The medical director at my work, Dr. Mark Ragins, sent out an email about a recent struggle over medication management. It was a lengthy email and some thoughts at the end I found rather touching and thought I'd widen its' audience:
• If you’re connected to might and action, you can use the power of force
• If you’re connected to relationships and connections, you can use the power of influence
• If you’re connected to security and reliability, you can use the power of trust
• If you are connected to empathy and compassion, you can use the power of love
• If you’re connected to communication and message, you can use the power of expression
• If you’re connected to knowledge and understanding, you can use the power of wisdom
• If you’re connected to the infinite and unknowable, you can use the power of grace
We see a lot of managers who complain they can’t make a staff they supervise do something and we see a lot of staff that complain that their supervisors are ordering them around. For both of them, I ask why they’re relying on the crudest level of power. Don’t they have any other sources of power available to them? Is their position so weak or their skills so low they have to use force, or are they just not actively considering other alternatives? This doesn’t just apply to supervisors or people with “positional leadership”. The Village uses a staff empowerment model so everyone has opportunities for leadership. There should be something everyone is the best at and should lead the rest of us in. There are opportunities to champion and lead projects. There are opportunities for advancement and leadership. There are opportunities for collaborative leadership in various committees. There are opportunities to be involved in training and community leadership. Everyone can look at a list of sources of power like this and evaluate how to enhance their power.
