Essay Sample on Leadership: Influence, Power, Tactics - Connecting the Dots

Introduction

Leadership is the ability of an individual or a group of individuals to influence and guide followers or other members of an organization to meet certain goals. It is also the action of leading a group of people or an organization(). The main aim of this research is to write an essay on the interaction and influence among leadership tactics and also explain the relationship between power and leadership and show how the relationship between influence and power affect influence and power.

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Explain Power and Compare How It Relates to Leadership

Power is the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way(). Power and leadership are connected or related in some ways. This is because leadership processes require power processes while power is not dependent on leadership. It is therefore clear that a true leader requires the power to lead while having power does not mean that you are a leader. The interaction of power process needs a strategy, spark and will to manifest but does not mean that it requires leadership. Power is described as the influence or control of the behavior of specific people with or without their consent. Leaders with power dictate policies and obtain a large variety of resources compared to the leaders who have little power.

Five Sources of Power

Coercive power: This is a fear-based power that influence the behavior of others by their ability to punish others. Good management does not need to use them frequently.

Referent power: this is where one influences people because they admire him or they respect them. People who are admired or respected tend to make more impact than those who are not respected by fellow individuals.

Expert power: this is where one influences others due to their knowledge or skills and one needs to build the skills day by day and keep on sharpening them.

Reward power: this mostly covers rewards to employees through compensations, incentives, bonuses or promotions.

Legitimate power: it is the power given to individuals in an organization depending on their role or positions in the organization.

Summarize the Relationship Between Influence and Power

Influence and power are interrelated, and one cannot coexist without another. Influence is the ability to be able to make a large group of people accepts a certain way of doing things. Power refers to how things will be done voluntarily or not. Power comes from hard work, and ones respect while influence is earned by one being conversant with one's trade.However, one needs to be powerful to become influential. One cannot influence other people if he is not powerful enough. When one has power, he can influence a very large congregation of people and change their way of thinking.

Determine How Relationships Between Leaders and Staff Affect Influence and Power

The relationship between leaders and staff affect the influence and power in different ways. These relationships can either be positive or negative. In a positive view, the relationship can help ensure that it creates an atmosphere of trust, respect, and knowledge. This ensures that people believe in each other and respect each other and also helps in ensuring that they acquire knowledge or skills from other people. Therefore the leaders and staff create an atmosphere build on trust, respect, and knowledge. This greatly affects the influence and power between the leaders and staff. It can also affect the influence and power negatively. The relationship between leaders and staff can cause disrespect and insubordination. This can make sure that the leaders and their juniors do not respect each other and this can cause disruptions as leaders and staff cannot cooperate as needed in their activities.

References

Maner, J. K., & Mead, N. L. (2010). The essential tension between leadership and power: When leaders sacrifice group goals for the sake of self-interest. Journal of personality and social psychology, 99(3), 482.

Kellerman, B. (Ed.). (2010). Leadership: Essential selections on power, authority, and influence (p. 7980). New York: McGraw-Hill.