is power a good thing or a bad thing? Do leaders have power over others? When you think of leadership, you may automatically picture a person that has power. Or you may think that a leader can influence others without necessarily having power over them. Early in history, leaders were characterized as having power. For example, Shakespeare wrote about power in many of his plays. In this lesson we will discuss the issues of power and influence in leadership.

For this lesson; power and influence, you will see that there is no Northouse (2013) chapter. Northouse for some reason has never included this in his book. Large portions of this lesson are based on Hughes, Ginnett, and Curphy (2012), which you have probably seen cited elsewhere in this course. If you are looking for another good resource for your leadership repertoire, this book is highly recommended. 

What will we learn in this lesson?

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Distinguish between power and influence.
• Explain the taxonomy of social power and the pros and cons of each type of power.
• Understand where power comes from.
• Discuss influence tactics.
• Discuss social influence